lessons, use copy machines, or call parents (Woo 7). The Los Angeles teachers' union organized a boycott of unpaid, non-teaching duties such as yard supervision. Some teachers also refused to turn in end-of-year grades (Enriquez and Gordon 1)
In 1990, when contract-renewal negotiations between teachers and the Tustin, California, Unified School district began to stall, a number of teachers at the schools "stopped assigning homework and . . . refused to participate in after-school activities, including open house and faculty meetings" (Marcano B9). A Tustin School Board statement warned that teachers failing to attend open house or other contract-mandated meetings or failing to assign homework "for the purpose of advancing their views concerning negotiations are subject to discipline and loss of pay" (Marcano B9).
In these and similar disputes around the country, teachers, at the urging of their unions, have withheld unpaid teaching time as a negotiating tactic. Sometimes, this leads to desired results. In the Los Angeles case, for example, the School Distri
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