LAUSD Strike: Public Schools To Close Tuesday As 60,000 Teachers And Campus Workers Stage Three-Day Walk Out

deadline.com:

Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho issued another plea today for the Service Employees International Union Local 99 to return to the bargaining table in hopes of averting a three-day strike set to begin tomorrow. “We should not be depriving our students of an opportunity to learn,” Carvalho said in a statement Monday morning. “With hours to go, I continue to appeal to union leadership to return to negotiations.

We can find a solution that dignifies our workforce and avoids an unnecessary shutdown of schools while protecting the long term viability of the school system.” The union, however, continued to dig in Monday, vowing to stick to its plans for a three-day walkout of roughly 30,000 service workers, including cafeteria workers, bus drivers, custodians, special education assistants and other workers.

The district’s powerful teachers union, United Teachers Los Angeles, has vowed to honor the picket lines, adding another 30,000 employees to the work stoppage.

Officials said that magnitude of a strike will force the shutdown of campuses in the nation’s second-largest school district. “Despite LAUSD’s misleading statements in the media and threats against workers who are exercising their right to take action, our movement is only growing stronger,” SEIU Local 99 Executive Director Max Arias said in a statement Monday. “Teachers, students and parents in the district are standing with school workers and their right to take action — free from fear — to bargain for better wages and increased staffing in our schools.” The union plans to begin picketing at 4:30 a.m.