Hundreds of thousands of LA students face strike disruption as pay fight explodes
Hundreds of thousands of public school students in Los Angeles are set to have their education dramatically up-ended after teachers announced a huge strike next month as they go to war for fatter salaries. Educators swarmed Gloria Molina Grand Park on Wednesday for a rally in the shadow of City Hall in downtown LA on seeking higher wages. It follows a breakdown in contract negotiations between three employee unions, including the embattled Los Angeles Unified School District.Speaking from the stage, United Teachers Los Angeles President Cecily Myart-Cruz announced the April 14 strike alongside Max Arias, executive director of Service Employees International Union Local 99.“The message to the public is, stand with educators.Stand with teachers.
Stand with support professionals,” Myart-Cruz told the crowd.“Because one job should be enough, one job should be enough, and we need to get away from the victim shaming of educators.”Union members, she claimed, are “30 years old, still living with their parents because they cannot afford a place to live.We have people that are coming from the Inland Empire, driving all the way down to San Pedro schools, and do that on behalf of the school community, but mostly for our babies.”Teachers at the rally confirmed to the California Post that a strike will lead to “discomfort” for students and their parents. LAUSD is feeling the heat following the dramatic detainment at gunpoint and handcuffing of “morally bankrupt” Superintendent Alberto Carvalho during FBI raids on Feb.
25 at his San Pedro home and at the district’s headquarters.According to the LAUSD website, the second largest school district in the nation “enrolls more than 520,000 students.”“The District covers an area totaling 710 square miles, which includes most of the city of Los Angeles, along with all or portions of 25 cities and unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County.”School psychologist Jimena Del Pozo, 54, who specializes in helpi...