LAUSD strike: Day 3 dawns with less rain, more pickets; can Mayor Bass help cut deal?

For the third day in a row, picketers chanted before dawn at a Los Angeles Unified School District bus yard — this time, it was the BD Bus Yard on 17th Street — as the Service Employees International Union Local 99 strike again humbled the nation’s second-largest school district on Thursday, March 23.

The projected three-day walkout would end Friday, union officials said, when 30,000 bus drivers, cafeteria workers, custodians, instructional aides and special education assistants would return to work.

Thousands of workers returned to picket lines at schools across the city on Friday morning, hungry for news of an agreement after three days of rallying without pay through rain, hail, wind and shine.

“There was a point for this and there should should be results,” said Denise Robledo a long-term substitute teacher at Avalon Elementary STEAM Academy.

But there was no still sign of an agreement, despite L.A. Mayor Karen Bass jumping into the labor dispute on Wednesday.

Negotiations will continue, with Bass’ office saying the mayor “will continue to work privately with all parties to reach an agreement to reopen the schools and guarantee fair treatment of all LAUSD workers.”

Max Arias, Executive Director of SEIU Local 99 issued the following statement: “We are grateful that the Mayor has stepped in to provide leadership in an effort to find a path out of our current impasse. Education workers have always been eager to negotiate as long as we are treated with respect and bargained with fairly, and with the Mayor’s leadership we believe that is possible.”

Related: LAUSD strike: School closures may harm students’ progress – but also be a teachable moment

The district thanked Bass for her involvement and assured parent it was doing “everything possible” to arrive at a deal.

A statement said the district was striving to “reach an agreement that honors the hard work of our employees, corrects historic inequities maintains the financial stability of the district and brings students back to the classroom,” stated the district on Wednesday. “We are hopeful these talks continue and look forward to updating our school community on a resolution.

In the northeast corner of the district more than 50 workers gathered at San Fernando’s Cesar Chavez Learning Academy. In this low-income, primarily industrial area, the constant sound of honking trucks reverberated through the picket line, but workers paid little heed as they chanted, clapped and danced to salsa music.

Elivia Sabia, a special-education assistant, said that the district’s low pay has driven her to the picket line for the past three days. She has two sons and took out sizable loans to help put them through college while living paycheck-to-paycheck herself.

“Inflation is going up and it makes life hard,” Sabia said. “They need to increase our salaries and we know they can do it. Kids are the future and we (SEIU workers) support them but we can barely support our own families.”

About 36 miles away, in the sliver of the City of L.A. sandwiched between Gardena and Compton, workers rallied at the Avalon Gardens Elementary & STEAM Academy. Avalon Gardens is one of the oldest public housing projects in the city and many of its low-income residents send their children to this school.

LAUSD teachers and staff are marching in front of Avalon Gardens Elementary & STEAM Academy on the third day of the @LASchools strike. #LAUSDStrike @ladailynews pic.twitter.com/kJ8Mncfdif

— Christina Merino (@christinam_love) March 23, 2023

“We want to get what we work for, we want to get what we deserve and for us to get back to our students,” said Tawanda Evans, a special-education assistant who has been with the district for 27 years.

Meanwhile, there would be no classes again Thursday for 420,000-plus LAUSD students, with the district continuing to offer more than 150 student supervision and food distribution sites in partnership with the city. County parks and libraries were also offering activities and food.

The district and SEIU Local 99  have been in contract negotiations for a year without reaching a resolution. SEIU workers have been working without a contract since June 2020. The union declared an impasse in negotiations in December, leading to the appointment of a state mediator.

Related: What is the living wage LAUSD workers are striking for? 

Strikers have been rallying despite persistent rain that soaked picket lines. The weather was expected to improve on Thursday, with only a small chance of morning showers.

On Tuesday, SEIU began the three-day strike demanding higher pay, more reliable hours and a crackdown against workplace harassment. The pickets endured into Wednesday and schools remained closed.

The strike is the first major labor disruption for the district since members of the teachers’ union, United Teachers Los Angeles, went on strike for six days in 2019. This time around the demands of SEIU are at the forefront of the strike with UTLA workers walking off the job in solidarity.

“SEIU workers are the first ones who smile at kids in the morning and the last ones who leave at night, so it really makes me angry that they’re underpaid and disrespected” said UTLA chapter chair Joshua Rauh, at a Friday morning picket line.

Throughout the strike, LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho has pleaded with labor leaders to return to the bargaining table.

“I understand our employees’ frustration that has been brewing, not just for a couple of years but for a couple of decades,” Carvalho said in a Tuesday statement. “And it is on the basis of recognizing historic inequities that we have put on the table a historic proposal. This offer addresses the needs and concerns from the union, while also remaining fiscally responsible and keeping the district in a financially stable position.”

According to the district, LAUSD last week made an offer that included a 5% wage increase retroactive to July 2021, another 5% increase retroactive to July 2022 and another 5% increase effective July 2023, along with a 4% bonus in 2022-23 and a 5% bonus in 2023-24.

On Monday, Carvalho said the district sweetened the offer to an overall 23% salary increase, along with a 3% “cash-in-hand bonus.”

The union, however, has been pushing for a 30% pay raise, with an additional boost for the lowest-paid workers. They are calling on Carvalho to dip into the district’s $5 billion reserve fund to help fund this wage increase.

During a rally Tuesday, union leaders lashed out at LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, accusing him of “union busting” and trying to conduct labor negotiations in public rather than at the bargaining table. They also accused the district of woefully underpaying its service workers, saying those employees earn an average of $25,000 a year.

“Let me be clear, the district has approximately between a $13 billion and $14 billion budget a year,” Arias told the crowd at the rally. “Out of that budget, it spends between 5% and 6% on payroll for 40% of the workforce. That’s negligible.”

UTLA President Cecily Myart-Cruz had fiery words for Carvalho, accusing him of short-changing workers and refusing to bargain privately with workers, and saying the district had ample time to negotiate a fair deal but failed to do so.

“He makes more than the president of the United States of America at $440,000,” she said. “Bargain with the members.”

Tuesday afternoon, thousands of union members amassed outside LAUSD headquarters near downtown Los Angeles for another boisterous rally. The LAUSD Board of Education had previously been scheduled to meet Tuesday afternoon, but the session was canceled late Monday.

Carvalho issued a statement Tuesday again saying he and the district remain prepared to return to negotiations at any time “so we can provide an equitable contract to our hardworking employees and get our students back in classrooms.”

Update from Los Angeles Unified pic.twitter.com/Vh8rXnWCL6

— Los Angeles Unified (@LASchools) March 23, 2023

“I understand our employees’ frustration that has been brewing, not just for a couple of years, but probably for decades,” he said.

“And it is on the basis of recognizing historic inequities that we have put on the table a historic proposal. This offer addresses the needs and concerns from the union, while also remaining fiscally responsible and keeping the district in a financially stable position.”

The standoff between the district and SEIU has been riddled with accusations of unfair labor and bargaining practices.

The LAUSD on Friday filed a legal challenge with the state Public Employment Relations Board seeking an injunction that would halt the strike, claiming the union’s walkout was illegal. Over the weekend, however, the PERB denied the district’s request for injunctive relief because it did not find “the extraordinary remedy of seeking injunctive relief to be met at this juncture,” according to the LAUSD.

But, according to the district, the PERB did direct its Office of General Counsel to expedite the processing of the district’s underlying unfair practice charge against SEIU Local 99, which alleged that the union and its members were engaging in an unlawful three-day strike.

The union has repeatedly accused the district of engaging in unfair labor practices, saying union members have been subjected to harassment and intimidation tactics during an earlier strike-authorization vote and as the possible walkout neared.

Carvalho on Monday acknowledged those accusations, but said there is a process for investigating such claims, and “it takes time.” He said the union was using those allegations as an “expedited way of creating a strike opportunity.”

The district on Friday announced the creation of a website at achieve.lausd.net/schoolupdates which will “provide resources for families during the work stoppage period” from Tuesday through Thursday. According to the district, the site has information on “learning activities, Grab & Go food locations, tutoring services, enrichment activities and cultural opportunities across Los Angeles and Los Angeles County park locations that will provide free youth programs.” The district also established a hotline at 213-443-1300 , operating between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.

In addition to the park programs, the Los Angeles Zoo will be offering free admission for students. The Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County will also offer students free admission as long as the strike persists. The Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Museum of Tolerance is offering free admission to LAUSD middle and high school students and chaperones during the strike.

City News Service contributed to this report