LAUSD teachers union members authorize strike, ratcheting up pressure on contract talks

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Members of United Teachers Los Angeles have voted overwhelmingly to authorize their leadership to call a strike, ratcheting up pressure as negotiations stall and L.A.Unified warns of likely staff layoffs and future budget deficits.

A similar strike-authorization vote by the school system’s other largest union, Local 99 of Service Employees International Union, is scheduled to begin next week.The UTLA vote count was 94% in favor of the strike authorization and announced early Saturday morning.The union is focused on an immediate 16% raise for new teachers, an across-the-board 3% raise in the contract’s second year and significant automatic pay hikes tied to years of experience and continued education.The district is offering 2.5% for the first year of a three year contract; 2% the next, plus a 1% one-time bonus..

“The current salary schedule is so low that thousands of LAUSD educators qualify as low-income for affordable housing,” the union said in a recent statement.Thousands of teachers more “are barely getting by just above the median income, living paycheck to paycheck after decades working for the district,” the union statement said.For speech therapist Kyoko Bristow, who works with elementary-school students in Boyle Heights and East L.A., a key issue is staffing ratios.“I love my job.

I love my students.We all do,” Bristow said.

But there are students who are not receiving speech therapy, who need it, and a lot of students who are receiving just some of the services that they need to access their education.And that’s not right, especially when the district has billions in reserves.” California Declining enrollment and an uncertain budget picture cloud the future for L.A.

Unified as contract talks continue with employee unions.Layoffs are likely.She’s also concerned that compensation has fallen too far behind the cost of living, making it hard to ...