Teachers Union May Take a Strike Vote

Declaring an impasse in negotiations over a salary increase for 32,000 Los Angeles schoolteachers, the president of the teachers’ union said Friday that he is prepared to ask for a strike vote early next year.

The school district has offered a 7% raise to all of its employees, which would cost $203 million, but the teachers are asking for a 14% increase.

The union has asked the state Public Employment Relations Board, which mediates labor disputes, to certify the impasse and assign a mediation expert to help resolve the dispute.

United Teachers of Los Angeles President Wayne Johnson said that if mediation does not bring about a settlement, “we’re prepared to take a strike vote.”

The teachers are working under a three-year contract that expires in 1988. The terms of the contract allow the union to negotiate certain items, such as pay, each year. Union and district officials have been trying to reach agreement on the contract since June.

Beginning teachers now earn $20,600 and veteran instructors $35,500.

Johnson said that the district pays locksmiths and truck drivers more than it pays teachers, which he called “absurd.”

Johnson has maintained that some of the money the district has earmarked for school construction could be spared to pay teachers a higher wage. But district spokesman Bill Rivera said that the district has “allocated every possible dollar” to provide the proposed 7% raise and cannot afford to offer more.

The school board has set aside about $50 million in state lottery revenues to help pay for the raise. “That is a risk,” he said, because the district cannot accurately predict how much it will collect from the lottery in the next few years.