It’s early morning on Tuesday, April 14. Jessica Donis, a special education aid, is mentally preparing to go on strike like she’d been planning for weeks. Suddenly, she receives an email saying the strike was called off just a few hours earlier.
Around 2 a.m. this morning, LAUSD and SEIU Local 99 reached an agreement that ended nearly a year of contract negotiations and averted a three-union strike that would have closed every LAUSD school.
SEIU Local 99 represents roughly 30,000 workers including cafeteria workers, bus drivers, custodians and special education aides. The deal came through just hours before the morning of the first organized strike day.
According to MyNewsLa, the agreement includes a 24% wage increase over three years for SEIU members, with 12% of the funding paid out immediately. The union said thousands of workers will also get more hours, which means more of them will qualify for health care benefits. The district also agreed to cancel layoffs that had been planned for hundreds of workers, according to MyNewsLa.
For Donis, the news was a huge relief.
“I felt like it was good,” Donis said. “It was a good option for everybody. Everybody gets to keep working.”
Leading up to Tuesday, an air of uncertainty hung over the possibility of schools being shut down. Many students didn’t know the full details surrounding the event, and whether they’d receive new information before the morning.
Marc Strassner, an assistant principal at Van Nuys, shares why he thought the strike was worth the consequences.
“I want the school community to know that we acted in the best interests of the school, the teachers and the students,” Strassner said. “If you provide for the teachers, then they will provide for the students.”
On Sunday, LAUSD reached a separate tentative agreement with United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), which represents roughly 35,000 teachers. Under that deal, teacher pay scales increase by 11.65%, and starting salaries for new teachers rise to $77,000 per year, according to district officials.
The district also reached a deal with the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles (AALA), which represents about 3,000 principals and administrators, including a defined 8-hour workday and 40-hour work week, according to EdSource.
Strassner explains how the triple alliance of the unions wasn’t just a symbolic gesture of support.
“For AALA, collaborating makes us much stronger because we can shut down the entire system, rather than the teachers going out and the administrators picking up the slack, or vice versa,” Strassner said. “But if all three unions went out together, the kids would come here and can’t get in the classroom, get past the gates and have no one to talk to. The schools would shut down, and the district would have to respond.”
By Monday night, only SEIU was yet to reach a deal.
Teachers at Van Nuys, who were ready to strike in support of SEIU if no deal was reached, welcomed the news Tuesday morning.
History teacher Jacob Ferrin was relieved when hearing the news regarding the strike, yet annoyed at the timing.
“I felt relieved. I am glad the SEIU got their contract, that they figured things out and that the crisis is averted,” Ferrin said. “I was a little annoyed that it took until 2 a.m. in the morning.”
At Van Nuys High School, although it was emptier than usual, the day continued as normal. Students were walking from class to class chatting with their friends, while campus aids made sure things were running smoothly.
Junior Jeilyn Rosario, who found out about the possible strike through her friends, was both glad and upset when finding out it had been cancelled.
“I was happy because I knew if we did have a strike, days would have been taken off for vacation,” Rosario said. “At the same time, I was a little mad because I wanted to stay in and sleep.”
Despite many students’ disappointment about schools staying open, Rosario believes that they should understand the importance of what these workers were fighting for.
“I think students should understand that these workers were fighting for their right to a better paycheck and better treatment from the district,” Rosario said.
