L.A. school strike to end, but no deal announced

A three-day strike by workers in the Los Angeles Unified School District was scheduled to wrap up Thursday, but it wasn’t clear if any progress was made in negotiations for higher pay for teachers’ aides, bus drivers, custodians and other support staff in the nation’s second-largest school system.

Teachers joined the picket lines in solidarity, shutting down instruction for the district’s half-million students during the walkout by members of Local 99 of the Service Employees International Union, which represents about 30,000 of the lowest-paid school workers. Support staffers earn, on average, about $25,000 a year in Los Angeles, barely enough to get by in one of the most expensive cities in America.

Mayor Karen Bass stepped in as mediator Wednesday after district Superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho accused the union of refusing to negotiate.

Max Arias, executive director of SEIU Local 99, said the union was grateful that Bass was helping “find a path out of our current impasse.” There was no indication Thursday how the arbitration was going.

“Education workers have always been eager to negotiate as long as we are treated with respect and bargained with fairly, and with the mayor’s leadership we believe that is possible,” Arias said.

Carvalho has called the school district’s offer “historic.” It includes a cumulative 23 percent raise, starting with 2 percent retroactive as of the 2020-21 school year and ending with 5 percent in 2024-25. The package would also give a one-time 3 percent bonus to those who have been on the job more than a year. It would also add more full-time positions and expand health care benefits.

The union has said employees would return to work on Friday.