Los Angeles (USA) (EFE) days convened by staff from public educational centers, who ask for better wages and working conditions.
Bus drivers, janitors, assistants for students with special needs and cafeteria workers at 1,000 Los Angeles area colleges are demanding a 30% pay increase and an extra $2 an hour for the lowest-paid employees.
Grouped in the Local 99 section of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the 30,000 workers on strike consider a rise necessary to deal with the increase in the cost of living experienced in the city in recent years.
The reasons for the school strike
Local 99 negotiated unsuccessfully with the School District until late yesterday afternoon after also sitting down together last week, when the best and latest offer came through: a cumulative 23% increase on workers’ payrolls since 2020.
“The School District considered us essential workers during the pandemic, but it seems that they have forgotten about it,” said Conrado Guerrero, president of Local 99, during a march held this Tuesday in downtown Los Angeles where he added that currently “negotiations are stagnant”.
For his part, the Superintendent of the School District, Alberto Carvalho, issued a statement today in which he indicated that they will seek to resume dialogue, but stressed that last week’s proposal was already a “historic offer” that recognized “the great sacrifices of this group of employees”.
The schools of the school district on strike serve 300,000 breakfasts and 285,000 lunches to Latino and African-American students from less favored communities, who will receive food at 24 points in the city organized by the City Council to meet their needs while the class cut lasts.
The United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) union, which brings together 35,000 teachers, showed its solidarity and has also joined this strike, while negotiating a 20% salary increase in two years, starting with 10% for the current course.
SEIU members have been working without a contract since June 2020, and the faculty’s agreement expired in June 2022.
The current strike represents the longest interruption of activity in the classrooms of the second school system in the country after the six-day strike carried out by teachers in 2019.
