Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. The contract dispute between LA Unified and United Teachers Los Angeles entered its final phase as the three-member fact-finding panel was finally seated last week. The panel now has 30 days to submit a non-binding report of its recommendations, after which the district may impose its final...

Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. Last week, I expressed doubt that press outlets would revisit the assumptions made prior to the election about teacher candidates for office in the “uprising” states. I was wrong to be so pessimistic, as there were dozens of stories about how the results did not live up...

Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. Last week, United Teachers Los Angeles shot down another district proposal to settle their years-long contract dispute. UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl called the latest offer “insulting” and “anemic” and announced a major march and rally scheduled for Dec. 15. UTLA has not made a counter-proposal since its...

Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. Whenever stories about the political spending of California’s teacher unions appear in the news, they focus on the major statewide races. This year is no different, with school employee unions devoting about $15 million in independent expenditures so far to elect Tony Thurmond as state superintendent of...

Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. Long before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Janus v. AFSCME, public employee unions in California anticipated the loss of agency fees. Last year they persuaded the state legislature to pass Assembly Bill 119, which gave unions mandatory access to new employee orientations and required public employers...

Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. As expected, three mediation sessions between the Los Angeles Unified School District and United Teachers Los Angeles failed to result in a settlement — or even any movement, apparently — so the state-appointed mediator agreed to move the process forward to its final phase, fact-finding. Each side...

Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. If you lost your ranch, I apologize. Back on July 31, I predicted with confidence that United Teachers Los Angeles would strike in October — more specifically, the week of Oct. 8, this week. And while there are still a few days left in the week, and...

Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. Representatives from the Los Angeles Unified School District and United Teachers Los Angeles will meet with mediators on Thursday to see if some settlement can be reached in contract negotiations. That’s the textbook description of what will take place. In this instance, mediation is nothing more than...

Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. The Los Angeles Unified School District and United Teachers Los Angeles remain far from a settlement of a new collective bargaining agreement. Mediation is set for Sept. 27, but no one seems optimistic that it will have a positive outcome. UTLA members have authorized their leaders to...

Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. Leaders of United Teachers Los Angeles continued their preparations for a strike by approving the transfer of up to $3 million from the union’s strike fund to its general fund in order to be ready for immediate use. The first mediation session is scheduled for Sept. 27,...