Tens of hundreds of employees within the Los Angeles Unified School District planned to walk off the job Tuesday over stalled contract talks, and so they shall be joined in solidarity by teachers in a three-day strike that can shut down the nation’s second-largest school system.
Demonstrations are expected at schools across the town by members of Local 99 of the Service Employees International Union, which represents about 30,000 teachers’ aides, special education assistants, bus drivers, custodians, cafeteria employees and other support staff.
The employees were expected to hitch picket lines before dawn, demanding higher wages and increased staffing. The district has greater than 500,000 students from Los Angeles and all or a part of 25 other cities and unincorporated county areas.
Superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho accused the union of refusing to barter and said that he was prepared to fulfill at any time day or night. He said Monday a “golden opportunity” to make progress was lost.
“I think this strike might have been avoided. But it surely can’t be avoided without individuals actually talking to each other,” he said.
Local 99 said Monday evening that it was in discussions with state labor regulators over allegations that the district engaged in misconduct that has impeded the rights of employees to interact in legally protected union-related activities.
“We would like to be clear that we will not be in negotiations with LAUSD,” the union said in an announcement. “We proceed to be engaged within the impasse process with the state.”
Those talks wouldn’t avoid a walkout, the statement said.
“We’re able to strike,” the union said.
Through the strike, about 150 of the district’s greater than 1,000 schools are expected to stay open with adult supervision but no instruction, to provide students somewhere to go. Dozens of libraries and parks, plus some “grab and go” spots for college students to get lunches also planned to be open to kids to reduce the strain on parents now scrambling to seek out care.
“Schools are so far more than centers of education — they’re a security net for a whole lot of hundreds of Los Angeles families,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said in an announcement Monday. “We’ll be sure to do all we are able to to supply resources needed by the families of our city.”
Staff, meanwhile, said striking was the one option that they had left.
Instructional aide Marlee Ostrow, who supports the strike, said she’s long overdue for a raise. The 67-year-old was hired nearly 20 years ago at $11.75 an hour, and today she makes about $16. That won’t enough to maintain pace with inflation and rising housing prices, she said, and meanwhile, her duties have expanded from two classrooms to 5.
Ostrow blames the district’s low wages for job vacancies which have piled up in recent times.
“There’s not even anybody applying because you’ll be able to make more cash starting at Burger King,” she said. “Lots of people really need to assist kids, and so they should not be penalized for wanting that to be their life’s work.”
The union says district support staffers earn, on average, about $25,000 per yr and plenty of live in poverty due to low pay or limited work hours while battling inflation and the high cost of housing in LA County. The union is asking for a 30% raise. Teachers desire a 20% pay hike over two years.
Carvalho said the district has offered a wage increase totaling greater than 20% over a multiyear period, together with a 3% bonus. As well as, the deal would come with a “massive expansion of healthcare advantages,” the superintendent told Fox 11 on Monday.
The strike has wide support amongst union members. Hundreds of individuals, many wearing red, rallied last Wednesday outside City Hall within the hours before the strike date was announced.
SEIU members have been working with no contract since June 2020, while the contract for teachers expired in June 2022. The unions decided last week to stop accepting extensions to their contracts.
United Teachers Los Angeles, the union representing 35,000 educators, counselors, nurses and other staff, expressed solidarity with their striking co-workers.
“Educators shall be joining our union siblings on the picket lines,” a UTLA tweet said. The teachers’ union can also be bargaining with the district.
Teachers waged a six-day strike in 2019 over pay and contract issues but schools remained open.
