SAN PEDRO–On Day 1 of the LAUSD strike, about 30 people braved the rains and inclement weather to picket outside San Pedro High School, including teachers and workers who are members of the SEIU Local 99.
Dwayne Loughridge and other members of SEIU Local 99 said they were out there to make sure that everyone gets a fair rate wage.
“One of the major things that we’re looking for is the 30% increase plus $2 an hour increase across-the-board adjustment,” Loughridge explained.
He noted there are times that we have even been asked on accelerated days to work and if you do not work then you’re not allowed to receive any form of payment.
“We cannot be treated as secondary citizens,” Loughridge said. “If there are no cafeteria workers, how would the children be fed? If there are no individuals that clean the campus, what would our campuses look like? If there are no campus aides to supervise to make sure there is safety and if there are no bus drivers for those who need transportation, how will the individuals get here? There are people who have families who have been part-time for quite some time.”
Loughridge is a 12-year district employee and has been at San Pedro High School for the past two years.
“I’ve worked with teachers here who go beyond to make sure that our children have the necessities they need because that’s what we do,” he explained. “We’re doing what we do because we do care and we want to make sure our children have the best and not less.”
SEIU Local 99 accused the school district of subjecting its members to threats, harassment, surveillance, and interrogation about their participation in union activities. The union said dozens of unfair labor practices have been filed with the California Public Employment Relations Board against LAUSD’s unlawful activity, with more pending. A search of the employment relations board’s website has found at least one complaint which the board has ruled this past year.
The union also alleged that a member of the SEIU Local 99 bargaining team was also given a poor performance review for attending too many union meetings.
In April 2022, the school district approved a calendar for the 2022-23 school year that included an extra week’s worth of optional class time. The idea behind the plan was to give extra help to students who were struggling with school. District administrators expected at the time — correctly — that state testing would show a drop in district scores this fall, a consequence of two years of interrupted, pandemic-era learning.
The four “acceleration days” were designed as optional, which allowed administrators to avoid negotiations for a longer school year with the teachers union, United Teachers Los Angeles. UTLA took issue with that approach, threatening a boycott of the first acceleration day.
The new plan represents a compromise between UTLA and LAUSD leaders: The district will still hold the acceleration days, but on the first two days of both winter break and spring break, not on Wednesdays throughout the course of the year.
The compromise between LAUSD and the teachers, however, was not endorsed by SEIU Local 99, the district’s second-largest union, which represents many non-teaching employees in the school system. Local 99 objected, saying it supported the original calendar and resented the last-minute change to their work schedules, hence, the union’s accusation that the District is treating them as second-class citizens.
When the SEIU Local 99 agreed to authorize a strike, UTLA supported them.
San Pedro High School teacher, Maya Suzuki Daniels, and picketer at San Pedro High School said she was really proud of UTLA standing in solidarity with the SEIU.
“I think if there’s one thing we learned from the pandemic, it is how much people are connected to each other and there is nowhere that is truer than in our schools,” Daniels said. “When we were getting ready to come back to school in the Spring of 2021, SEIU members enabled everyone to return to school. They went in first. They were there cleaning, and disinfecting everything.”
They’re the ones that do the work to make sure that teachers can teach,” Daniels explained. When rumors started spreading that the SEIU might go on strike, the first thing that was appalling to many people across Los Angeles and the entire United States, was how little these workers are paid ($24,000/year average) and to call them essential [workers] for years and then disrespect them with those kinds of wages?
“You see labor shortages in other industries and wages increase and that’s just the basic fundamental rule of capitalism,” Daniels explained. “Wages have not increased for these essential workers but the cost of everything else has increased and so we’re asking them to come to do these incredibly difficult jobs; to care for students that are really struggling, deeply traumatized from their time away from school and we’re asking them to do it often for nothing or on their own time or because they care.”
Daniels said she didn’t think it was fair to ask people to come care for someone else’s children if they can’t take care of their own.
“I’m really proud of UTLA for being out here because we absolutely need their labor,” Daniels said. “When something goes wrong in our classrooms, if someone is bleeding in our classrooms if there is a rumor of a gun on campus they are the very first people on the scene and they often know the kids… This is a very significant act of solidarity by the UTLA which shows the strength and commitment of the UTLA especially coming out of the last strike.”
The San Pedro High School pickets said that many in the community are behind them in this fight.
“I know from some that I’ve spoken to this week … that many of the parents and a lot of the students are behind us saying, ‘we appreciate what you all do,’” Loughridge said. “I believe there’s a majority support…When people know that you care, then they’ll do what they need to do…I believe that what needs to be done is more hours for people needing hours. We do what we do because we love to but, it would help to have more staffing.”
Maya Suzuki Daniels: “Similar to SEIU. I think I would be remiss if I did not address the need for a wage increase. That’s something that we just haven’t seen even though the cost to rent has skyrocketed, the cost of food, the cost of gas. Many of our teachers are driving incredibly long distances to come to work…I think we want to be able to live in our communities, be part of our communities. We know that communities are stronger and healthier when we can be part of them and go to the athletic events and be here for the kids and see them around in the neighborhood and build relationships with families.”
“So I don’t want to say that it’s all about money because it’s never all about money. When you’re a teacher, that’s not why you’re doing it, but that is incredibly important. I think other things are some of the basic necessities that kids need in order to survive and thrive…Lowering the counseling ratios in our schools, making sure we have a nurse, especially after a pandemic at every school site (an unfulfilled demand of the last strike, agreed to by LAUSD), to lower class sizes. My husband is currently covering for a class that has almost 40 students in it; and these are things that when I talk to people who are educators and other parts of the country, they’re appalled that we teach in such conditions.” Both SEIU and UTLA are incredibly understaffed and the parents feel it and administrators feel it but nobody’s actually taking any action so because we’re the ones who have to bear the brunt of those labor shortages every day it’s time for us to do something.”