Capistrano Unified teachers authorize strike
By Scott Martindale/Orange County Register
Capistrano Unified School District teachers, frustrated and angry over a 10.1 percent pay cut imposed on them by the school board, have voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike, union leaders announced Friday. Nearly 87 percent of the 1,848 teachers who cast ballots over a two-day period ending Friday voted to give their union governing board the power to decide when, or if, they will walk off the job. Hundreds of students, teachers and parents gather outside Capistrano Unified School District headquarters in San Juan Capistrano on Tuesday night to protest the 10.1 pay cut imposed on teachers by the school board. “The teachers really get what this is all about,” said Vicki Soderberg, president of the Aliso Viejo-based Capistrano Unified Education Association union. “We are standing up to the bullies (the school board), and we are standing up for our rights to bargain our contract and not be bullied.” (more...)