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,...

Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. Employees who work for the California Teachers Association claim union managers are trying to renege on an agreement in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Janus ruling, which ended the practice of unions charging agency fees to represent non-members. With teachers now free to withhold payments,...

Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. I’m on the record as predicting United Teachers Los Angeles will go on strike the week of October 8th. Two things have since become clear: 1) Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Austin Beutner is actively trying to delay the inevitable. 2) UTLA is irate about Beutner messing...

Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. I have covered California’s teacher unions for about 25 years, so my archive is filled with many tales of humor and woe regarding their doings. As I dug through the files I came across seven sagas that have faded over time and deserve one more revival. Do...

Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. Last week’s column (“Bet the ranch — UTLA will strike in October”) seems to have touched a nerve. Some readers thought it was cynical to declare a strike inevitable. Others suggested a strike could be easily avoided if the Los Angeles Unified School District board would only...