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Statement from General Counsel David Holmquist (10-12-18)
Today, the Los Angeles Unified School District filed an unfair labor practice charge against United Teacher Los Angeles (UTLA) for refusal to participate in good faith in the statutory impasse procedures. The charge was filed with the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB), the state agency responsible for ensuring fairness in the bargaining process.
By UTLA’s own admission, the only reason UTLA participated in Mediation was to ensure that it could move quickly to a strike. UTLA has never negotiated in good faith, as evidenced by the statements of UTLA leadership before negotiations began on the current contract even started. UTLA said as early as 2016 that, “the next year and a half must be founded upon building our capacity to strike, and our capacity to create a state crisis.”
UTLA has done exactly as it said it would. After just one Mediation session, UTLA was seeking to have the Mediation process terminated and was openly inciting conflict. UTLA insisted that Mediation was futile after one Mediation session.
UTLA’s “Last, Best and Final” contract demands would bankrupt Los Angeles Unified and lead to the unprecedented layoffs of about 12,000 employees, including teachers. How can any responsible party look at UTLA’s demands as anything other than their desire to bankrupt the Los Angeles Unified?
UTLA has distorted and mischaracterized the facts regarding the offer Los Angeles Unified has made to UTLA, the financial status of Los Angeles Unified, and the negotiation process – recasting the evidence to suggest Los Angeles Unified has been unyielding, when in fact, it is UTLA that has refused all efforts to work out a solution.
Los Angeles Unifed’s unfair labor practice charge sets out in detail the trail of bad faith conduct by UTLA as it barrels toward an unlawful strike. Los Angeles Unified looks forward to presenting all of the evidence against UTLA at a PERB hearing and a full and transparent review of the facts in fact finding.