Tonight, another bargaining session ended without any progress on salary, staffing, class size, and other urgent issues. 

With the district’s senior finance team coming to bargaining next week, let’s show LAUSD on November 6 who we are — the same educators who have seen through their “sky is falling” narrative in contract campaign after contract campaign. The same educators who shut down the city twice and won.

In Friday’s healthcare bargaining session with all eight employee unions, the district did not change their stance on their proposal to pass healthcare costs onto employees starting in 2027. This would mean that employees would pay an estimated $1,321 a year for healthcare — and it would likely go up every year after that. 

We did reach a tentative agreement on healthy green public schools. The new language expands UTLA’s influence over green infrastructure projects and will allow us to put even more pressure on the district to use the $9 billion from voter-approved bond measures on much-needed greening and school facilities updates.

But this is a drop in the bucket of what schools, students, and educators need and what for more than eight months we have been fighting for.  

We exchanged 15 proposals on things like Leaves of Absence, Assignments, Substitutes, Adult Ed, Academic Freedom, BSAP, CSPP, Career Ladder and more — critically important issues. But not one of LAUSD’s proposals addressed the fundamental economic or structural needs of our schools. 

Real progress means addressing these issues AND staffing, pay, Special Education support, parental leave, prep time, and school stability. 

The Bargaining Team made it clear tonight that educators are angry and that LAUSD’s responses are way past overdue.  

Now educators need to back that statement with your feet. You and your coworkers being at a regional rally will be what makes LAUSD move.