WAPS Campaign Graphic NoBanNoWall
President's Perspective
February 21, 2017
The Fight of our Lives

February 10 marked the one-year anniversary of the passage of the Build the Future, Fund the Fight (BFFF) initiative. Last year, I spent a lot of time in our BFFF phone-banking room, often with member stalwarts like Vince Fazzi, a health and human services leader. Calling our members, having great dialogues about the need for the dues increase, full merger, and Group Legal Services, in support of the strategic plan, seems like only yesterday.

Trump-DeVos Shield 2017
President's Perspective
January 27, 2017
Organizing our School-Site Strength in 2017

As with every year, our priorities in 2017 will be driven by the school site and classrooms. January re-connections with two people I hadn’t spoken with for years — way too long — reinforced this for me.

San Fernando HS Walk-in 2016
President's Perspective
December 20, 2016
Rejuvenation — then action

You have reached winter break, and you deserve every moment of rest and rejuvenation that you will get. You are the backbone of our schools, our service to students, our communities, our union, and our profession. Enjoy this time.

President's Perspective Nov 2016
President's Perspective
November 21, 2016
Our School Site Fights Have National Implications

I met Channing Martinez in 2001 when he walked into my Life Skills class as a ninth-grader at Crenshaw High School. He developed an interest in the history of social movements and efforts to address inequality ...

UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl
President's Perspective
October 28, 2016
How it all fits together

On October 6, I walked with the Gardner Elementary school community, knocking on doors to ask people what they would like to see in their neighborhood school and giving out information about Propositions 55 and 58.

Alex Caputo-Pearl and Karen Lewis
President's Perspective
August 24, 2016
State of the Union 2016

Delivered at the Bonaventure Hotel on July 29, 2016, UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl delivers his annual 'State of the Union' speech that lays out the roadmap for the new school year.

President's Perspective Alex Caputo-Pearl
President's Perspective
August 2, 2016
Hope Amid Heartache

Every summer has its wonderful and rejuvenating aspects — I hope that has been your experience over June and July. You deserve it. Yet, this has also been a summer of violence, a summer of shaking U.S. society to its core. We have arrived at an explosive intersection as a country.

Hamilton HS Walk-In Alex Caputo-Pearl
President's Perspective
March 31, 2016
Doubling Down on Organizing

For those of us who worked in LAUSD during the recession years of 2008 to 2012, those times are still vivid. School staff faced the constant threat of layoffs, and morale was low.