Unión del Barrio supports the righteous strike scheduled for this coming week by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in the Los Angeles Unified School District.
SEIU 99 members, many of which are parents of LAUSD students, are teaching assistants, bus drivers, special education aides, and cafeteria workers, custodial workers, supervision aides, campus safety personnel, and others. They are the lowest paid workers in the district and make an average of $25,000 a year. More than 24% of SEIU members have reported that they do not have enough to eat. One in three have reported that they have been homeless while working for LAUSD. In contrast, Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, who was brought in from Miami to bust up the unions and privatize public education, makes $440,000 a year! He has a higher salary than the current president of the United States.
United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) has instructed its members to honor the strike and to join the picket lines of their SEIU union brothers and sisters. Unión del Barrio supports this call to action and we urge all UTLA members to heed their union and strike with SEIU workers and unify against the highly paid bureaucrats that run LAUSD. We also call on members of other unions (Teamsters Local 572, California School Employee Association, etc.) to also respect the strike and to not cross the picket lines! This unity is a sincere demonstration of working class solidarity and fight back against the attacks on workers. We also call on our community to support the strike and to show their solidarity as well.
UTLA and SEIU uniting for this militant action against LAUSD is a welcome development and a great moment in the labor movement. Although our organization has had serious differences with SEIU leadership due to their allegiance to the pro-capitalist Democratic Party, today we unequivocally and proudly support the rank and file workers and their just demand for respect and a livable wage. Under capitalism workers will always be under attack so that is why we support teachers uniting with other workers in this class struggle. Next week’s strike is the kind of action workers need to take if we are going to beat back the capitalist class and their drive to bust our unions and keep us in poverty so they can continue to enjoy super profits.
A victory for SEIU and UTLA will be a victory for the whole working class in LA and beyond! Workers of Los Angeles, whether you are in union or not, join the picket line! Our fight is your fight too! Together we can fight for worker power and build a movement that will change society and forge a revolution!
Working class solidarity! ¡El maestro luchando tambien esta enseñando! ¡Que viva la huelga!
Unión del Barrio-Los Angeles
