Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) employees began a three-day strike on March 21, closing schools in the country’s second largest district, which serves approximately 420,000 students. The roughly 30,000 workers represented by Local 99 of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) include bus drivers, cafeteria workers, custodians and special education assistants. They are demanding a 30% wage increase in addition to an increase of $2 an hour for the lowest earners and are joined in a solidarity strike by 35,000 teachers, counselors, therapists, nurses and librarians with United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), which is also negotiating its contract. (Disclosure: SEIU is a financial supporter of Capital & Main.)
SEIU Local 99 Executive Director Max Arias told the Los Angeles Times the union aimed to increase members’ average salary from $25,000 to $36,000 a year. After the district received federal COVID-19 funds, it has accumulated nearly $3 billion in unrestricted reserve funds — monies that could be spent at the district’s discretion. Superintendent Alberto Carvalho has said LAUSD needs the dollars as it faces financial “armageddon” with declining enrollment.
