Category Archives for Strikes
Report: LA teachers’ strike looming, deadline extended until Monday
Report: LA teachers’ strike threatens classroom finances
Los Angeles teachers could lose — rather than gain — money for their classrooms by going on strike this week, according to a report from Moody’s Investor Services.
Teachers might strike as soon as tomorrow, demanding pay raises, smaller class sizes, and more support staff. But doing so could disrupt the district’s place in California’s education-funding model, which doles out money proportional to the number of students. The result: teachers could get an unintended funding cut if the district doesn’t agree to concessions.
According to the report, teacher absences are likely to drive down student attendance in the Los Angeles Unified School District (when teachers don’t show up, neither do students). Because California uses average attendance to determine how many students attend each district — and therefore how much money they need — Los Angeles likely will receive less next year.
“The district is likely to lose some state revenues based upon lower [average daily attendance] and will also have to pay substitute teachers,” the report says. “The district ended fiscal 2018 with close to $2.4 billion in available net cash in its general fund, and the strike is unlikely to result in liquidity difficulties. It will, however, divert resources from classroom purposes.”
A legal dispute over whether teachers gave the district enough notice could push the strike back to Monday, although union leaders are confident it happen one way or another.
“There will be a strike,” American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten said Tuesday. “I think a strike is imminent now.”
LA teachers’ strike delayed until Monday
The United Teachers Los Angeles said today that the teachers union would push back its strike date to Monday.
The union’s more than 30,000 members had been poised to walk out on Thursday. Union leaders said the decision was made because of uncertainty over how a legal dispute concerning whether the union gave enough notice to strike to the district would be resolved.
The Los Angeles district is the nation’s second largest, with 80 percent of students qualifying for free or reduced lunch.
“Although we believe we would ultimately prevail in court, for our members, our students, parents, and the community, absent an agreement we will plan to strike on Monday,” said Alex Caputo-Pearl, the union president, in a statement.
The two sides were expected back at the bargaining table later today. The union and district leaders have clashed over issues such as teacher pay and funds to reduce classroom sizes.
United Steelworkers authorizes strike against ArcelorMittal
United Steelworkers authorizes strike against ArcelorMittal
Via a report from POLITICO, the United Steelworkers union today authorized its negotiating party to initiate a strike against ArcelorMittal, the multinational steel company.
The union maintains that ArcelorMittal and U.S. Steel, with whom it’s been in contentious contract negotiations, have been unwilling to share profits from President Donald Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs. ArcelorMittal and U.S. Steel together account for 40 percent of flat-rolled steel production.
“Now that [ArcelorMittal] is generating enormous — even historic — amounts of cash, it is an insult that bargaining progress has been hindered by management’s unrealistic concessionary demands and unfair labor practices,” said United Steelworkers President Leo Gerard in a written statement.
An ArcelorMittal spokeswoman noted that the parties signed an extension agreement for the previous contract, which expired Sept. 1.
“Talks continue this week and we continue to work diligently to reach a mutually agreeable conclusion,” the spokeswoman said in an email. “Further, our plants continue to operate in a safe and orderly fashion.”
The strike vote came from more than a dozen local unions representing about 15,000 workers.
University of Michigan lecturers authorize a strike
University of Michigan lecturers authorize a strike
My alma mater seems to be doing better on the basketball court than they are at the bargaining table.
According to POLITICO, unionized lecturers at the University of Michigan voted to authorize a strike today, with 80 percent voting in favor.
The vote does not require the lecturers to go on strike, but rather permits their union leaders to call a strike should negotiations, set to continue through next week, fail.
Management “can easily make this right by drawing on the money generated by our labor without having to raise tuition,” Shelley Manis, co-chair of the Lecturers’ Employee Organization in Ann Arbor, told reporters on a call today.
UM lecturers seek a 74 percent increase in the lecturer starting salary at the university’s Ann Arbor campus; a 98 percent increase at its Dearborn campus; and a 105 percent increase at the Flint campus. A university spokesperson told POLITICO Tuesday its bargaining team would reach a settlement before the current contract expires on April 20.
“We’ll continue our negotiations at the bargaining table,” said Rick Fitzgerald, the university’s assistant vice president for public affairs.
Lecturers teach one-third of the undergraduates on the Ann Arbor campus. A strike could disrupt classes in the last month of the university’s academic year.