United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) issued the following statement after labor negotiations with the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) on Sunday and Monday.
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Coming off our solidarity strike with SEIU 99, we didn’t slow down. We moved right into faculty meeting boycotts to demonstrate to (Superintendent Alberto) Carvalho and the district our power and determination.
Today, the district came to the table with significant movement on a number of key issues — not enough but significant.
“UTLA members have spent the last year having to fight for a contract against a district that systematically ignores the voices of parents, seeks to take power away from educators, and nakedly violates state bargaining laws. The district’s current proposal still falls short of meeting our needs and the needs of our communities, but it is apparent that they are feeling the heat of actions taken by LAUSD workers in the past month, including the boycott of all afterschool faculty meetings that began this week. Educators remain united in our demand that the district agree to all of the elements outlined in the Beyond Recovery Platform.” – Arlene Inouye, UTLA bargaining co-chair
Salary: The district proposed 19% over 3 years – 7% retroactive to July 2022, 7% in July 2023, and 5% in July 2024. Their proposal is less than our demand for 20% over 2 years, or 24% over 3 years.
Class Size: The district agreed to reduce class sizes by 2 students in ALL grades at ALL schools over the next three years –
2023-24: Reduction of 1 at priority schools
2024-25: Reduction of an additional 1 at priority schools for a total of 2, and 1 for all other schools
2025-26: Reduction of an additional 1 at non-priority schools for a total of 2
The reduction is in both average and maximum class sizes.
However, we are still too far from an agreement on salary and other core issues including:
Increasing PSA, PSW, psychologist, and counselor staffing
Reduced on-site obligation for out-of-classroom educators
Funding and staffing for the Black Student Achievement Plan
Community Schools
Special Ed caseload caps and enforcement
Other working condition issues
And we are still rejecting the district’s change to the school calendar!
The UTLA member bargaining team ended today’s session with the message that the district needs to make movement on all of the core issues above to settle the contract and that chapter chairs will be meeting next week on April 19 to discuss our next steps in escalation if they don’t.
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Note: UTLA and LAUSD announced Tuesday that they have reached a tentative
labor agreement that includes a 21% salary increase and reductions in class
sizes.