JUST IN: Cortines warns UTLA to abandon boycott of faculty meetings
LA Unified SuperintendentRamon Cortineswarned the teachers union,UTLA, today that urging its members to boycott three upcoming faculty meetings violates the terms of a directive from the Public Employees Employment Board.
In a harshly-worded statementCortines said attending the meetings is “a required professional duty under the LAUSD-UTLA contract agreement” and a boycott would violate a 1990 directive issued by PERB that arose out of “previous unlawful boycotts of required duties.”
That order, he asserted, “still holds today.”
“Nothing could be more detrimental to the extraordinary educational progress that this District has made in recent years,” Cortines said in the statement. “As we await the involvement of a mediator in negotiations, I urge UTLA to stop this irresponsible and unlawful effort, and instead work with the District to complete negotiations so that all employees can devote their entire focus to the District’s core mission of educating students and ensuring student safety.”
He made the same points in separates letter to UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearland to LA Unified employees.
UTLA did not respond to a request to comment, and it is unknown how Cortines received information that UTLA members had been urged to boycott meetings. There has been no public declaration by the union either on its website, social media accounts or public statements by leaders that it was encouraging members to boycott meetings.
The union and the district are currently in contentious contract negations that were recently declared to be in an impasse as the sides remain an estimated $800 million apart on key issues like teacher pay and class size. Over the last six months, the union has ramped up pressure with a series of monthly “escalating actions” that included press conferences, picketing at schools and a large rally last month attended by thousands in downtown’s Grand Park.
However, no “escalating actions” for the month of March have been announced by UTLA, and Cortines in his statement expressed hope that boycotting faculty meetings wasn’t the next step. LA School Report reached out to Caputo-Pearl earlier this JUST IN: Cortines warns UTLA to abandon boycott of faculty meetings - LA School Report: