Strike closes schools across LA

Though Los Angeles doesn’t get much snow, the over half a million K-12 students who didn’t have to attend school yesterday had themselves a bit of a snow day.

That's because more than 30,000 bus drivers, custodians, cafeteria workers, special education assistants, and other school workers walked off the job, starting a three-day strike that will last until Friday. They’re joined in solidarity by the LA teachers union’s ~35,000 members.

🚪 Why so closed?... The strike all boils down to one thing: wages. According to the union that represents the workers, the average income for a non-teacher school worker is $25,000/year (many work part-time). Or as the union refers to it, a “poverty wage.”

To remedy the situation, the union is demanding a 30% salary increase, plus an additional $2/hour increase for the lowest-paid workers.

• Which isn’t eeeeeexactly how much the schools are willing to give up. LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho countered on Monday with a “historic offer”; it included a 23% recurring pay increase, a 3% cash-in-hand bonus, a minimum wage of $20/hour, and full healthcare for anyone working at least four hours a day.

For the workers’ union, that offer was close to its ask, but not enough. Or as baseball legend Frank Robinson once said, close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.

🔎 Zoom out: Worker strikes are on the rise across the country. Last year saw a total of 23 major work stoppages, the second highest number since 2001.