LAUSD staff & teachers Rally for Better Pay

Members of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 99 are holding a three-day strike from March 21 to March 23 following failed negotiations with Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Superintendent Alberto Carvalho. They are joined by United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) in solidarity.

Over 60,000 teachers and staff are taking part in demanding an increase in worker wages and benefits. SEIU members, which includes bus drivers, cafeteria workers and custodians, said that many of the workers earn below the federal poverty level and face homelessness as they struggle to put food on the table. They are demanding a 30 percent pay raise and an extra $2 per hour over the next several years.

“LAUSD is responding poorly,” said

Samantha Sparks, an art teacher at Hollywood High School. “They are not meeting us in the middle, the superintendent is radio silent.”

The unions previously rallied at Grand Park and in front of Los Angeles City Hall on Wednesday, March 15, where they announced the dates for this week’s strike.

“You can literally go work at a retail place and make $22 to $24 an hour … and they're paying us $16 to start,” said Conrado Guerrero, President of SEIU Local 99.

With UTLA and SEIU coming together to express their vexations over the 30 percent pay raise with Carvalho, they addressed the $4.9 billion that LAUSD has in reserves. Many teachers and educational workers expressed outrage with Carvalho offering up onetime bonuses with a nine present raise, as well as the superintendent’s own pay raise of 28 percent.

“He got a 90,000 dollar raise for himself on his first day, but yet he's refusing to increase SEIU salary,” said teacher Rosalba Barajas.

With many voicing their concerns after being unable to work from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, UTLA Treasurer Alex Orozco said many workers feel overwhelmed and deserving of a raise.

“You know, I believe that according to the data that even if they were to win everything they're asking for, they still would be under the poverty federal lines,” said Orozco. “So we weren’t essential then and now we’re like, not essential as well.”

The pandemic has heavily impacted and overwhelmed many of the educational workers as they face low wages, fewer benefits, in addition to the lack of employment during and after the pandemic.

“And so ever since the pandemic, the staffing issues have gotten so bad and our superintendent, ‘Mr. Armani,’ he's lying through his teeth about vacancies,” said Ankur Patel, substitute teacher at Olive Vista Middle School.

Patel said the workforce in LAUSD are overworked and underpaid as classroom conditions continue to diminish while class sizes increase, with seemingly no support coming from the district.

“Teacher working conditions are student learning conditions,” Patel said. “We're not getting the resources we need and LAUSD is sitting on billions of dollars and not acting in a way that's best for the youth.”