LOS ANGELES (AP) — Tens of thousands of workers in the Los Angeles Unified School District will strike for three days next week over stalled contract talks and teachers will join them, likely shutting down the nation’s second-largest school system, it was announced Wednesday.
The strike was set to begin Tuesday. It was announced at a rally by the Service Employees International Union, which represents about 30,000 teachers’ aides, bus drivers, custodians, cafeteria workers and other support staff.
United Teachers Los Angeles, the union representing 35,000 teachers, counselors and other staff, has advised its members to support SEIU workers by refusing to cross picket lines.
Teachers waged a six-day strike in 2019 over pay and contract issues but schools remained open.
This time, schools would likely close and there wouldn’t be any access to virtual learning, Superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho said in an email to parents on Monday.
“We would simply have no way of ensuring a safe and secure environment where teaching can take place,” Carvalho said.
The district has more than 500,000 students. It serves Los Angeles and all or part of 25 other cities and unincorporated county areas.
SEIU members have been working without a contract since June 2020 and the contract for teachers expired in June 2022. The unions decided last week to stop accepting extensions to their contracts.
The SEIU says district support staffers earn, on average, about $25,000 per year and many live in poverty while struggling with inflation and the high cost of housing in LA County. The union is asking for a 30% raise.
The district has made what it called an historic offer to the SEIU of a $15 wage increase, some of it retroactive, and 9% in retention bonuses.
The district superintendent on Wednesday accused the union of refusing to negotiate and said that he was prepared to meet “day and night” to prevent a strike.
“We are calling on them to come to the table for staff and students, right now,” Carvalho said in a statement.
