17.6% INCREASE FOR LAUSD TEACHERS- WHAT IS UTLA PRESIDENT WARREN FLETCHER SMOKING?
Dear UTLA member,
The following letter from UTLA President Warren Fletcher to LAUSD
Superintendent John Deasy was sent today:
1/29/2014
Dr. John Deasy
Superintendent, LAUSD
3303 S. Beaudry Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90017
Dear Superintendent Deasy:
On January 15, the UTLA House of Representatives, by a near-unanimous
vote, directed me to communicate to you, and to the School Board, UTLA's
salary negotiations demand for immediate bargaining and for implementation
retroactive to the beginning of the 2013-14 school year.
UTLA's demand is for an increase in salary of 17.6%.
This demand reflects the undisputed fact that, since the beginning of the
recession, L.A.'s teachers and Health and Human Services professionals
have, again and again, voluntarily made deep financial sacrifices in order to
keep the District afloat. We have made these sacrifices even as workloads
have greatly increased, and while the cost of living has continued to
rise. Simple equity demands that these sacrifices be repaid.
This demand also reflects a new economic reality. In light of both the
passage of Proposition 30, and the steadily improving California economy, the
Governor and the Legislature have made it clear that it is their intent
to fully fund schools, and to repair the damage done to schools by the
recession, including a commitment to making teacher salaries competitive.
It would be a travesty if these statewide commitments to our schools and
our children were not translated to reality in Los Angeles, where the
children's needs are the greatest, and where the sacrifices by educators were
the deepest.
I look forward to your response.
Sincerely,
Warren Fletcher
President, United Teachers Los Angeles
cc: Members, LAUSD Board of Education
Dr. John Deasy
Superintendent, LAUSD
3303 S. Beaudry Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90017
Dear Superintendent Deasy:
On January 15, the UTLA House of Representatives, by a near-unanimous
vote, directed me to communicate to you, and to the School Board, UTLA's
salary negotiations demand for immediate bargaining and for implementation
retroactive to the beginning of the 2013-14 school year.
UTLA's demand is for an increase in salary of 17.6%.
This demand reflects the undisputed fact that, since the beginning of the
recession, L.A.'s teachers and Health and Human Services professionals
have, again and again, voluntarily made deep financial sacrifices in order to
keep the District afloat. We have made these sacrifices even as workloads
have greatly increased, and while the cost of living has continued to
rise. Simple equity demands that these sacrifices be repaid.
This demand also reflects a new economic reality. In light of both the
passage of Proposition 30, and the steadily improving California economy, the
Governor and the Legislature have made it clear that it is their intent
to fully fund schools, and to repair the damage done to schools by the
recession, including a commitment to making teacher salaries competitive.
It would be a travesty if these statewide commitments to our schools and
our children were not translated to reality in Los Angeles, where the
children's needs are the greatest, and where the sacrifices by educators were
the deepest.
I look forward to your response.
Sincerely,
Warren Fletcher
President, United Teachers Los Angeles
cc: Members, LAUSD Board of Education
MY RESPONSE:
There is something completely reprehensible about a person who has sat by and taken no action- legal or otherwise- while over 17,000 teachers have been falsely charged and removed or forced into early retirement from their teaching jobs. To then ask for a 17.6% raise for those remaining is a pipe dream that is not only not borne out by any rational reading of the budget, but completely offensive in light of a UTLA union that these 17,000 assaulted teachers paid to be their "exclusive bargaining agent," that instead stood by and did absolutely nothing in their hour of need. To first do nothing and then claim that UTLA doesn't have the money to litigate on these teachers' behalf is kafkaesque, when one realizes just how much litigation 17,000 teachers dues would have paid for if you Warren Fletcher hadn't sold them down the river. Shame on you!.
Why would Deasy or the LAUSD Board take you or any of the present UTLA leadership seriously in any negotiation, when they could not have succeeded in decimating UTLA represented LAUSD teachers during your watch as UTLA president without your complete incompetence or outright complicity. And you now have the chutzpah to ask for another term as president of UTLA? In what world do you live? Surely, there are no teachers that live in that world.