Capo teachers union offers compromise to avert strike
By Scott Martindale/Orange County Register
Seeking to avert a strike with an 11th-hour offer to the school board, Capistrano Unified's teachers union has offered to stop fighting a 10.1 percent pay cut imposed on teachers in exchange for a written agreement stating salaries will be restored if the district receives additional "unforeseen" funding. The compromise, which comes just three days after teachers resoundingly authorized going on strike, represents a significant reversal of the union's position. Union leaders previously said teachers would walk off the job unless trustees were willing to renegotiate all elements of the 10.1 percent pay cut imposed in March. "We've moved a whole bunch to avert a strike," Capistrano Unified Education Association President Vicki Soderberg said Monday from the union's offices in Aliso Viejo. "That should say volumes to the public and to the school board." (more...)