L.A. professors plan to strike Monday after no agreement reached with school district

Jan. August 12, 2019, 0215 GMT

By Dennis Romero

The Los Angeles Teachers' Union said Friday that contract negotiations were deadlocked, which could lead to a strike on Monday.

"At the end of our session, we found ourselves in a dead end," AFP Secretary-General Arlene Inouye told AFP Friday at a news conference.

The President of the Union, Alex Caputo-Pearl, said that an insufficient supply would be sufficient on weekends. we will be on strike. "

The Los Angeles Unified School District tweeted ," We are extremely disappointed that UTLA has rejected @LASchools without proposing a counter-offer. UTLA refused to continue the contract negotiations. There is more than 48 hours left on Monday, the day UTLA plans to go on strike, and we implore UTLA to reconsider its decision. "

Mayor Eric Garcetti said in a statement that He hoped that both parties would continue to speak.

"I am disappointed that today's discussions have urged both parties to consider returning to the negotiating table to talks over the weekend in the interest of our children, our teachers and our schools, "he said.

The district offered a 6% retroactive increase to the last academic year , as well as limiting the number of students per class and additional enrollment, including nurses and counselors.

However, Caputo-Pearl said that the contract offer was only valid only for a period of one year And he said the district had not kept its promise to report on how it would stabilize the workforce, or respond to the growth of charter schools, which are often non-unionized.

He called independent campuses "existential threat". "at UTLA.

Caputo-Pearl pointed out District Superintendent, Austin Beutner, former business banker and deputy mayor, for being absent at two of the last three bargaining sessions , including Friday's talks, adding that during the negotiations on Friday, Beutner was talking about the labor dispute at a press conference.

The budget proposed by Governor Gavin Newsom, recently inaugurated, includes funds that could help the district meet the demands of the union, said Caputo-Pearl, yet the district has presented "an inadequate proposal even as this new money is coming."

"A strike is a last resort and we have reached this moment, "he said.

Dennis Romero writes for NBC News and is based in Los Angeles.