Teachers’ union and District come to a tentative agreement on contract

By Arely V.

Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) has come to an agreement with United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), the teachers union, granting a 21% salary increase along with reduced class sizes and other important gains in their contract.

The two entities had been negotiating over the contract for about a year. The tentative agreement, which will have to be voted on by all teachers, is seen as a victory for different reasons.

The first reason is pay. Maintaining a stable life in Los Angeles with a teacher’s pay is difficult, especially with the economy. “There’s inflation. We need to make money,” said Ms. Suarez, a science teacher.

Another issue was teacher turnover.

“We see a lot of teachers leave every year,” said Ms. Grace, history teacher, UTLA Chapter Chair, and lead teacher. “Part of it is how hard the job is.”

She believes receiving new teachers each year prevents the school from maintaining community. “We never get a chance to get our footing and feel strong,” Ms. Grace said. “The pay would make it so that teachers stay. And when teachers stay, we have more stable schools.”

She believes it will build trust with students and their parents. “We have a trust built between the community and the school,” she said.

Aside from a significant raise, Ms. Suarez shares that she’s “really excited” about “our schools to get more mental health support for our students.” 

In March, teachers went on a three-day strike in solidarity with SEIU 99, the union for service workers like custodians, bus drivers and cafeteria workers.

“We’re ready to have better working conditions,” Ms. Grace said. “We’ve been filing grievances against the district for not bargaining in good faith.”

Ms. Grace said the strike was to “show the district and LA as a community our presence,” to show that, “we’re willing to do whatever we need to do for the quality of our schools.”

While students may have thought the strike was an extra three-day break before spring break,  “The goal is never to strike,” states Ms. Suarez.

Something most people don’t know is that teachers and service workers don’t get paid when they go on strike. Ms. Grace shared, “It took like 18 percent of my paycheck.”

However sometimes striking is necessary to bring awareness to the magnitude of the demands.

Ms. Suarez believes “it’s really, really, important for workers’ solidarity.” Plus, action followed the strike from the district, shared Ms. Grace. “SEIU brothers and sisters were able to get a 30 percent raise. Nobody thought it was possible but it happened.”

While anticipating if teachers were going to perform their own separate strike, Suarez shares “We refuse to settle for less because we know that we deserve more and our students deserve more.”

Ms. Grace said that people may think teachers are being greedy for asking for more. However, Ms. Suarez wants to “remind students that this isn’t only for us, but for them as well and for their futures as workers.”

It wasn’t ever impossible for LAUSD to meet demands, according to Ms. Grace. “It’s a huge district. We have billions of dollars in reserves.”