LA Schools to Close as Workers Strike for Fair Wages and Benefits

Tens of thousands of Los Angeles school employees, including teachers, gardeners, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, and special education assistants, will begin a three-day strike starting on Tuesday, forcing hundreds of campuses to close and canceling classes for 422,000 students. The union that represents 30,000 support workers in the Los Angeles Unified School District is seeking a 30 percent pay increase, saying that many employees make little more than the minimum wage and struggle to afford the cost of living in Southern California. The Los Angeles teachers’ union has asked its 35,000 members to walk out in solidarity and to avoid crossing the support workers’ picket lines.