The Inglewood Teachers Association has decided to escalate its efforts to get a fair resolution to a contract dispute that has entered its third year.
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Inglewood teachers give their bargaining team a standing ovation for its efforts to win a contract. |
ITA staged a work-to-the-rule week in which members withheld all voluntary services not required by contract. Inglewood teachers routinely perform many duties for which they are not compensated. During the job action, teachers not only started and left work no earlier or later than the contracted time, they also marched in and out of the schools together.
A neutral factfinding panel recently issued a report recommending a 4.5 percent raise for teachers for the 2001-02 school year. The district responded by introducing a round of new proposals that include take-backs in health benefits and major wage cuts for members working in the child development center and latchkey unit.
"The district is asking us to change our health benefits with less thought and examination than I use to select a toothpaste" says ITA President Kathy Stewart. "We are ready to accept the fair and balanced recommendation of the factfinding panel. We call on the district to do the same."
Stewart and CTA Secretary-Treasurer Dean E. Vogel addressed ITA members at a membership meeting Sept. 18, where unit members discussed details of planned informational picketing and community leafleting in an effort to head off a possible strike.
"The union is all for one and one for all," Vogel told the estimated 300 teachers gathered for the meeting. "No one wants to strike, but if it reaches that point, you will not be alone. I will be with you. The CTA officers will be with you. The Board of Directors will be with you. You'll see CTA staff pouring in to support you because your cause is just. And the safest place you can be is in the middle of it united with your colleagues."
Frank Wells