The Los Angeles Unified School District strike may be a concern of the past, but the question of whether the three-day walkout was illegal remains an issue to be resolved in the future.
That question will not be answered by the district or labor leaders, but by an administrative law judge who will rule on the unfair labor practice charges that the district filed against its two unions with the California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB).
In these charges, the district alleges that the strike was unlawful because labor leaders did not satisfy the requirements to declare an economically motivated strike and also don’t have enough evidence to justify an unfair labor practice strike.
The sprawling labor dispute took place from March 21 to 23 and shut down learning for 420,000 students.
It was led by SEIU Local 99 – the union representing 30,000 bus drivers, custodians, instructional aides and special education assistants – and called for higher pay, more hours for part-time workers, and a crackdown against workplace harassment.
Members of UTLA, the union representing 35,000 teachers, walked off the job in solidarity.
In the run-up to the strike, the district filed charges alleging that the strike was illegal and asking the PERB to issue an injunction halting the action. While the board declined to issue the injunction, it did issue complaints against the unions on March 22 and expedited trial proceedings to settle the affair.
On March 24, district officials and SEIU Local 99 leaders reached a labor contract agreement with the assistance of Mayor Karen Bass. However, this agreement does not include a clause settling the district’s unfair labor practice charges, a spokesperson for the district said.
Labor leaders are frustrated by the district’s efforts to rule the strike illegal and UTLA issued the following statement:
“UTLA and SEIU 99 members continued to have the right to strike and did. Instead of wasting time on legal maneuvers over the…
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