{"id":666056,"date":"2026-03-19T04:45:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T04:45:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/666056\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T04:45:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T04:45:18","slug":"hundreds-of-thousands-of-la-students-face-strike-disruption-as-pay-fight-explodes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/666056\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds of thousands of LA students face strike disruption as pay fight explodes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hundreds of thousands of public school students in Los Angeles are set to have their education dramatically up-ended<\/a> after teachers announced a huge strike next month as they go to war for fatter salaries.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Educators swarmed Gloria Molina Grand Park on Wednesday for a rally in the shadow of City Hall in downtown LA on seeking higher wages.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It follows a breakdown in contract negotiations<\/a> between three employee unions, including the embattled Los Angeles Unified School District.<\/p>\n

Educators swarmed Gloria Molina Grand Park on Wednesday for a rally. Toby Canham for CA POST<\/p>\n

Attendees held signs with messages such as \u201cStrike ready\u201d and \u201cStop ICE in our schools.\u201d Toby Canham for CA POST<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe message to the public is, stand with educators. Stand with teachers. Stand with support professionals,\u201d Myart-Cruz told the crowd.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause one job should be enough, one job should be enough, and we need to get away from the victim shaming of educators.\u201d<\/p>\n

Union members, she claimed, are \u201c30 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Teachers at the rally confirmed to the California Post that a strike will lead to \u201cdiscomfort\u201d for students and their parents.\u00a0<\/p>\n

LAUSD is feeling the heat following the dramatic detainment at gunpoint and handcuffing<\/a> of \u201cmorally bankrupt\u201d Superintendent Alberto Carvalho during FBI raids on Feb. 25 at his San Pedro home and at the district\u2019s headquarters.<\/p>\n

According to the LAUSD website, the second largest school district in the nation \u201cenrolls more than 520,000 students.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

School psychologist Jimena Del Pozo, 54, who specializes in helping special-ed kids, attended the noisy rally and told the California Post: \u201c We\u2019ve been struggling with too much work. The district isn\u2019t willing to hire more teachers and psychologists to help.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand a strike will be a discomfort for a lot of families and their kids not getting the best education for a few days but we\u2019re doing a strike because we want students to have what they need. Classes are too big. There\u2019s not enough staff.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe parents want the same things we want,\u201d she said. \u201cThey want better conditions for their kids too.\u201d<\/p>\n

High school teacher Vanessa, who declined to give her last name, told the Post she was \u201clooking forward\u201d to the strike.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m here for a fair contract. The district has been sitting on billions of dollars claiming they don\u2019t have enough money to pay more to teachers and to make upgrades to schools,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m prepared to strike for as long as necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n

High school teacher Alex Torres 32, told the California Post that he was at the rally to \u201cfight for education and our students.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ruben Sanchez, 54, a second-grade teacher at Budlong Avenue Elementary School, who has taught for 23 years, said he was \u201cprotesting to demand more money. I\u2019m absolutely prepared to strike. We have less money these days for essential materials that we need to teach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Second-grade teacher Ruben Sanchez, who has taught for 23 years, said he was \u201cabsolutely prepared to strike.\u201d David Thompson<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand a strike will be a discomfort for a lot of families\u2026but we\u2019re doing a strike because we want students to have what they need,\u201d said school psychologist Jimena Del Pozo. David Thompson<\/p>\n

Union leaders on stage addressed the crowd under a banner that read \u201cWhen schools thrive, LA thrives.\u201d<\/p>\n

An ear-splitting live band, backed by DJ Phatrick, blasted protesters with the volume turned up to 11.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Attendees held signs with messages such as \u201cFund our schools not AI,\u201d \u201cProtect families, stop deportations,\u201d \u201cStrike ready\u201d and \u201cStop ICE in our schools.\u201d<\/p>\n

UTLA represents more than 30,000 classroom teachers, psychologists, attendance counselors, guidance counselors, nurses and secondary school librarians.<\/p>\n

Members are currently being paid under a contract that expired on June 30, according to the Los Angeles Times<\/a>. And Union bosses say the latest proposal would result in a average 17% salary increase over two years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In particular, the proposal will raise the salary of early-career teachers to $80,000. The top rate for an experienced educator would be $134,000. The union is also pushing for hefty automatic pay increases in the future based on years of experience\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the previous three years, the UTLA won a 21% raise for members \u2014 which included a $20,000 raise for nurses who work in education.<\/p>\n

Speaking during a Board of Education meeting on Tuesday, union Vice President Julie Van Winkle agreed that it had been \u201caudacious\u201d in the past to seek such high raises.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd now the teachers have the audacity to ask for more,\u201d she boasted.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I\u2019m here to tell you today that, yes, we do have that audacity. And the reason is that, even though we got a significant raise a few years ago, our wages have not kept pace with inflation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur members aren\u2019t trying to buy one house in San Pedro and six houses in Florida,\u201d Van Winkle added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re just trying to afford rent in the district in which they teach. We\u2019re being priced out of the district we serve.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so, yeah, we do have the audacity to ask that our salaries are enough to allow us to live where we work, and, yes, we are going to keep demanding more resources for our students.\u201d<\/p>\n

LAUSD teachers rally downtown in a show of force regarding wages and contracts. Toby Canham for CA POST<\/p>\n

On Feb. 27, the LAUSD Board voted 7-0 to place Carvalho, who was previously superintendent for Miami-Dade County Public Schools in Florida for 14 years, on paid administrative leave.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He went into hiding following the raids but\u00a0later broke his silence<\/a>, speaking through his attorneys, to declare his innocence and that he \u201chas always acted within the bounds of the law\u201d and the feds found nothing incriminating.<\/p>\n

Carvalho\u2019s other home in Miami was also raided by the federal agents in connection with a corruption investigation over the failed schools AI program AllHere<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope the school board reinstates him promptly to his position as superintendent,\u201d his lawyers said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Carvalho respects the rule of law and the investigative process and has always acted in the best interests of students and within the bounds of the law.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the government\u2019s investigation remains ongoing, no evidence has been presented by prosecutors supporting any allegation that Mr. Carvalho violated federal law.\u201d<\/p>\n

They added \u201cCarvalho is a dedicated public servant committed to the students and families of the Los Angeles Unified School District.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe achievements and success of the students, teachers, and staff of Los Angeles Unified remain his foremost focus, and he remains deeply committed to continuing the work of supporting students and families across the district.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the Post has reported that former LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner has slammed beleaguered Carvalho over an alleged misuse of tens of millions of dollars in arts funding.<\/p>\n

He \u201cwillfully and knowingly violat[ed] the law,\u201d by misusing $77 million in state arts education funding to backfill gaps in the district\u2019s $19 billion budget, Beutner wrote in a letter to the district and obtained by the California Post.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not only a clear violation of the law passed by more than 7 million voters, it\u2019s morally bankrupt because it deprives hundreds of thousands of students in LA schools the benefits they would receive by participating in arts and music at school.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hundreds of thousands of public school students in Los Angeles are set to have their education dramatically up-ended…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":666057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,12192,2961,39748,224,5337,5248,38036,1154],"class_list":["post-666056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-contract","tag-la","tag-labor-strikes","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-metro","tag-teachers-union","tag-us-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116254023694263358","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=666056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/666057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=666056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=666056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=666056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}