Tens of thousands of Los Angeles school personnel initiated their three-day strike, which resulted in the closure of hundreds of campuses and the cancellation of classes for around 422,000 schoolchildren.
To cover the high cost of living in Southern California, the Service Employees International Union Local 99 (SEIU), which represents 30,000 support workers employed by the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), is asking for a 30% salary raise, according to The New York Times.
Early on Tuesday morning, as rain poured down on the whole city, the strike got underway at a bus park in the San Fernando Valley, north of downtown Los Angeles.
United Teachers Los Angeles, representing 30,000 teachers, will support LAUSD workers' union demonstrations and strikes this week.
Following the failure of last-minute discussions, which included fresh increase proposals, Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said that classes will be canceled for pupils beginning Tuesday.
The SEIU demands "respectful treatment, more full-time" employment, and "increased staffing levels for improved student services", as per a CNN report.
The union noted staffing difficulties are due to workers' average annual income of $25,000 and part-time employment tenures.
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LAUSD Negotiations With Union Strike Failed
On Friday, the LAUSD asked the state Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) for an injunction to stop the strike, arguing that the union's intended walkout was unconstitutional.
The district sought injunctive action over the weekend, but the PERB rejected it because it did not believe "the extraordinary remedy of seeking injunctive relief to be met at this juncture," per the LAUSD.
The district said that the PERB directed its Office of General Counsel to accelerate the district's unfair practice accusation against SEIU Local 99, which asserted that they were participating in an illegal three-day strike, as reported by ABC 7.
The union had frequently accused the LAUSD of using unfair labor practices, claiming that union members were the targets of harassment and intimidation during a previous vote to authorize a strike and when a potential walkout drew closer.
Over the weekend, there was some back and forth between the district and the union, but nothing came of it.
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