Los Angeles Unified Staff Union Prepares for January Strike

A Los Angeles Unified School District bus in Los Angeles on Sept. 29, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

A union representing thousands of Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) staffers are gearing up for a strike in January, according to union officials.

SEIU Local 99 represents 30,000 LAUSD staff including cafeteria workers, bus drivers, custodians, and special education assistants. A strike could disrupt transportation, breakfast and lunch schedules, and special education classes for the district’s 430,000 students.

The union announced it is seeking third-party mediation with LAUSD in a press release last week after declaring its negotiations for increased pay and full-time hours with district officials have reached an impasse. The union appears to have filed for mediation with the California Public Employment Relations Board Dec. 29, according to board records.

Earlier this month the union also announced plans to hold a strike authorization vote early in 2023, allowing its bargaining team to call for a vote to strike if a contract agreement cannot be reached.

Union Executive Director Max Arias said that striking would be the “last option,” but that the union is “preparing to take strong action.”

“Even though we are hopeful, over the past several months LAUSD has shown no effort to truly move workers out of poverty and address dire staffing shortages in our schools,” Arias said in a Dec. 21 statement.

A spokesperson for LAUSD said in a Dec. 14 statement that negotiations are continuing.

“We are committed to compensating our employees fairly in this current economic environment, while also preserving our ability to provide services to our students in a sustainable manner that promotes lasting student achievement,” the spokesperson said.

Mari Barke, an Orange County Board of Education trustee and a director of education at the nonprofit California Policy Center, told the Epoch Times she believes a strike could cause excessive disruption in schools, leading to more learning loss for students who are still struggling to catch up from the pandemic.

“It would be great to see students’ education as a priority rather than union demands,” she said. “Our students have been through so much over the last few years in addition to the learning loss – a strike could lead to school closures and more classroom time lost.”

Lance Christensen, vice president of Education Policy for California Policy Center, expressed the same concern, especially regarding disruptions a strike could cause regarding students’ transportation, meals and clean schools.

“If you disrupt all those pieces, there’s no way that teachers can teach in that circumstance,” Christensen told the Epoch Times. “It’s a coordinated effort between the teachers [union] and SEIU to make this happen to drive up the demand for whatever things they want.”

Christensen added that the “staff shortage” at LAUSD is likely due to the district’s mass layoff of unvaccinated employees last November – where the district fired 800 staff members for non-compliance with its employee vaccine mandate.

“The staff shortage [happened when] LAUSD fired a whole bunch of people for not getting a vaccination,” he said. “That was a big piece of it.”

The union’s proposal requests “good wage increases”—though it does not specify amounts—with increases at the 10th year and includes a so-called “Me Too” clause—meaning if any other LAUSD bargaining unit receives a wage increase, the union would receive one as well.

Other benefits the union is seeking are full-time hours, pay for mandatory training and certifications required for work, no split shifts, and substitute relief for absent coworkers. It also requests the district notify and bargain with the union before changing schedules and hours.

Currently, LAUSD is offering a 5 percent increase or $1.50 per hour for 2022–23, whichever is greater, and a one-time 4 percent bonus. For the following year, the district offered the same pay increase, and a five percent one-time bonus, according to the union.

The district has also offered an additional $2 per hour for special education assistants.