The labor action is occurring in a school district facing an amalgam of post-pandemic challenges that have a stranglehold on the country’s public education system.
Schools are closed at least three days for more than 430,000 students in Los Angeles as bus drivers, cafeteria workers, custodians and other employees go on strike Tuesday in the country’s second-largest school district.The Service Employees International Union Local 99, which represents 30,000 service workers, many of whom were marching in the rain on Tuesday morning as the sun came up, says the strike is not about pay and benefits at all.
Instead, its members are calling foul on supervisors, who they say attempted to prevent members from participating in union meetings about the ongoing contract negotiations and threatened and retaliated against them for doing so. They also take issue with Superintendent Roberto Cavhalo, who took the helm last year and has done little, in their view, to show appreciation for the lengths service workers went to support students when schools were closed for in-person learning during the pandemic – things like delivering meals and internet-connected devices.
The district’s teachers union, the United Teachers Los Angeles, which is separately in contract talks with the district, is joining Local 99 in on its strike in solidarity. In 2019, the teachers union went on strike there for six days.
“During the strike vote and contract bargaining process, the district subjected workers to surveillance, intimidation and harassment,” union officials said in a statement that also charged district leaders with breaking the terms of its confidential mediation process by sharing details of an offer with the media before it shared the offer with the union. “This is just another example of the school district’s continued disrespect of school workers.”
Meanwhile, Carvalho, who never faced a strike in his 14-year tenure as superintendent of Miami-Dade schools, agreed that service workers should be able to make a living wage, seemed ready to green-light a significant pay raise and implored union leaders to come back to the bargaining table.
“Despite our invitation for a transparent, honest conversation that perhaps would result in a meaningful solution that would avoid a strike, we must formally announce that all LAUSD schools will be closed to students tomorrow,” Carvalho said in a statement Monday. “We will be available to have a conversation tonight, early morning and all throughout the day tomorrow.”
“We do not need to debate or mitigate the fact that during the pandemic, kids lost a lot of ground,” he said. “Reading and math proficiency were hit especially hard, particularly kids who are english language learners, students in poverty and students with disabilities. They cannot afford to be out of school and that is why I am appealing directly to the union leadership to engage and negotiate in good faith and find a solution that addresses the needs of all, including our students.”
The Local 99 and district leaders hit an impasse earlier this month during contract negotiations, with union leaders asking for a 30% raise plus a $2/hour “equity wage’ increase, among other things. Instead, the district has offered a one-time 5% bonus for the 2020-21 school year and a 19% raise phased in over the next three school years. Union officials described the offer as “a step forward, but not enough.”
The strike itself is unusual in that it doesn’t center the typical grievances associated with work stoppages – low pay, health care benefits, paid sick leave and generally more support – though those are at the heart of the contract negotiation itself. But it is occurring in a school district facing an amalgam of post-pandemic challenges that have a stranglehold on the country’s public education system: Declining enrollment, academic setbacks, mental health and substance abuse issues, cyberattacks and a general confusion over how to right a sinking ship that’s come under intense public scrutiny and a litany of attacks from Republican lawmakers at the federal, state and local levels.
Enrollment in Los Angeles schools has been spiraling, dropping by 110,000 students, or 6%, in the current school year alone – a trend that many urban school districts are grappling with and one that has significant financial consequences for city districts, which were hit hardest by the pandemic and are already concerned about the fiscal cliff they’re hurtling toward as federal aid runs dry.
“We should not be depriving our students of the opportunity to learn,” Carvalho said in a last-ditch effort to get union leaders to negotiate with the district. “We can find a solution that dignifies our workforce and avoids an unnecessary shutdown of schools while protecting the long term viability of the school system.”