EDITORIAL UNION DEMANDS.

THE rap on public-employee unions in Los Angeles is that they care only about taking care of their own, and little about the public they're supposed to serve. It's a reputation labor tries mightily to deny, but one that's hard to escape given past behavior.

Take United Teachers Los Angeles and its request for $1,843 to $4,071 in salary increases for Los Angeles Unified School District teachers.

There's no blaming UTLA for wanting teachers to make a better living, and there's truth to the claim that higher pay attracts better teachers. That, of course, is why real reform requires performance-based pay, which the union detests.

That said, these are lean times, and the LAUSD can't afford the kinds of pay raises the union wants.

So what concession does the union want instead of a pay hike?

Less teacher training, according to inside sources.

Apparently the handful of days teachers are required to stay late after school for special instruction are simply too much to bear.

Never mind that teachers are professionals, not time card slaves. And never mind that educators enjoy months of paid vacation to compensate for the long hours. Even if the training sessions were the onerous imposition the UTLA claims, they're also a vital component of the LAUSD's efforts to improve the quality of its instruction.

For UTLA to seek a reduction in training is an admission that, in the minds of the most hardened hacks who tend to rule in public-employee unions, a few extra hours off is more important than providing kids with a better education.

It's hard to imagine that very many teachers actually feel this way. Too bad UTLA does.

It's time the teachers who care started defining the issues that would enhance their profession, and fill them with pride and a sense of achievement.