Business

LAUSD Fails to Address Critical Needs in Fifth Bargaining Session

UTLA members in March joined SEIU 99, other labor unions, and community partners to Stand Up and Fight Back for education, health care, housing, and immigrant rights., courtesy UTLA Instagram

The 140-member UTLA Bargaining Team met with LAUSD on April 1, over Zoom for the fifth bargaining session.

LAUSD presented five counterproposals, including reiterating bad proposals that would undermine chapter chairs’ ability to represent members. For a significant portion of the session, UTLA asked why LAUSD’s counterproposals rejected many of UTLA’s reasonable proposals that are important to educators, such as district procedures for responding to school-based traumatic events.

UTLA presented its full package of demands in Sessions 1 and 2; now, five sessions in, LAUSD still has not presented any substantive proposals on urgent issues deeply felt by educators and parents.

UTLA said its contract demands are about stability and sustainability:

Fixing the broken salary schedule and achieving significant pay increases for all UTLA members

Targeted class size reduction and increases in student support staff — additional psychologists, PSWs, PSAs, school counselors, and more

Coverage for prep time in Elementary and Secondary Schools

Increased supports for immigrant students and staff as thousands face the possibility of deportation

Further steps in the fight to convert unused LAUSD property into housing as LA’s housing crisis continues to get worse

Dozens of other specific demands to make the workday more manageable and the career of an educator sustainable

Now, with Trump-Musk trying to dismantle the Department of Education and their most recent threat to cut federal funding to schools that do not eliminate all programs they deem as “unlawful” for promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion, UTLA said it’s even more clear that its contract demands directly resist their agenda.

“We know that nothing LAUSD is doing is “unlawful,” and we will not back down from teaching accurate history and supporting marginalized communities in our schools. UTLA said in a press release. “We also know that what happens at the bargaining table is shaped by the power we build beyond it. While billionaires are trying to dismantle public education and corporate interests are pushing a message of austerity, this is the moment to stand together with the community.

“Tomorrow’s ‘Hands Off!’ Day of Action, next Saturday’s ‘Fighting Oligarchy’ rally with Bernie Sanders and AOC, and UTLA’s May 17 rally to ‘Stop the Trump-Musk Attack on the DoEd’ are part of our broader fight to defend public education and demand that billionaires back off public services that our communities depend on.”