LAUSD strike averted, parents express relief as classes continue uninterrupted

Union leaders — who represented teachers, support staff and administrators — celebrated their tentative agreements alongside the city of Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass and L.A. Unified officials Tuesday morning.

“I stand here before you today as your mayor but also as a proud LAUSD graduate, parent and grandparent,” Bass said. “I was very happy to hear that my grandson was going to school.”

She thanked the union leadership and their members, calling them the backbone of student’s educational path at LAUSD campuses.

“It’s been a long night and it’s been a long few weeks of negotiations but our schools are open, our kids are in class and school workers are on the job caring for and shaping the minds of our future,” Bass said to the crowd.

When union leaders took to the podium, their congratulatory messages focused on the work to stabilize union member’s pay to better reflect the cost of living in the communities they serve.

With inflation remaining high and economic uncertainty looming this victory ensures that educators can afford to stay in their neighborhoods and live closer to their jobs and continue teaching in the schools that they are a part of, said Cecily Myart-Cruz, United Teachers Los Angeles president.

“This means the resources will begin to be redirected toward our babies and the classrooms that need them the most,” Myart-Cruz said.

She called herself, “a product of this district.”

“I’m a parent, and I do the crossing guard at my alma mater, my son’s school, every single day,” Myart-Cruz said.

She thanked the parents for their patience, saying, “It’s important the work we do, but it doesn’t happen without the parents in our community. “

Thanking all who made the tentative agreement happen, Max Arias, executive director of the Service Employees International Union Local 99 added that in the last six years, “our members have achieved an average of about 54% raise.”

“That’s huge, and in this cycle, we managed to stabilize the hours of work, which is important for students services,” Arias said.

He described his union members as parents in LAUSD, half of them Black and brown women, “doing this back-breaking work and supporting teachers and supporting students with education.”

Maria Nichols, who officially became president of the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles in 2024, said she may be the new kid on the block but wanted to declare her commitment.

“We stand together, we are going to work together, and we are going to support one another,” she said.

“I know first-hand what schools look like and what schools need, and I will say to you that our schools today, our students today, our families today, are so much better off for what we were able to achieve.”

Collectively she said in the negotiations each union fought because, “we care about our kids.”

Last-minute strike aversion left some parents confused about school campuses openings Tuesday.

At Hobart Boulevard Elementary School, kids were running around and playing with each other on the courtyard as more children were being dropped off Tuesday morning.

An immigrant mother, who didn’t want to disclose her name for safety reasons, dropped off her 9-year-old son later than on usual school days.

She didn’t know about the strike until her son told her yesterday night.

“I thought it was weird the school didn’t say anything,” she said.

L.A. Unified has published official statements for students and their families online.

The woman who is a worker at a warehouse said had the strike not been averted she would have had to stay home with her son and miss the work day.

She said her employer is understanding of the family emergencies that can occur but it’s a hustle to make everything work.

The mother finally got word that the school would open that morning after her son’s teacher Ms. Neyva Lopez, sent an official statement on the app “ClassDojo” letting parents know that they will resume classes as normal because SEIU Local 99 and LAUSD had come to an agreement.

“It’s sad. I thought they were being better paid. I didn’t know that they have to put from their own money to help the children,” she said about the educators demand from the strike.

“It’s sad because you think you come to this country and will be better paid but it’s the same. It’s almost the same,” she said.

Mauricio Galdanez, 46, was dropping off his niece at the elementary school he once attended as a kid because the 9-year-old’s parents were already at work. They had doubts about the strike happening, he said.

Galdanez resides in Koreatown, less than a mile from the school campus, so he sometimes helps out with picking his niece up from school or dropping her off.

“It’s pretty good for everyone that they don’t miss out on school,” Galdanez said about the strike not happening. “This generation has a very high chance of learning. It was different for us.”

Another member of the drop-off crowd of parents and families was Marcelina Martinez, 40, who was dropping off her 11 year-old at Vista Horizon Academy, which is located next to Hobart Elementary School on the same block. Educators there never mentioned the school wouldn’t have classes, but classes will resume earlier than usual, at 2:00 p.m.

Martinez mentioned there were less kids dropped off because the parents were probably confused about the strike.

“I already have work plans and not knowing where to leave my kid would have made me lose a work day,” Martinez said. She works cleaning houses and relies on public transportation like buses to get to work ever since her husband lost their car in an accident.

It’s hard to make it on time to work, Martinez said, because she has to drop off her son and then take another bus, which often arrives late to the stop.

School buses lined the curb outside Brentwood Science Magnet Elementary early Tuesday as parents filtered in, some carrying backpacks and school science projects.

Just hours after L.A. Unified reached a tentative agreement early Tuesday morning with Local 99 of Service Employees International Union, bus drivers who are members of the union were back behind the wheel that morning.

The Local 99 was the last labor group needed to strike a deal with the district in order to avoid a strike and return to business as usual.

The morning drop-off felt routine, a contrast to the uncertainty many families had braced for just hours earlier.

Rachel Friedman, a parent and special education assistant with the Los Angeles Unified School District, said the outcome reflected what many staff and families had been hoping for.

“No one wants to go on strike. We don’t want to stop schools,” she said. “We just want to be paid what we’re worth. Better paid employees are happier employees, and that’s better for students too.”

Other parents at drop-off shared a similar sense of relief.

“Everyone won at the end of the day,” said Jocelyn Pereira. “Teachers deserve more than anyone. They’re our caregivers, our teachers, our everything.”

“I mean, thumbs up,” said Logan Highland, smiling as he finished dropping his children off at the entrance.

The last-minute agreement was commended by local education advocacy nonprofit GPSN, who said in a statement it, “welcomes this outcome and the commitment it reflects to minimize disruption for families across Los Angeles.”

“This moment also highlights the very real and ongoing need to ensure that all school employees earn living wages that reflect the cost of living in our region,” the statement said.

The nonprofit said all three agreements made with the labor unions representing teachers, administration staff and service employees is an important step forward, it also addresses the broader challenges of adequately funding the school’s workforce.

“The state must make significant and sustained investments in public education so that districts have the resources to offer competitive wages and benefits without compromising programs and services for students,” the statement said.

Mayor Karen Bass issued a statement saying she stepped in before an agreement was ultimately reached.

“I stepped into the negotiations to make sure every effort was made to find an agreement, because a strike would disrupt the lives of hundreds of thousands of kids and their parents, who need childcare and need to go to work,” Bass’ office said on social media.

“I also stepped in to make sure the City was prepared to provide safe places for children while schools are closed — and I am glad that we do not need those contingency plans.”

She then thanked labor and district leaders for reaching an agreement to put “families first.”

“Our schools’ teachers, instructional aides, nurses, custodians, bus drivers, and other dedicated workers care for our children every day, and they deserve a fair contract,” the statement said. “Now, there is one on the table, and class is in session tomorrow.”

The new agreement gives Local 99 members a huge financial boost — larger in terms of percentage than the other unions that just reached deals.

The union included a description of highlights in its release, including:

• A 24% wage increase over the term of the contract
• Increased work hours to ensure that thousands of workers and their families qualify for health care benefits
• Rescinding of layoffs of hundreds of technology support workers
• Expansion of health care benefits for teacher assistants, after-school workers, community representatives and others
• Limitations on subcontracting of work to outside vendors when that work could be done by Local 99 members

The tentative agreement was the third and final milestone needed to avert a walkout and school shutdown in the nation’s second-largest school district — and comes as a relief to parents of some 390,000 students who likely went to sleep Monday night not knowing if there would be school Tuesday morning.

Both United Teachers Los Angeles and Associated Administrators of Los Angeles had reached tentative pacts Sunday with the school district.

All three deals still need to be ratified by union members. The Board of Education also must ratify tentative agreements.

The tenative deal ends uncertainty over whether classes would occur on Tuesday.

“Because of your unity and readiness to take action, we secured major wins for our members — including significant improvements to wages and hours, stronger protections against subcontracting, increased staffing, and we successfully stopped layoffs for IT workers,” Local 99 stated in a social media post sent out at about 2:30 a.m. “This is what collective power looks like.”

The statement added, “For tomorrow: All members should report to work as usual.”

A 2 a.m. school district alert also bill-boarded the tentative agreement.

“We are pleased to announce that we have reached an agreement in principle with SEIU Local 99 that will allow schools to be open,” the announcement said. “Los Angeles Unified and SEIU Local 99 teams will continue to work together to finalize the details of a tentative agreement. Thank you for your patience and partnership during this time.”

Negotiations to avert a strike at Los Angeles public schools were going down to the wire, with talks still in progress past midnight into Tuesday — leaving the parents of 390,000 students uncertain about what plans to make for the school day fast approaching.

Local 99 of Service Employees International Union posted a social media update after midnight saying that negotiations were continuing.

Just over three years ago, in March 2023, schools were shut down for three days in a massive strike lead by Local 99 of the Service Employees International Union and supported by teachers in a sympathy strike. Both unions had unsettled contracts at the time.

The strike was planned for a three-day duration and culminated a months-long build-up of labor tensions. Local 99 demanded a level of salary increase that had the potential to be life-changing for the largely low-wage workers the union represents: bus drivers, custodians, special education assistants, cafeteria workers, gardeners.

They basically won such a raise a day after the strike ended.

The deal with Local 99 resulted in salary increases of more than 30% for some workers; for others it was less than 30%. The increase was spread out over time and also affected by length of service and current salary.

In 2023, the alliance with the teachers union made it impossible to keep campuses open. When the 2023 settlement was announced Max Arias, executive director of Local 99 said, “This agreement will set new standards, not just for Los Angeles, but the entire state.”

In the current round of negotiations, the two unions repeated their power pairing -- and were joined by a third smaller but key union: Associated Administrators of Los Angeles, whose members include principals and assistant principals.

L.A. teachers engaged in a momentous strike in 2019. It lasted six school days and galvanized the city in many ways.

The teachers received much grassroots support, which was seen as a big win for the union at the time.

As The Times said when a settlement was reached: “The strike was an undeniable victory in terms of public attention and support and political momentum, but the contract that emerged was mixed when it comes to the changes that students, teachers and parents will see at schools next year.”

That deal included:

• What amounted to a 6% raise for teachers — with a 3% raise for the prior school year and a 3% raise for the current school year.

  Teachers also lost about 3% of their salary by being on strike for six days, according to the school district. Other employees got the same 6% raise without having to makes such a sacrifice. The district had offered 6% to teachers before they went on strike.
  

• A drop of one student per classin grades four through 12, an additional reduction of one he year after and two more the year after that.
  
• A commitment to provide a full-time nurse in every school, which was a real gain for nurses and students. But it proved difficult to achieve that goal because of a tight labor market.
  
• A commitment to develop community schools — which offer extra services to students and families such as health clinics and counseling. With an assist from new state funding, community schools have become a growing presence in the school system.
  

Andres Chait was named acting superintendent of the LAUSD in February after Los Angeles schools Supt. Alberto Carvalho was placed on indefinite administrative leave amid a federal investigation.

He is a longtime a senior LAUSD administrator who has served as chief of school operations.

When he was named to the role, Chait was seen by many as well-liked, capable and loyal, and someone with no long-standing ties to Carvalho.

In his long L.A. Unified career, Chait, a district parent, has served in various roles, including elementary principal, regional superintendent and, more recently, heading operations — which oversees non-education matters, including making schools safe and welcoming.

Chait has extensive experience presenting to the Board of Education

Soon after his appointment, he was thrust into the labor battle and possible strike.

“Nobody wants a strike,” he said in March. “Strikes are not good for students. They are not good for our schools. They are not good for our families. I truly believe that our labor partners also do not want a strike.”

LAUSD has posted lists of food distribution sites and community-based “child supervision” sites that could take in a limited number of children. But children with moderate to severe disabilities cannot be accommodated, the district said, nor can kids younger than 4.

For the families of Los Angeles Unified School District students, Monday unfolded with mounting uncertainty — and, for many, deep anxiety — as it remained unclear by the close of the school day whether campuses would shut down amid a potential strike by three unions.

Two of the unions, representing teachers and administrators, reached tentative agreements over the weekend. As of Monday afternoon, Local 99 of Service Employees International Union, which represents some of the district’s lowest-paid employees had not settled. In solidarity, all three unions have pledged to walk out together if any one of them did not make a deal.