L.A. Teachers
Strike, Day One:
50,000 Take to the Streets
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| Transit workers show up in force at Roosevelt HS to defend teachers picket lines on Day One of the Los Angeles teachers strike. (Internationalist photo) |
The first day of the
long-awaited teachers strike in Los Angeles schools was marked by large picket
lines, tens of thousands of educators, students, parents and supporters in the
streets, and endless heavy, chilling rain. Just about everyone was wearing ponchos,
and the giant mid-day march was a sea of umbrellas as far as the eye could see. The
fact that so many braved the storm, picketing and marching for hours,
underscores how determined the strikers are. They are facing a hard battle.
The superintendent
of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), Austin Beutner, claimed
that only about 3,500 people participated in picketing. This led to massive
ridicule on social media, as photos of solid pickets and the massive mid-day
march belied his claim. Striking teachers and supporters packed all three
blocks of Grand Park and spilled into the streets in front of City Hall. Even
the anti-labor Los Angeles Times put
the number of those who joined the mile-long march to L.A. Unified headquarters
at 50,000. This matched the size of the huge march for public education on
December 15 called by United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA). Many said this trek
in the rain seemed even larger.
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| 50,000 or more UTLA strikers and supporters marched from City Hall to the L.A. United School District headquarters in chilling rain, January 14. (Internationalist photo) |
The
thoroughly
drenched crowd was spirited, chanting, “Whose schools? Our schools –
What schools? Public schools!” Prominent among unions joining the march
and present on the picket lines were several IATSE locals of stage and
screen industry workers.
National teachers union tops put in an appearance, as
UTLA president Alex Caputo-Pearl was joined by Lily Eskelsen Garcia, president
of the National Education Association, while Randi Weingarten, president of the
American Federation of Teachers, was in the front row of the march. But they
are all looking to Democratic Party politicians to resolve the strike, as is
LAUSD boss Beutner, who said he was in touch with L.A. mayor Eric Garcetti and
California governor Gavin Newsom. Garcetti called the strike “electrifying,” but
said it better be over by the end of the week, or early next week.
The
LAUSD chief cynically
claimed at a press conference that he wants a quick solution to the
strike, but his insulting “offer” is designed to be rejected. The mayor
criticized Beutner for
revealing their discussions in the media instead of negotiating in
secret. While
the union is demanding smaller class sizes, the LAUSD proposed to raise
the maximum
number of students per classroom to 46. An art teacher told the press
she
couldn’t give individual attention to 200 students a day. As for school
nurses,
L.A. Unified presently funds only one day a week per school. Parents
complained
that John Marshall High School, with over 2,300 students, has no
full-time
nurse.
The
District instructed
its several hundred highly paid “scabstitutes” from outside the LAUSD to
show up by
5 a.m. at their assigned schools. At ten schools, non-instructional
employees in
SEIU Local 99 went out on a sympathy strike. Many Local 99 members were
angry
that their union leadership had ordered them to go to work. A key demand
in any strike settlement must be for no reprisal against sympathy
strikers. Students who showed up were herded into
auditoriums by supervisors to watch movies. During the last teachers
strike, in
1989, half the students showed up at school. This time the number was
way less.
There were lots of students on the picket lines, however, and hundreds
of high
schoolers joined the march in support of their teachers.
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| “Picket lines mean shut it down, Wilmington is a union town.” ILWU dock workers, transport workers, Class Struggle Education Workers and Internationalists at the Harry Bridges Span School in Wilmington, January 14. (Internationalist photo) |
In the morning, supporters
of Class Struggle Education Workers, Internationalist Group and members of
Internationalist Clubs from the City University of New York and Pasadena
City College were at two schools in Wilmington, in the Harbor District. We earlier attended a strike support organizing meeting
and made picket signs at the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 63 hall. This
morning members of the California Faculty Association (CFA) and students from
Cal State University at Fullerton came to the Harry Bridges school, named after the founder of the ILWU, to show
solidarity with the UTLA strike. The school normally has 55 teachers, but there
were about 100 people on the picket line, including a dozen or so students and a
number of ILWU members.
A couple blocks away
at the Phineas Banning High School there were around 200 pickets at four
entrances; among them were ILWUers and their families. Transport workers wore
red hoodies declaring “Transport Workers Support Teachers Strike” on the front,
and “Picket Lines Mean Don’t Cross” on the back. Class-struggle strike supporters carried signs saying
“Education Workers: Shut Down the Schools” (in Spanish), “Bring Out All L.A. Labor to Defeat
the Privatizers and Union-Busters,” “LAUSD: Hand Over the $1.86 Billion – For Teacher,
Student, Parent, Worker Control of Schools” and “Defeat Democrat-Republican War
on Public Education.”
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| Picketers led by ILWU dock workers and transport workers confront truck at Harry Bridges school on the morning of January 14. (Photo: Ignacio Ortiz) |
The
issue of
picket lines was front and center everywhere. The CSEW called in its
leaflet
for picket lines so strong that no one crosses. While the official line
of the union was that people were free to go into the struck schools,
sentiment on the lines was
different. On-line videos showed a LAUSD truck blocked by a solid picket
line at
a struck school; the driver eventually turned around and left. Cars were
being turned away all over the city.
In
the afternoon,
following the march to LAUSD headquarters, Internationalists and Class
Struggle Education Workers headed to Roosevelt HS to walk the picket
lines with a dozen transit workers, many wearing
their red hoodies and red shirts proclaiming “ATU 1277 Solidarity with
UTLA
Teachers.” As early as last October, the Amalgamated Transit Union local
had
voted to stand with UTLA and to participate in picketing in the event of
a
teachers strike. Now it’s actually happening. A spokesman for the
transport worker solidarity activists spoke to the picketers in Spanish,
warning against the phony “friend of labor” Democratic
Party politicians and calling for “solidarity in struggle, from
here to Oaxaca. Workers of the world, unite!”
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| “Strike yes, LAUSD no! All Support to UTLA!” Transport worker strike supporter speaking to pickets at Roosevelt HS. (Internationalist photo) |
Class Struggle Education Workers (CSEW) is part of the fight for a revitalization and transformation of the labor movement into an instrument for the emancipation of the working class and the oppressed. See the CSEW program here.