L.A. schools shut down as staff begin 3-day strike
Tens of thousands of workers in the Los Angeles Unified School District walked off the job Tuesday over stalled contract talks, and they were joined by teachers in a three-day strike that shut down the nation’s second-largest school system.
Demonstrations began at a bus yard 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 workers and other support staff.
The workers joined picket lines in a steady rain before dawn, demanding better wages and increased staff- ing. Some held signs that read “We keep schools safe, Respect Us!”
The district has more than 500,000 students from Los Angeles and all or part of 25 other cities and unincorpo- rated county areas. Nearly three-quarters are Latino.
Parent Danielle Peters rallied with union members outside Hancock Park Elemen- tary School, along with her children, Jack, 10, and Ella, 7. She said it’s wrong that school workers earn as little as $15 an hour, a wage Peters remembers earning for babysitting.
“They are underappreciated, they are underpaid, and they have the most important job in the world,” she said of support staff. “We care about them, and this is the least we can do.”
Leaders of United Teachers Los Angeles, the union representing 35,000 educators, counselors and other staff, pledged solidarity with the strikers.
“These are the coworkers that are the lowest-paid workers in our schools and we cannot stand idly by as we consistently see them disrespected and mistreated by this district,” UTLA President Cecily Myart-Cruz told a news conference.
On the picket lines, Danielle Murray, a special education assistant, told KABC-TV working conditions have been declining every year.
SEIU members have been working without a contract since June 2020, while the contract for teachers expired in June 2022. The unions decided last week to stop accepting extensions to their