LOS ANGELES — A massive three-day strike calling for better wages and working conditions for some of Los Angeles public schools’ lowest paid employees — bus drivers, custodians, special education assistants and others — kicked off early Tuesday, with picketers marching through the dark, rainy morning.
Those striking school employees, joined in solidarity by the teachers union, shuttered the nation’s second-largest school system after last-minute efforts to avert the strike failed, disrupting learning, vital meal services and the daily lives of 420,000 children and their families.
By 5 a.m., when school bus drivers typically begin their day, hundreds of district employees joined the picket line at the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Van Nuys bus yard, marching in rain ponchos and balancing signs with their umbrellas.
