Los Angeles Unified’s two largest labor groups — the teachers union and service employees — announced Wednesday that they will unify and both go on strike on April 14 if a contract agreement is not reached before then, actions that would effectively close schools in less than a month.
The strike will affect about 400,000 students in the country’s second-largest school system and an estimated 32,000 students in adult schools. This would mean that more than 60,000 essential district employees – teachers, counselors, nurses, bus drivers, janitors and cafeteria workers – would walk off the job, impacting school operations.
This strike with the superintendent will come at a particularly difficult time for the district. Alberto Carvalho is on paid administrative leave following FBI raids on his San Pedro home and Downtown LA office and fears of hundreds of layoffs amid what he previously described as a troubled budget at its “breaking point.”
United Teachers Los Angeles President Cecily Myart-Cruz and Max Arias, executive director of Service Employees International Union Local 99, made the announcement Wednesday afternoon at a large rally in Gloria Molina Grand Park in front of L.A. City Hall.
“The message to the public is, stand with teachers. Stand with teachers. Stand with paramedics,” Myart-Cruz said. “Because one job should be enough, one job should be enough, and we need to stop being victims of teacher shaming.”
He said union members “are in their 30s, still living with their parents because they can’t afford a place to live. We have people who are coming from the Inland Empire, driving up to San Pedro schools, and doing that on behalf of the school community, but mostly for our kids.”
Tweedy Elementary School teacher Rosalva Barajas, along with other teachers and union members, joined a rally in Molina Grand Park in Los Angeles, CA on Wednesday.
(Gina Frazee/Los Angeles Times)
UTLA members are working under a contract that expired last June. If this happens then the work stoppage would be an open strike which could continue until an agreement is reached. The last such strike lasted six days in January 2019, when schools remained open, providing meals and child care but virtually no instruction.
In March 2023, UTLA members walked out for three days in solidarity with a strike called by Local 99, which represents the majority of workers who do not hold certified teaching credentials. This walkout led to the complete closure of schools as it was impossible to keep the campuses open without the vast majority of both teaching and non-teaching staff.
UTLA represents more than 30,000 classroom teachers, psychologists, attendance counselors, guidance counselors, nurses and secondary school librarians. In late January, union members voted overwhelmingly to give their leadership the authority to call a strike at their discretion.
Local 99 members are working under contract terms that expire June 30, 2024. The union represents more than 30,000 district employees, including teacher aides, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, computer technicians, custodians and gardeners. Their members include some of the lowest paid workers in the district.
Service workers are demanding an overall double-digit increase in pay on a three-year contract. Due to lengthy negotiations, two of those three years are basically a thing of the past.
Local 99 is also demanding stable work schedules as many of its members have had their hours reduced due to budget cuts. In some cases, these workers fell below the required hours limit to qualify for health benefits. The union says the average salary of its members is $35,000 a year.
“If working people are worried about whether they’ll have a place to sleep or whether they’ll have something to eat, you can’t have good schools,” Arias said. “You can’t keep good schools going if you don’t have enough people to keep the schools clean.”
Teachers union members participate in a rally in Molina Grand Park in Los Angeles, CA on Wednesday.
(Gina Frazee/Los Angeles Times)
What are the teachers demanding?
The union estimates its latest proposal would lead to an average wage increase of 17% over the next two years. The proposal focuses specifically on early-career teachers, increasing their salaries to $80,000. The top rate for an experienced teacher will be $133,972.
The unusual approach within UTLA’s strategy is to significantly increase the automatic raises based on years of experience and education credits earned. If successful, this outcome would include sustained and significant increases – and offer a better hedge against inflation – without the union having to fight for these increases in every negotiating cycle.
The district’s counterproposals include an 8% increase over two years with a potentially higher increase in the second year if district reserves remain stable. Currently, the District estimates that these reserves will shrink markedly. The third year of the contract will allow for new negotiations on that year’s compensation.
In a statement released during the union rally, the district said it had repeatedly adjusted the proposals during more than a year of negotiations:
“For example, we have increased salary offers, reduced class sizes and reduced mentoring ratios,” the statement said. “We have not offered any further subcontracts historically and exclusively for work performed by Bargaining Unit employees. Our offers are the highest in California.”
For the last three-year cycle, UTLA won a 21% raise, giving additional pay to union members with high-demand skills, including nurses who received an additional $20,000 boost to better compete with nursing jobs outside of academia.
The voice for the school district’s labor proposals and budget evaluation would normally be Carvalho, who has denied wrongdoing and has said he would like to return to work. Andres Chait, a senior LAUSD administrator, serves as acting superintendent.
The FBI has not made any statement, but reputable sources have confirmed that the investigation into Carvalho is related to the failed startup AllHire, which was hired by LA Unified to build an artificial intelligence chatbot. The technology was never fully deployed and was unplugged after three months.
The district has been struggling with budget concerns for months. Carvalho and district officials acknowledged the billions of dollars in reserves, but stressed that ongoing commitments and declining revenues put those reserves on track to be exhausted in about three years unless the district adopts austerity measures.
Financial pressures on the district include the expiration of pandemic aid, declining enrollment and a wave of sexual misconduct settlements — which have also put financial pressure on other public agencies.
The school board, facing a disappointing internal forecast, voted to send layoff notices on February 18, which is expected to result in the cuts of 657 jobs – labor groups called the move unnecessary and harmful to students.
L.A. Unified has largely avoided layoffs in recent years — and started the school year with $5 billion in reserves as part of an $18.8 billion budget.
Other participants in Wednesday’s rally were the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles, which represents about 3,000 principals, assistant principals and central and regional office middle managers. This is the first time for AALA to participate in a joint union rally of this magnitude. The AALA membership recently voted to affiliate with the Teamsters.
“We’re fighting for the same things,” said Maria Nichols, president of the administrators union. “All unions are understaffed. All unions are overstaffed, because we don’t have the human capital where we need them. And we all feel the district has lost its priorities when it comes to investing in human capital.”
