Three Los Angeles teachers’ union officials who were defeated in last month’s election are seeking to disqualify their successors on the grounds that the challengers broke union election rules.
Vice Presidents Bev Cook and Mike Dreebin and Treasurer Alberto Valdivia lost to Joshua Pechthalt, Julie Washington, and David Goldberg, respectively. The incumbent president of United Teachers Los Angeles, John Perez, was also unseated in the election, but he is not challenging winner A.J. Duffy.
The three losing candidates charge that the winning slate wrongly used union mailing labels, advertised prohibited political support, and had a business conflict with union interests.
The election winners, who are set to take over the 41,000-member union on July 1, deny the charges. The incumbents were expected to bring the allegations to the election committee of the union, an affiliate of the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, this week.
