Employees of Los Angeles‘s only public school district braved the rain to make good on their threats of a three-day strike Tuesday in hopes of obtaining better wages, shutting down the nation’s second-largest school system in the process.
Already in full force, the protests come as the latest round of negotiations between the staffers and the LA Unified School District schools fell flat last week, opening the door for the historic protests.
Now, more than 1,000 public schools are closed, and processions consisting of some 30,000 non-teaching support workers and 35,000 teachers are sprouting up across the city.
Thousands campaigning for increased pay to compensate for rampant inflation and housing costs were seen traversing the dark, rainy morning as early as 5:00 am Tuesday marching in rain ponchos and jackets.
Some affixed signs to their umbrellas while others offered pro-union chants in the storm of protests, which had been anticipated for weeks – and come as a somewhat unfavorable outcome for the district, as well as roughly a million parents, with more than 500,000 students now set to miss school.
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Employees of Los Angeles’s only public school district braved the rain to make good on their threats of a three-day strike on Tuesday, shutting down the country’s second-largest school system in the process
Already in full force, the protests comes after their latest round of negotiations for increased pay with the LA Unified School District schools fell flat last week, opening the door for more than half a million kids to miss school
Processions are now sprouting up across the city, outside more than 1,000 schools employing the some 30,000 non-teaching support workers and 35,000 teachers
Officials previously expressing a pronounced desire to avert such a strike, but negotiations ultimately failed.
Members of Service Employees International Union Local 99 – the group who had been engaged in the talks – were among those marching in the cold rain Tuesday, toting signs with messages that decried the district for not adhering to their demands – which include an immediate 30 percent pay raise.
‘I voted to strike for quality schools, better lives!’ one of many messages plastered on the numerous protesters’ signs read, with another insisting the non-teacher school workers ‘keep schools safe.’
‘Respect us!’ the picket sign added.
Some were seen descending to their respective schools, while others flocked to the district’s Van Nuys bus yard at 5am, refusing to start their day.
That procession consisted of several dozen bus drivers, who by that time are typically revving up their engines, for routes that take them all across the sprawling California school district, to ferry kids to their respective places of learning.
It was there that employees aired a series of rallying cries like ‘Whose house? Our house!’ and signs with slogans such as ‘Last straw’ and ‘We demand respect.’
Others, including hundreds of teachers, were spotted outside their respective schools to offer similar sentiments pertaining to increased pay – despite assertions from the district that it was prepared offer of three consecutive raises in the same amount of years to the nearly 70,000 school workers.
This is a developing story; please check back for more updates.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk
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