As I watched the Los Angeles teachers strike play out over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been impressed by the strength of the teachers union. It is fiercely committed and stops at nothing to fight for working conditions of the adults it represents — the teachers. But lost in the conversation is the most...

Despite the fact that parents and students were on the outside looking in when it came to the high-stakes contract negotiations in Los Angeles, the teacher strike drew much-needed attention to public education and secured small but meaningful steps toward providing schools and teachers with more resources, including academic counselors, librarians, nurses and a small...

L.A. Unified and United Teachers Los Angeles reached a tentative agreement on a new contract. There will be plenty of analysis from all quarters on the details in the days and weeks to come, but for now we can all agree on one thing. It had to happen this way. The strike had to happen...

Los Angeles Unified School District teachers made national headlines this week when they brought operations in the nation’s second-largest district to a screeching halt. The first work stoppage in the district in 30 years capped a nearly two-year-long negotiations process that saw very little movement on the more than 20 issues brought to the bargaining table. The strike...

If you have been paying any attention at all to the issues that have led to the Los Angeles teacher strike, you have heard United Teachers Los Angeles demand the elimination of a provision in the contract that allows L.A. Unified to waive class size restrictions. The collective bargaining agreement contains a table with maximum...

If LAUSD teachers go out on strike, thousands of Los Angeles students will lose days or weeks (or more) of learning time, and local public schools will lose millions of dollars in funding. But that’s not all; a strike will also produce immense anxiety among teachers worried about the fate of students they’re committed to...

2019 hasn’t even started yet and it’s already become the year of education in Los Angeles. UTLA is poised to strike for the first time in three decades. LAUSD leadership is launching a new initiative to “reimagine” public education while simultaneously attempting to stave off bankruptcy and a state takeover. And a March special election...

Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. The strike by Los Angeles public school teachers is only a day or two away (or maybe a few more). Along with the thousands of picketers and dozens of local reporters covering the strike will come a parade of national media to delve into the contract stalemate...

The line of teachers picketing at an elementary school near downtown L.A. in May of 1989 spanned across the façade of the building and main points of entry. My boyfriend and I (now husband) were both college students at nearby Cal State L.A. and teachers’ aides (TA’s) at the school. Until then, we were both...

Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. United Teachers Los Angeles and L.A. Unified march inexorably toward a strike in 2019, leading many to think back 30 years to the last Los Angeles teacher strike in May 1989. UTLA calls the 1989 strike a “historic UTLA victory” that resulted in a “historic contract.” Some...