Requiring the LA Unified School District (LAUSD) to negotiate before dropping a mask mandate that the state and county are making optional next week indicates an interest on the part of United Teachers of LA (UTLA) to use the COVID 19 crisis as a means at the bargaining table, according to a union watchdog.
“This is a situation where they are able to hold this specter of death and destruction over the heads of LAUSD as a way to push their weight around and it's really, really unfortunate because the purpose of unions is to advocate for the wages, hours and working conditions of their members,” said Timothy Snowball, an attorney with the Freedom Foundation.
Both the state and county announced last week that they are lifting their mask mandate for schools and child-care facilities on March 12. But the Epoch Times reported that LAUSD cannot eliminate its mask mandate without discussions with UTLA.
“The very thing that they're purporting to protect, which is what's best for the kids, is what's at stake with them continuing to demand illogical requirements,” Snowball told the Southern California Record. “For LAUSD and UTLA to continue to curtail the rights of students based upon a purported emergency situation is disturbing. How long is UTLA going to be allowed to use COVID 19 as an excuse to use in their labor negotiations with LAUSD?”
LAUSD and UTLA did not respond to requests for comment but in a statement online UTLA President Cecily Myart-Cruz said it’s premature to discuss removing health and safety measures when there are students in early education programs and schools who are unvaccinated.
“While declining COVID rates are promising, educators agree with Governor Newsom’s statement strongly recommending that masking stays in place in schools,” Myart-Cruz stated.
An existing agreement between the two parties, which was obtained by the Southern California Record, shows that masking is required until the end of the 2022 school year.
“It doesn't make sense to me, especially in California where you can go to restaurants, you can go to bars, you can go to movie theaters, you can go to bookstores, you can go to grocery stores without a mask,” Snowball added. “For all intents and purposes, COVID is over, in practice, at least for now.”