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Found at: codevoid.de:70/cnn?/2023/03/21/us/lausd-seiu-local-99-strike


		
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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
School workers in the nation’s second-largest district go on strike,
shutting down schools. Here’s what they want
By Cheri Mossburg and Holly Yan, CNN
Updated:
7:47 PM EDT, Tue March 21, 2023
Source: CNN
A union representing 30,000 Los Angeles school custodians, cafeteria
workers, bus drivers and other support staff has started a three-day
strike with support from the district’s teachers, effectively
stopping classes for more than a in the nation’s second-largest
school system.
Members of Service Employees International Union Local 99 marched in
the cold, predawn rain Tuesday, carrying signs reading, “I voted to
strike for quality schools, better lives!” and “We keep schools
safe respect us!”
The union wants “equitable wage increases, more full-time work,
respectful treatment, and increased staffing levels for improved
student services,” it said. Workers’ average salary is $25,000 a
year, and most work part-time – which has led to staffing shortages,
the union said.
Custodian Jose Tovar said his wages keep him beneath the poverty line.
“We’re not asking for the world but just … to live above
water,” Tovar told CNN affiliate KCBS/KCAL.
The district was shut down by a in 2019, when the demanded smaller
class sizes, more school staffing and higher wages. It followed ,
spurred by and .
Now in Los Angeles, the strike is impacting students and families.
Parent Jenna Schwartz understands the union’s decision, she said.
“We have some of our most underpaid workers doing some of the most
challenging jobs on our campuses,” she told . “They’ve been
negotiating for years, to no avail.”
But parent Mike Bernstein worries about the effects on his children, he
said.
“Ultimately, I feel that they are probably being left behind in a
battle between adults,” he told .
The demands and the offers
The strike comes after nearly a year of unsuccessful negotiations with
the Los Angeles Unified School District. Superintendent Alberto
Carvalho on Monday said classes would be canceled starting Tuesday
after last-minute negotiations – which included new raise offers –
failed.
Members of the Los Angeles schools’ support workers union said they
want:
• A 30% pay raise, plus an additional $2 an hour over next four
years
• Increased employment hours for part-time workers
The latest offers announced by the Los Angeles school district on
Monday included:
• A 23% recurring pay increase, plus a 3% cash-in-hand bonus
• A $20-an-hour minimum wage
• Full health care benefits for those working at least four hours a
day.
United Teachers Los Angeles – a union representing about 30,000
teachers, is participating in a – it said.
Workers ‘struggle to feed our own children’
Union members say they understand the challenges families face when
schools shut down for strikes. Many of the workers are school district
parents, too.
But “we need to make a living wage,” union member Adrian Alverez
told .
“We live in this weird paradox as workers that help feed children and
yet we struggle to feed our own children,” he said. “We help
students go to college, yet we don’t have enough money to send our
kids to college.”
Max Arias, executive director of the local school support workers
union, hopes the strike will help mitigate the daily struggles endured
by workers – and students, he said.
“As LAUSD parents and workers, SEIU Local 99 members know a strike
will be a sacrifice but the school district has pushed workers to take
this action,” the union leader in a statement.
“Families have been sacrificing for far too long on poverty wages.
Students have been sacrificing for too long in school environments that
are not clean, safe or supportive for all.”
Rachel Wagner, whose 9-year-old son goes to school in Encino, said
better pay for the supporting employees would prevent turnover and
staff shortages.
“And at the end of the day, you know, their working conditions are
our child’s learning conditions,” Wagner said.
The district will offer families help by opening 24 grab-and-go food
sites and having 154 schools provide student supervision. Another 120
city-run sites at libraries, recreation centers and other locations
will help supervise children, Carvalho said.
The is also offering free admission for students due to the closures.
And its all-day program for students in kindergarten through 5th grade
added two free “extended care” hours per day.
‘We should not be depriving our students,’ superintendent says
The school district has tried to negotiate in good faith, said
Carvalho, the superintendent.
“Under California law, we cannot drive the school system into a
bankruptcy position. We cannot drive the school system into a red
position. And if we were to acquiesce to all the demands, that is
exactly where we would be, that is not legally allowable,” Carvalho
told CNN.
“We are eagerly awaiting on a counter proposal and we are ready to
put another compelling offer on the table to continue the dialogue.”
If the three-day strike continues as planned, it would be “virtually
impossible” to keep schools open in the district of more than 500,000
students.
“We should not be depriving our students of an opportunity to
learn,” Carvalho told CNN.
But the head of the education workers union said the strike might be
the only way to force change.
“If the district doesn’t realize that our members are valuable …
once they stop working, then nothing’s really gonna change,” Arias
said. “Ultimately, what we’re seeking is improving the schools –
equity in schools. That’s what we’re seeking.”

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