[dropcap size=big]N[/dropcap]egotiators for the Los Angele Unified School District and the union representing its 30,000 educators have failed to break an impasse over a new labor contract after their final session of required mediation ended Friday, with each side blaming the other for bargaining in bad faith.
They’ve taken the last step toward a possible teacher strike: fact-finding.
“The school district claims it can’t afford these very basic student needs,” said UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl in a statement. “We are ready to go to fact-finding and force the district to defend its position.” Members of United Teachers Los Angeles have already voted to empower their leadership to call a strike, which would be a first in the city in over a generation. It could also leave some 600,000 kids without a classroom to go to.
But it could take weeks before the district and the teachers union can face off in the street. “Fact-finding can take as many as 40 business days if all the deadlines are maximized,” UTLA announced Sunday over Twitter.
Fact-finding can take as many as 40 business days if all the deadlines (e.g for choosing representatives, etc) are maximized.
— United Teachers Los Angeles (@UTLAnow) October 14, 2018
Ever since the two sides sat down in January 2017 to negotiate a new contract for L.A. teachers, they have been carefully laying out their arguments and hardening their respective positions. While a mediator was invited to settle their dispute, it’s not the job of a mediator to decide who’s right or wrong, but rather to focus on finding a possible settlement. That’s not the case in fact-finding.
In fact-finding, an arbiter looks at the evidence and each side’s argument and decides who’s got the better case and make recommendations.
[dropcap size=big]T[/dropcap]he fact-finding phase is led by a three-person panel, a state-appointed chairperson, one UTLA representative and one representative from LAUSD. After a period of time, the chairperson makes a ruling of sorts — actually, a recommendation based on evidence presented by each side — a critical element in this case is that the recommendations are non-binding.
Acrimony between LAUSD and UTLA is currently so palpable it’s hard to see how fact-finding will avert a strike.
“UTLA has never negotiated in good faith,” said David Holmquist, general counsel for the district in its negotiations with the teachers union, in a statement.
“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,” he said.
However grim the LAUSD-UTLA drama looks, there is a glimmer of sunshine, says Tim Yeung, a public sector labor attorney at the firm Sloan Sakai, in a report by LAist. UTLA and LAUSD met for more than one session with a mediator. That’s a good sign.
“Until they get through fact-finding there is always hope,” Yeung says.
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