[dropcap size=big]L[/dropcap]eaders of the union representing 34,000 teachers and the Los Angeles Unified School District again fell short of an agreement on a new contract Wednesday after meeting in yet another last-ditch effort to avoid the first teachers' strike in Los Angeles since 1989.
They did manage to agree to go back to the bargaining table on Friday morning at UTLA headquarters in Koreatown.
United Teachers Los Angeles President Alex-Caputo Pearl told reporters outside district headquarters that he had problems with the district’s latest proposal, not least of which was the fact that LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner and Chief Labor Negotiator Vivian Ekchian did not attend the meeting.
“When those heavy hitters on the district side are not at the table there is a lack of seriousness,” Caputo-Pearl said. “We don’t go to Sacramento when we are a day or a couple of days away from a potential strike. We focus on Los Angeles at that point.”