LA schools are closed as workers begin a 3-day strike

The SEIU Local 99 Teacher’s Dilemma and Promises to Boost Schools, Cafeterias, Buses and Other Support Staff

A union representing 30,000 Los Angeles school custodians, cafeteria workers, bus drivers and other support staff will start a three-day strike Tuesday – effectively stopping classes for more than a half million students.

Service Employees International Union members are known as SEIU. Local 99 will walk off the job after nearly a year of negotiations with the Los Angeles Unified School District failed to produce a contract resolution.

The schools would be canceled for students starting Tuesday after last-minute talks didn’t work out.

The SEIU wants a 30% increase in base salary over four years. The district administration has agreed to a 23% raise over a five year period along with bonuses, but the union has not responded to the past three offers.

The union is getting a boost of support from United Teachers Los Angeles – a union representing about 30,000 teachers in the nation’s second-largest school district.

California law does not allow us to force the school system into a bankruptcy position. We cannot drive the school system into a red position. If we acquiesce to all the demands, that would not be allowed by law, said Carvalho.

“We are eagerly awaiting on a counter proposal and we are ready to put another compelling offer on the table to continue the dialogue,” Carvalho said. Considering the consequences to our community, we believe that a strike is not worth it.

Max Arias is the executive Director of SEIU Local 99 and he says nothing will change once members stop working.

“We need to honor the work of our dedicated employees, while respecting the rights of our children to have a quality education, meals, and access to enriching school activities.”

On Monday, while announcing schools would close, the district’s leader said it would give assistance to families, including opening grab- and-go food sites, as well as 154 schools with student supervision and 120 city-run sites.

The Los Angeles Zoo is also offering free admission for students due to the closures and its all-day zoo camp program for students in kindergarten through 5th grade added two free “extended care” hours per day.

The Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent’s walkout over pay, health benefits, and child care: A statement of support from SEIU

“I think that the people who are striking are totally within their right and they should be able to engage in a strike and parents still have resources to be able to take care of their kids, and that shouldn’t be cut off.”

“Families have been sacrificing for far too long on poverty wages. The students have been sacrificing for a long time in school environments that aren’t clean, safe and supportive for all.

The move comes after more than a year of negotiations with the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) and its superintendent, Alberto Carvalho, over pay and health benefits.

“We understand the plight, the frustration and the realities faced by our workforce members,” Carvalho said last night. “We are willing to work with them but the way we find a solution is by having a partner at the table that can actually negotiate possible results.”

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Traditional service employees, like custodians and cafeteria workers, are represented by Local 99. Many of the workers in the district are working part time, with average salaries of $25,000 per year, according to the union.

The Los Angeles Unified School District has 420,000 students and is the second biggest in the country, with most of them from families who live at or below the poverty line.

District officials are working with the city and local volunteers to provide students with breakfasts and lunches, as well as to help families with child care for working parents during the planned three-day walkout.

A wage increase and cap on class sizes are among the demands of the teachers. The district has not given a lot due to its finances.

Carvalho, the former Miami-Dade superintendent who came to Los Angeles 13 months ago, says the district, with its $14.8 billion operating budget – is existing in a financial bubble right now. Enrollment is declining, it’s hard to keep teachers’ positions filled, and in a few years the padding of COVID relief money will be rolled back.

He’s fighting to make sure the district’s finances are protected. Union leaders say they’re protecting their members who, in many cases, struggle to make ends meet despite working jobs that clearly keep LAUSD running.

Los Angeles Unified School District Principals Worker Strike: A Case Study with a Californian, Krob and a 9-year-old

To notify individual professors and inquire about their availability for their two children to attend classes, was something that was done by Krob. He is a graduate student at California State University, Long Beach.

They are one of the parents of the half-million students who are out of school for three days because of the Los Angeles Unified School District school worker strike.

There is a 9-year-old child who has been affected by a strike before. He was in kindergarten during the 2019 LAUSD strike.

It is the same district that shut down for a six-day strike in 2019, when teachers went to the picket lines to fight for smaller class sizes, more staff and an increase in wages.

“My partner is out of sick days for the year already – it’s March – so I am on the whims of whatever professor I have to have my kids come with me,” they said.

From their Los Angeles home, they commute two hours on public transit to get to the university. It has been a challenge doing that with their children in the rain.

“I had to wake up both of them and say, ‘One of you is going to school and the other one is not,” Colton-Medici said. “That was a little bit difficult for one to say, ‘But what do you mean I’m not going to school?’”

There are people in the support staff and the teachers who will talk to their employer to say we need more to take care of ourselves. “In order to do that, they have to take a break from school.”

Her daughter’s teacher provided informational and educational packets to do at home and Colton-Medici is doing her best to act as a fill-in educator – all while running her business from home.

If I had to grades myself on how I balance school and work life, I would give it a 10 and 6 for effort, she said. I know that there will be something I have missed.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/22/us/lausd-parents-staff-strike/index.html

The Armstrong family worked at home on Tuesday morning, but he was home with their son, and she was home to care for their toddler, Colton-Medici

Colton-Medici’s husband is working in the office, but he stayed at home Tuesday morning to care for their older daughter while she took their toddler to her school. She’s grateful she can also call on her mother if she needs backup childcare, especially since she said there was enough advance notice of the strike to make plans.

It’s important for the support staff to be appreciated, according to Colton-Medici, as she feels for them when she sees them. She knows that some of those staffers work as crossing guards and have double duties.

We are pseudo inconvenient, but how do you deal with it by your own child? Colton-Medici said. “I’m just trying to be better, trying to be more of an educator today, in addition to being able to hug my kids because I think that’s really important too.”

The previous strike was tougher for the Armstrongs to deal with, as neither of them were working from home and they needed child care. The son is self-sufficient this time around.

“We’re really lucky because my wife and I, we both work at home,” Armstrong, 47, told CNN. It doesn’t make a big difference in terms of child care and other things, as some of our friends do have to do.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/22/us/lausd-parents-staff-strike/index.html

Putting the Student’s First Literacy to the Test: How Dad and I have a Son, and What I’m Doing

“It’s annoying and we’re sad to see the learning loss for our kids,” Armstrong said. It feels like we have barely even had a spring semester because it is coming on the heels of the holidays and spring break.

Armstrong said the materials sent home from school aren’t directly related to what’s going on in the classroom, so he’s focusing more on spending time with his son and having some of Declan’s friends over to help other parents.

He knows why so many staffers are on the picket lines, and is disappointed that the district and union couldn’t reach a resolution.

He said his son talks fondly about classroom aides who help special needs students and that they make time to help the whole class with projects. He said cafeteria workers are doing good work after feeding so many children.

“There’s a lot of the aides and staff in our schools who really aren’t getting paid much at all and I know how essential they are from what my son tells me about his days in school,” Armstrong said. “I hope they get paid.”