The United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) union and Local 99 service workers have announced that they will go on strike on April 14 if no contract deal is reached before then, which will effectively shut down schools for at least a day.
“The district needs to make salaries more equitable,” said Adriana Chavira, journalism teacher and DPMHS Student Media advisor who serves as a liaison for the teachers’ union. “Los Angeles is expensive, it’s definitely hard for newer teachers to live off of what the district pays.”
The last time LA teachers went on strike was in January 2019 for six days. The union requests a 17% pay increase for teachers over two years, the reversal of plans to lay off up to 657 members of staff, and more equitable pay for Career Technical Education (CTE) teachers. LAUSD CTE educators are professionals who teach specialized professional skills like healthcare and culinary arts to students ranging from middle school to high school. Local 99 members, which include workers like bus drivers, cafeteria workers and custodians, are asking for a 12.6% wage increase over a two-year contract and stable work schedules. In addition, the union is requesting for increased staffing for more social workers and school psychologists, smaller class sizes and healthcare benefits.
While California has a much higher teacher pay than the rest of America, Axios reports that California teachers still struggle with things like finding housing. In particular, new teachers and CTE teachers get paid much less than educators who have taught for longer with credentials.
“Most people don’t know this, but we’re on a very different pace scale, so we get paid quite a bit less,” CTE video production teacher Tennessee Norton said.
Students face the possibility of losing multiple days of instruction, which could range from as short as a day of school shutdown to as long as multiple weeks. In the past few months, other school districts faced multiple-day shutdowns, including the San Francisco Unified School District’s closure of all schools in February due to the Twin Rivers Unified teacher’s union 12-day strike. Important events such as standardized tests are generally scheduled to take place between March and May. If the UTLA and Local 99 unions strike for multiple days, it is possible that students will take these tests without the instruction of their everyday teachers.
“I would really use the day(s) to just catch up on work or just get ahead of work,” freshman David Yerdtsyam said. “Just get ahead of school.”
The LAUSD Board of Education and teacher union representatives are currently trying to reach a compromise to avoid a strike. In a meeting regarding the potential strike, Acting Superintendent Andres E. Chait talked about wanting to reach a compromise and the district’s responsibility for its employees to be compensated fairly but also to maintain financial stability. Scott M. Schmerelson and other Board members have opposed the possibility of a strike.
“Nobody wins when a strike happens at LAUSD,” Board President Scott M. Schmerelson said during the meeting.
