The Circus Comes to Town

UTLA led a six-day walkout in 2019, protesting large class sizes, the district’s funding of charter schools, and a lack of resources and support provided to teachers and students. The strike was successful in wringing more concessions from the district.

This is Alberto Carvalho’s first year as LAUSD superintendent, having moved here from Miami. As a condition of his relocation, Carvalho negotiated a 26 percent raise over Beutner’s salary. He is paid $440,000 — more than President Joe Biden. In the fall, UTLA and Superintendent Carvalho clashed for the first time over the latter’s attempt to add four days to the academic calendar without discussing it with the union. The union organized walkouts to protest the policy, and the district backed off.

Carvalho emerged as the main villain of last week’s strike, with strikers frequently telling him to go back to Florida. An ill-conceived tweet describing the strike as a “circus” gave way to a circus theme, with strikers widely portraying Carvalho as a clown. One popular chant went, “Hey Carvalho, you’re the clown! LA is a union town!” School board members have indicated that they will address Carvalho’s use of social media.

Roger Jones, a custodian who makes $19.80 an hour, told Jacobin that he’s made that wage for five years. “Seems like the district’s been slacking,” he said. Sabrina Jones, an assistant teacher, said that Carvalho has been dishonest with the public about what the district has been offering in terms of a raise. She makes $18.30 an hour.

Celia Cordova started as a yard supervisor and is now a special education assistant. “The superintendent is not taking inflation into consideration,” she told Jacobin. “I make $23 an hour, and I only work thirty hours a week. I can go be a cashier or work at McDonald’s and make more money than I do now.”

Kathina Cormier, a preschool teacher and member of UTLA, expressed solidarity with members of SEIU 99. “I want them to be able to live and take care of their families. I want what’s best for them.” UTLA members hope that striking in solidarity with SEIU 99 has demonstrated their power to the district. “LAUSD drags their feet until we do things like this and take action. Talking gets us nowhere. We want our 20 percent raise,” Cormier said.

Jessie Lomeli, an IT support technician in SEIU, noted that in addition to paying workers better, the district should also be putting its $5 billion reserves to use in upgrading facilities. He said that his school in the San Fernando Valley just flooded from heavy rains in Los Angeles and that the air conditioning and heating at the school are unreliable. UTLA has been advocating for an upgrade to the school’s technology and infrastructure and has urged the district to provide students equitable access to Wi-Fi and green spaces.

Students Deserve — a coalition of LAUSD students pushing the school district to implement its approved Black Student Achievement Plan, eliminate Los Angeles School Police, and fund more mental health resources at schools — held a block party on the second day of the strike in front of LAUSD headquarters. There were speeches, raps, and dances.

“I’m out here to support my mentors and people who have paved a positive way for me,” said student James Winfrey. “The system that I grew up in brought me down, and I have a lot of trauma. This is something positive to support our community. These people feel unimportant, so we’re here to show our people love as students.”

Guisela Gutierrez, a mental health consultant with the district for seventeen years, told Jacobin that the district is looking into cutting resources for psychiatric workers, even though caseloads have grown exponentially since the COVID-19 pandemic. According to UTLA, the ideal ratio for psychiatric workers (PSW’s) to students is one social worker to 250 students. As of right now, some schools currently have one worker serving 1,000 students. UTLA’s Beyond Recovery platform, which spells out its bargaining demands, articulates the union’s perspective that this and other shortcomings harm both staff and students.

Union president Cecily Myart-Cruz has criticized the district for “hoarding resources” while 86 percent of the student body lives in poverty. Myart-Cruz, who was overwhelmingly reelected as UTLA’s president earlier this year, believes that the union’s demands should not stop at conditions inside schools, but should also extend to the hardships students and their families face outside of the classroom. Consequently the union has made housing security a central tenet of its platform, demanding that the district “push for targeted Section 8 housing vouchers to support LAUSD families” and “convert vacant LAUSD property into housing for low-income families.”

On the final day of the strike, workers held a massive rally at LA State Historic Park, with music and chanting echoing throughout the day. Trixie Navarro, a special education assistant and member of SEIU 99, brought her two kids. She told Jacobin that she makes under $20 an hour and also works at Uber Eats and Amazon Flex. “I can’t survive with that amount,” she said, adding that her own kids were out of school for the duration of the strike.

As with the 2019 UTLA strike, LAUSD workers flexed their muscles and ground the 420,000-student school system to a halt. The resulting tentative agreement for SEIU 99 is already momentous. Now UTLA members are hoping that the district, having once again seen the full extent of their power, as well as the strength of the solidarity between the unions, will give Los Angeles teachers what they’re asking for.