Tens of thousands of Los Angeles school district workers have been on strike for three days MARIO TAMA (Getty Images via AFP)
The rain didn’t interrupt the start of the strike in America’s second largest school district. Hundreds of teachers lined up outside their Los Angeles schools this Tuesday to demand better wages and conditions for public school employees who aren’t in the classroom but whose jobs are essential to the centers’ running: the drivers, guards, janitors , special educational assistants and canteen workers. The protest, backed by the teachers union, leaves 420,000 minors without classes for three days.
About 20 teachers protested early this morning at a school in the Baldwin Hills neighborhood of south Los Angeles. In one hand the teachers held an umbrella to protect themselves from the rain. In the other they had the placards with the main demand of the protest. “We want respect,” was the message found in both English and Spanish in many of the 1,000 schools that suspended activities from today through Thursday.
“We refuse to be invisible, we refuse to be silenced. We are ready to fight and we are proud that the teachers have joined us in a gesture of solidarity. United we will all triumph,” said Conrado Guerrero, the leader of Section 99 of the Services Union, who called the strike this morning.
The protest erupted because negotiations between the Los Angeles Unified School District and Section 99, which brings together some 30,000 public school workers in the greater city, broke down. The organization has not signed a new collective bargaining agreement in three years and is targeting a 30% wage increase and $2 an hour for the lowest paid employees. Some of the employees said that in more than 20 years of employment, they have not seen their wages increase by more than $10 an hour in a city where life is becoming increasingly expensive.
The best offer came on Friday, when the district offered a 5% increase over its original proposal of a 19% increase. This was refused, threatening the closure of the schools for three days. At the same time, but in parallel, the more than 20,000 teachers who are members of the school union are negotiating a 20 percent increase in their salaries.
The Superintendent, Alberto Carvalho, has indicated through a statement that he seeks to resume dialogue with the section in order to reach an agreement that can satisfy both sides. “I understand the frustration of our employees, which is building not just in a few years, but probably for decades. Based on the recognition of historic inequalities, we have put this historic offer on the table,” said Carvalho, who took office in February last year and immediately inherited a difficult-to-solve crisis. The Superintendent has admitted the offer seeks to balance his commitment to the less fortunate workers in the system and his financial responsibility at the helm of the organisation.
The mobilization of workers has become a magnet for the political ambitions of some. Congressman Adam Schiff, who is trying to reach the Senate to fill the vacancy left by Dianne Feinstein, was seen in Los Angeles this morning to demonstrate his support for the labor movement. “The average income of our bus drivers, cafeteria workers and classroom assistants is $25,000 per year ($2,083 per month). Who can live with that? they are poverty wages,” the Democrat said at a news conference.
The strike has disrupted hundreds of thousands of families whose daily routine has been disrupted by the union demonstration. The vast majority of the schools that have closed their doors, between 75% and 80% of the total, serve less advantaged Latino or black communities. Children of immigrants who work two jobs or more come to survive. Or the opposite, unemployed or absent parents living on state support.
District authorities feared the strike would result in thousands of children starving during the 72-hour demonstration. Typically, schools serve 300,000 breakfasts, 285,000 lunches and up to 70,000 dinners for the district’s school population. The city council has offered to fill the void left by the strike by offering tens of thousands of boxes of food in the coming days. Food will be available for families to pick up from 7:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. at 24 locations around the city.
This is the second teachers’ strike in California in less than a year. Last year nearly 50,000 academic staff at the country’s main universities went on strike for more than 10 days, waiting for better wages and working conditions. The strike consisted of doctoral researchers and general researchers from institutions in Berkley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz. The lack of good conditions has hit not only the academic leadership, but also the base of the pyramid.