United Teachers of Los Angeles (USDL) Boosted by the Los Angeles Unified School District Trade-Inforcement Union (SEIU)
The school district has had a second strike in four years. The United Teachers of Los Angeles went on a strike in the middle of the year. The union says it is standing in solidarity with SEIU this week, while also continuing its own contract negotiations with the district.
SEIU members work for the service employees union. The negotiations between Local 99 and the LA Unified School District failed to produce a deal that will cause the union to walk off the job.
The last-minute negotiations, which included new raise offers that failed, led to the cancellation of schools on Tuesday.
School workers, including bus drivers, custodians and other support staff have a stake in the outcome. Local 99 is asking for more equitable wages, more work hours and more staffing to help students.
The union is getting a boost of support from United Teachers Los Angeles – a union representing about 30,000 teachers in the nation’s second-largest school district.
“Under California law, we cannot drive the school system into a bankruptcy position. We can’t make the school system go into a red position. If we were to capitulate to all the demands it would be against the law.
“We are eagerly awaiting on a counter proposal and we are ready to put another compelling offer on the table to continue the dialogue,” Carvalho said. “We believe that a strike is avoidable and should be avoided, considering the consequences that would have in our community.”
“If the district doesn’t realize that our members are valuable… once they stop working, then nothing’s really gonna change,” said Max Arias, executive director of SEIU Local 99.
“We need to reach a resolution that honors the work of our dedicated employees, while respecting the rights our children have to a quality education, meals and access to enriching school activities,” Carvalho said.
The district will offer help to families including opening 24 grab-and-go food sites, 154 schools that will provide student supervision, and about 120 city-run sites at libraries, recreation centers and other locations.
The Los Angeles Zoo is also offering free admission for students due to the closures and its all-day zoo camp program for students in kindergarten through 5th grade added two free “extended care” hours per day.
The Los Angeles Unified School District Teachers’ Union and Their Strike Over Pay, Health Benefits, and Other Perturbation Measures
What frustrates Krob, who supports the staff on strike, is that the resources for parents are through the school system, which is shut down, they said. They wish there was more support for parents.
For too long, families have sacrificed on poverty wages. Students have been sacrificing for too long in school environments that are not clean, safe or supportive for all,” Arias said.
More than a year of negotiations between the Los Angeles Unified School District and its administration over pay and health benefits has ended with the move.
“We understand the plight, the frustration and the realities faced by our workforce members,” Carvalho said last night. “We’re willing to work with them but they have to have a partner at the table that is willing to negotiate the results of their work.”
The SEIU is a union for service employees. Local 99 represents traditional service employees like custodians and cafeteria workers, along with more specialized positions such as special education assistants. The union says that despite the important roles the workers play in a school, the average salary of its members is less than $25,000 a year.
LAUSD is the second biggest school district in the country, with 420,000 students – the majority from families who live at or below the poverty line and depend on schools for far more than just classroom instruction.
District officials are working with the city and local volunteers to provide students with breakfasts and lunches, as well as to help families with child care for working parents during the planned three-day walkout.
The teachers’ demands include a wage increase and a cap on class sizes. The district hasn’t given a lot because of concerns over its finances.
The Los Angeles district has an operating budget of $14.8 billion, and it is currently in a financial bubble, according to the district’s ex-superintended. In a few years, the padding of the COVID relief money will be rolled back because it’s hard to keep teachers’ positions filled.
He’s fighting to make sure the financial security of the district is protected. In many cases, members of the union are not protected because they are working jobs that help keep LAUSD running.
Los Angeles teacher Sea Krob is working at home despite the LAUSD school workers strike. A challenge for a mother and daughter who isn’t going to school
Tucked into a small art studio at a California university, Sea Krob took their 3-year-old and 7-year-old to graduate school with them because they didn’t have a daycare option this week.
The parents of half a million children are out of school for three days due to the LAUSD school worker strike.
For safety and liability reasons, they can’t bring their children into the art lab where they work, so this week they had to forgo lab hours. Instead, they are going for something different by borrowing art supplies from a university office.
It is the same district that shut down for a six-day strike in 2019, when teachers went to the picket lines to fight for smaller class sizes, more staff and an increase in wages.
They said their partner was out of sick days for the year, so they have to have their kids with them.
Krob commutes on public transit two hours each way to get to the university from their Los Angeles home. It has been a challenge to do that with two children in the rain.
The woman said she had to wake them up and say that one of them was not going to school. It was difficult for one to say “but what do you mean I’m not going to school?”
“The teachers and the support staff there, they’re going to talk to their employer, their boss, to say we need more to take care of ourselves,” Colton-Medici said. “In order to do that, they have to take a break from school.”
Her daughter’s teacher provided informational and educational packets to do at home and Colton-Medici is doing her best to act as a fill-in educator – all while running her business from home.
She said that she would give herself a 10 and a 6 for her work-life balance and how she is dealing with their time off from school. I know that there will be something I missed.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/22/us/lausd-parents-staff-strike/index.html
The Los Angeles Times Associated with the LA Parent’s Staff Strike: A Journey Through the Misfortune of Grandma, Wade, and their Two Young Children
Colton-Medici’s husband is working in the office, but he stayed at home Tuesday morning to care for their older daughter while she took their toddler to her school. She said that there was enough advance notice of the strike to make plans so she can call on her mother if she is in need of backup care.
When she sees the support staff, she feels for them because she knows how good they are. She knows that some of those staffers work as crossing guards and have double duties.
It’s true that we are pseudo inconvenient but how do you deal with it by your own child? “Colton-Medici said.” I think it is important for me to be more of an educationist and to also be able to hug my kids because I think that is important too.
Wade and his wife are able to make it work with their son being out of school because of the strike.
“We’re really lucky because my wife and I, we both work at home,” Armstrong, 47, told CNN. The impact on us is small in terms of finding child care and similar things, which some of our friends have to do.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/22/us/lausd-parents-staff-strike/index.html
My son and me are working overtime but I haven’t had much time with him yet. He’s glad to hear about his dad and what he’s doing
It is annoying and we are sad to see the learning loss for our kids. It is coming just a few days after the holidays and with spring break coming up soon, it feels like we have only had a few days of school.
Armstrong said the materials sent home from school aren’t directly related to what’s going on in the classroom, so he’s focusing more on spending time with his son and having some of Declan’s friends over to help other parents.
He understands why so many staffers are on the picket lines since the district and union couldn’t reach a resolution.
The classroom aides that help special needs students are fond of by the son, and they make time to help the whole class with projects. Cafeteria workers are doing great work, especially after feeding so many children during the Pandemic.
“There’s a lot of the aides and staff in our schools who really aren’t getting paid much at all and I know how essential they are from what my son tells me about his days in school,” Armstrong said. “I hope they get paid.”