LA Unified substitute teachers protest over job losses
Adolfo Guzman-Lopez/KPCC
L.A. Unified substitute teachers protest a deal between their union and district administrators that gives laid off teachers priority for substitute jobs.
Dozens of long-time substitute teachers protested outside Los Angeles Unified School District headquarters Tuesday. They're angry about a deal struck a few months ago between teachers union leaders and district administrators that gives priority for substitute teaching jobs to about 2,000 beginning teachers the district had laid off.
John Walsh led the "die-in" protest in the shadow of the 29-story L.A. Unified headquarters building. "The teachers in California are dying. We are the first group to die."
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The massive district’s need for about 2,000 substitute teachers each day meant near-permanent employment for many subs, including Amy Linker. She said the deal between United Teachers Los Angeles and administrators is killing her livelihood.
"We’re already pretty low on the totem pole, we don’t have a lot of total respect because we’re just substitutes. But now this is really a blow to our self-esteem – we have benefits we’re losing."
Those benefits will run out for many at the end of the year. Linker said she’s gone into debt to pay her bills. The president of the teachers union has moved to renegotiate the deal after an internal union vote a few weeks ago. L.A. Unified’s superintendent has said he isn’t interested in reopening the issue.
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3 weeks, 1 day ago
They left us for dead. No paycheck in three months.
2 weeks, 6 days ago
This was a secret and disgusting deal which could have been avoided just by putting the laid off teachers into the sub unit according to seniority with the district...it would have been fair. There are many subs are are fully credentialed, or otherwise fully qualified teachers who for various reasons prefer to substitute teach, including lack of jobs in their areas....some subs are 25 years or more and to have 2 year teachers - many who leave teaching within the first five years for other reasons that subs would not want to work as a full time teacher including discipline and lack of support by the administration etc etc...- given priority over those of us who have worked loyally for years is so blatantly unfair the President of the Union had to do it under a so called "cone-of-silence". Shame on Duffy the Dunce for falling for Cortines trap to further try to divide and distract teachers from the other horrible things they are planning including the sale off of public education so that poor students will not get the education they need and deserve to have. Cortines is laughing up his sleeve over this one you can be sure!
2 weeks, 5 days ago
Cortines claims he had no knowledge that the subs were going to take the "fall"; but the union lnew as long ago as July. Union members of the Substitute Teacher Committee aren;t going to take this lying dow Kit McCormick,Charter menber of UTLA and Substitute activistl.