School Office Staffers Stage One-Day Sickout
Nearly two-thirds of the secretaries and office clerks who staff Los Angeles’ public schools skipped work Tuesday to protest what they called an inadequate pay hike offer from the school district.
The one-day sickout left many campuses shorthanded and forced teachers and administrators to double up on duties.
Members of the California School Employees Assn. want a 15.1% increase in pay and benefits over one year.
The Los Angeles Unified School District is offering 9.8% in pay and benefits in the first year, with an additional 4% pay hike the next year.
Union leaders complain that the district is offering a smaller pay and benefits package than those granted to teachers and administrators earlier this year.
The leaders say their 6,800 members face increasingly heavy workloads amid poor working conditions.
About 4,000 of the union’s members skipped work Tuesday, and more than 2,000 of them marched on school district headquarters downtown.
Union leaders and district officials were scheduled to resume negotiations today.
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