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.”
She’s also concerned that compensation has fallen too far behind the cost of living, making it hard to recruit and retain talented educators.
The minimum annual salary is about $69,000 and longtime teachers with added education credits can earn more than $100,000.
The district said it can’t afford the union’s proposal.
“Ultimately, we are striving for this balance that must be struck between multi-year fiscal solvency” and “well-protected students, programs, schools and workforce,” said L.A. schools Supt. Alberto Carvalho. “This balance needs to be preserved.”
An authorization vote does not mean that the union, which represents about 37,000 workers, will go on strike, but it gives leadership the power to call a strike without returning to members for an additional vote. Strike-authorizations are a pressure tactic that unions apply to demonstrate solidarity and levy the threat of a near-immediate work stoppage.
In addition to classroom teachers, UTLA represents teachers working outside the classroom, counselors, psychologists, psychiatric social workers, librarian and nurses.
The teachers union engages in a notably public negotiation process. Its bargaining team numbers 150 participants and the union posts online the offers and counteroffers from each side.
Union members are currently working under the terms of a contract that expired on June 30, 2025 so the first year’s raise would apply retroactively to the current school year.
Budget questions
Broadly speaking, the teachers union has focused on the size of the district’s reserve as of last July, which stood at $5 billion within a total budget of $18.8 billion.
In contrast, L.A. Unified officials have pointed to what they term a massive structural deficit. Specifically, the district is spending more than $2 billion than it is taking in, based on the approved budget for the current year. And this annual deficit will continue barring other developments and cost-cutting. The district calculates it would burn through its reserve and be unable to pay all its bills in three years.
The $5 billion reserve built up during the era of COVID-19 relief funding, when the district received more money than it was able to spend. During that period, the district budgeted an expansion of 6,000 jobs to support students and families — but 2,000 were never filled — which contributed to the multi-billion dollar reserve.
All the same, many jobs were filled and the district also avoided shrinking staff at the pace of declining enrollment. With the end of one-time pandemic-relief funding, officials estimate that they must reduce staffing by about 1,200 workers. Last week, the district warned that some layoffs would be necessary. The specific details are expected to be posted for school board deliberation in February.
Union leaders argue that the school system’s impending financial crisis is a mirage created by overly cautious accounting assumptions.
Raising teacher pay a union priority
One focus of the union is to improve automatic annual salary increases — meant to reward experience and additional education. This would build in higher annual raises without having to bargain for them in every contract cycle.
Wages aside, UTLA’s wide-ranging, socially conscious platform springs from 665 member meetings held at schools last year, when the union also sought broad input from students, parents and other community members.
The union also is proposing increased hiring to provide better student services — even as the district is announcing plans to reduce staff.
In a statement, district officials said the UTLA proposal is unaffordable.
“UTLA’s proposals exceed $1.3 billion annually in total cost and amounts to more than $4 billion across the three-year term of the contract,” the district said in a statement Friday. “This comes at a time when district revenues continue to decline and one-time influx of funds from the state are not guaranteed.”
Also on Friday, the district valued its offer to the teachers union at more than $550 million.
“This follows 26% wage increases negotiated in 2021 through 2025,” a district spokesperson said.
Other unions also pushing for improved contracts
The 30,000 members of Local 99 also are working under terms of an expired contract, since June 30, 2024. Local 99 members include bus drivers, teacher aides, special-education assistants, custodians and food service workers.
These workers, on average, make much less than members of the teachers union.
The two unions last went on strike in 2023, when they staged a joint three-day walkout. Both unions settled quickly with the nation’s second-largest school district in the wake of that strike — first Local 99 and then UTLA.
Other unions also represent district workers and they, too, have been in negotiations.
Earlier this week, the district reached a tentative agreement with Teamsters Local 572, which represents more than 3,200 workers including school administrative assistants, food services managers and plant managers.
The agreement includes a 13% wage increase over three years, with 6% retroactive for 2024–25, a 4% increase for 2025–26 and a 3% increase for 2026–27.
All the unions have collectively agreed with the district on a health benefits package. UTLA members approved the healthcare package on the same ballot as the strike authorization, with 99% voting yes.
The post LAUSD teachers union members authorize strike, ratcheting up pressure on contract talks appeared first on Los Angeles Times.
