L.A. SCHOOLS SHUT DOWN FOR 3-DAY STRIKE
The start of a massive three-day strike led by the lowest-paid public school workers and supported by teachers shut down Los Angeles campuses Tuesday amid a fierce morning storm, sent parents scrambling for child care and meals and brought thousands of picketers to campuses and a boisterous afternoon rally downtown.
The strike culminated a monthslong buildup of labor tensions in the nation’s second-largest school district. Bus drivers, custodians, special education assistants, cafeteria workers — all members of Local 99 of the Service Employees International Union — have been negotiating with the district, demanding a 30 percent salary increase, plus $2 more per hour for the lowest-paid employees.
Last-ditch efforts to avert the walkout failed late Monday, setting the stage for the strike. No new talks are scheduled. Superintendent Alberto Carvalho pleaded with employees to come back to the bargaining table Tuesday.
But the resolve among frustrated union members and their leaders — and the terms of the district’s latest offer — could not overcome the momentum to strike. The walkout, which is planned for three days only, is technically a protest over alleged unfair labor practices by the school district.
Max Arias, executive director of Local 99, said the decision to walk off the job was the “workers’ last resort” after almost a year of bargaining for better wages. The union’s goal has been to raise the average annual wage of members to $36,000.
“We’ve had enough of empty promises,” Arias said from Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools in Koreatown. “If LAUSD truly values and is serious about reaching an agreement, they must show workers the respect they deserve.”
In the 5 a.m. darkness, when bus drivers typically begin their day, hundreds of district employees joined the picket line at the Los Angeles Unified School District’s
Van Nuys bus yard, marching in rain ponchos and balancing signs with umbrellas. Starting at 6:30 a.m., picketers converged at schools throughout the sprawling district as heavy rain soaked them.
By mid-afternoon, redclad members of United Teachers Los Angeles and SEIU local members, swathed in purple clothing, surrounded L.A. Unified headquarters.
Banging noisemakers and ringing bells, they called on Carvalho to negotiate. Some held signs portraying the superintendent as a “Miami Vice”-type character, a reference to his past job as leader of the Miami-Dade school district.