Monday, 4/14/97
Leadership
of Bernstein aided teacher, union relations
Car kills fighter for better learning conditions, school
reform
By Mason Stockstill
Daily Bruin Contributor
The California education system lost a strong ally as union
leader Helen Bernstein was struck down and fatally wounded by a car
as she rushed to a meeting April 3.
For most of her life, Bernstein was a vocal proponent of
teachers’ unions, serving as the president of United Teachers Los
Angeles (UTLA) for six years. She also founded, as well as served
as director of, the Teacher Union Reform Network, which had offices
at UCLA’s Graduate School of Education and Information
Sciences.
A product of the Los Angeles school system, Bernstein studied at
UCLA in the 1960s, where she was active in civil rights and the
anti-Vietnam war movement.
She worked for a congressman after college but soon left in
search of a better opportunities in the education field.
After teaching and counseling students, Bernstein decided to
become more involved in teachers’ union activities.
Working with the union, Bernstein found an outlet for her
tough-love approach to instigating educational reform.
"She was the toughest union leader this nation’s teachers had,"
said Adam Urbanski, president of the Rochester, N.Y., Teachers
Association.
Bernstein’s reputation as a tough, outspoken champion of
education is well-deserved according to those who knew and worked
with her.
"I had a lot of admiration for her as a colleague and as a
mentor," said Xochitl Perez, a graduate student of education who
was working with Bernstein at UCLA. "She was strong, the kind of
woman who was not afraid to risk telling you what she wanted. She
had such presence."
Wellford Wilms, a professor of education, also worked closely
with Bernstein while she was at UCLA.
"I was immediately impressed with her courage and vision," Wilms
recalled. "She never talked about her principles, but she lived
them. It was clear through her actions what she stood for."
According to colleagues, Bernstein was best known for her
passion for improving teaching and learning conditions. She was
known for saying anyone who disagreed with her was "clueless" or
just "didn’t get it."
Her direct approach endeared her to teachers and union leaders
alike, improving relations between the two groups.
Bernstein felt that unions and teachers should work together
toward school reform.
"She thought that teachers should be leaders in educational
reform" by strengthening teachers and unions alike, those close to
the union leader noted.
Perez worked closely with Bernstein over the course of the last
10 years, charting new territory in the struggle for educational
reform.
"Though we were located on opposite sides of the country, we
talked almost every day," Urbanski continued. "She was incredibly
dedicated to her work."
Bernstein helped to lead teachers’ unions into a new era of
educational reform. She melded features of industrial unionism and
new changes that have extended the position of unions in the
decision-making process.
Because of her efforts, collective bargaining now includes
negotiations on professional issues as well as the standard wages,
working conditions and benefits.
The union is also now responsible for promoting practices such
as peer review, public school choice and professional
accountability as a result of Bernstein’s work between teachers and
unions.
As UTLA vice president in 1989, Bernstein was part of the
negotiation team during a nine-day teachers’ strike that all but
shut down the immense Los Angeles Unified School District. As a
result of the strike, teachers gained a 24 percent pay raise.
While president of UTLA, Bernstein helped to make it one of the
premier teachers’ unions in the country and later took her
enthusiasm for education to the Teacher Union Reform Network
(TURN).
TURN is a nationwide network that attempts to guide teachers’
unions through reforms. Bernstein’s TURN office was at UCLA.
Throughout the years, Bernstein was also active in numerous
committees and educational organizations throughout the city. She
was a member of the Library Commission, for which she had attended
a groundbreaking ceremony at the new Los Feliz branch library the
morning of her death, and an advocate of LEARN, Los Angeles
County’s educational reform movement.
Bernstein was also on the board of directors of the Los Angeles
Education Partnership (LAEP) and was a candidate for the city
charter reform commission in last Tuesday’s municipal
elections.
Bernstein also acted as an unpaid senior advisor to Mayor
Richard Riordan, who expressed his grief over her death.
"A woman of valor and compassion has been lost to our city,"
Riordan said. "Helen Bernstein was a true leader, a relentless
honest fighter, a person who acted on her beliefs that kids come
first."