Talks to end Los Angeles teachers' strike make progress: union, mayor
By Steve Gorman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Negotiations to end a strike by teachers in Los Angeles made progress on Monday, but educators will not return to work until Wednesday at the earliest even if contract talks produce a deal because union members must ratify it before halting their walkout.
The United Teachers Los Angeles union said in a statement that the two sides "are making progress" in the negotiations, aimed at settling a labor dispute that has disrupted classes for some 500,000 students in America's second-largest school district.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, whose office has been mediating the talks, said "tremendous progress" had been achieved. "I am optimistic that we have the momentum to take those final steps towards bringing our teachers and young people back into their classrooms," he said in a statement.
However, the teachers' union said strikers would not go back to work on Tuesday even if a deal is reached late on Monday. Schools were closed on Monday in observance of a national holiday commemorating slain U.S. civil rights leader Martin Luther King.
"Report to picket lines as usual in the morning on Tuesday," the statement said, noting that the union's rank-and-file voted by 98 percent to authorize a strike and must vote to accept any proposed settlement reached at the bargaining table.
That means that teachers may return to work no earlier than Wednesday. In a Twitter post, the school district acknowledged the union's plans to continue the strike into Tuesday but did not comment further.
More than 30,000 teachers for the Los Angeles Unified School District walked off the job a week ago for the first time in 30 years, demanding higher pay, smaller class sizes and the hiring of more support staff, such as nurses and guidance counselors.
The union also has called for curbing the steady expansion of independently managed charter schools, arguing they divert resources from traditional classroom instruction for the bulk of the district's students.
District Superintendent Austin Beutner has said there is not enough money to meet the teachers' demands without additional state funding. He said last week he would continue to keep all of the district's 1,200 schools open this week on a limited basis if a deal were not reached in time for teachers to return to work on Tuesday.
Negotiators for the Los Angeles Unified School District and the union have been bargaining virtually nonstop - pausing only for overnight rest breaks - since last Thursday.
The strike has already cost the district about $125 million in state funding, which is based on daily attendance, and has collectively cost students more than 1.5 million days of instruction, according to Beutner.
The union says disagreements over proposals to hire more teachers in order to reduce class size pose the biggest stumbling block to a settlement.
Officials from both sides of the dispute credit the striking teachers with helping reawaken the public, the media and politicians to widespread difficulties facing schools in California and elsewhere.
Support for the teachers was running high among parents and the public, a recent survey of Los Angeles residents showed.
Several possible contenders for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, including Garcetti, also have voiced solidarity with the strike.
Last year saw a wave of teacher walkouts over salaries and school funding in several U.S. states including West Virginia, Oklahoma and Arizona. The Los Angeles work stoppage differs in that educators face a predominantly Democratic political establishment more sympathetic to their cause.
The teachers' union in Denver held a strike authorization vote on Saturday after rejecting a contract offer. Results will be announced on Tuesday. A strike vote by teachers in Oakland, California, also was expected later this week.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman, writing by Daniel Trotta and Jonathan Allen; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
