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Settling L.A. Strike Causes Future Problems While Trying to Solve Past Ones

Walkout prompted Superintendent Alberto Carvalho and the district board to settle on the union鈥檚 terms. What does that mean for future negotiations?

LAUSD teachers join school aids in their fight for better wages at LA State Historic Park in downtown Los Angeles during the SEIU/UTLA strike on Thursday, March 23, 2023. (Sarah Reingewirtz/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images)

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If you鈥檝e ever read a science fiction story, you know the dangers of time travel. Someone returns to the past and alters something that completely remakes the present and the future, usually with disastrous effect.

So it went last week with Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho.

Carvalho was forced to shutter schools while the district鈥檚 30,000 support employees, led by SEIU Local 99, went on a three-day strike. Members of United Teachers Los Angeles walked out in solidarity.

The day after the strike ended, Carvalho and the union announced a tentative agreement. The three-year deal raised salaries by a reported 30%. Carvalho called it a “.”

It鈥檚 historic, in the sense that most of it takes place in the past.

The agreement contains a 6% pay hike retroactive to July 2021, another 7% retroactive to July 2022 and yet another 7% to take effect this July. In January 2024, the district will raise all support employee wages by $2 an hour. The district and the union both say this constitutes another 10% increase for the average employee.

Nevertheless, it鈥檚 not the amount that鈥檚 going to cause headaches for Carvalho, the school board, parents and students in the near future. The district and the union weren鈥檛 oceans apart on the money before the strike occurred. Where Carvalho went wrong was in the timeline of the settlement.

Lost in all the happiness and relief about the contract is that the strike supposedly wasn鈥檛 about wages and benefits. Such a walkout would have been illegal, since the union hadn鈥檛 completed all the procedural steps before calling a strike. SEIU did so to . 

SEIU accused the district of interrogating workers about union meetings and threatening to fire them if they walked out. The union even claimed that food service workers were locked in a cafeteria to prevent them from voting on a strike. Taking these accusations at face value, the district could not have prevented the strike, short of admitting it had committed these violations.

. An unfair labor practices strike is legal if unfair labor practices have occurred. These haven鈥檛 been adjudicated, and if they鈥檙e found to be baseless, the union will be penalized.

But it won鈥檛 matter. The reality is that the walkouts prompted Carvalho and the board to settle on the union鈥檚 terms. So what happens to the district鈥檚 future?

There isn鈥檛 going to be much of a lull. 鈥淐arvalho has been put on notice that he better move on our demands,鈥 . 鈥淚f that movement is not enough to settle the contract that UTLA members deserve, we will move to the next round of this fight.鈥

The union wants a 20% raise over a two-year contract. But the contract expired in June 2022, so the two years are this school year and next. It鈥檚 clear the teachers aren’t reluctant to strike, and SEIU Local 99 will be sure to back them up. So we might see a repeat of last week鈥檚 actions, only this time it will be the teachers union organizing an unfair labor practices strike, with SEIU striking in solidarity.

Carvalho might be able to head it off by caving early, but the reprieve would be only temporary. The new contracts would both expire in June 2024, right about the time all federal COVID subsidies will have run out. How much labor peace will Carvalho be able to buy then?

He seems unaware of his impending fate. 鈥淭his agreement鈥檚 going to make a lot of superintendents very nervous,鈥 . 鈥淎nd that鈥檚 a good thing.鈥

We鈥檒l see who is the most nervous superintendent a year from now.

Mike Antonucci鈥檚 Union Report appears most Wednesdays; see the full archive.

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