UTLA Declares Impasse: LAUSD Makes No Movement to Break Logjam in Bargaining

Half-percent increase in pay raise offer is not a serious attempt to settle the contract and invest in LA educators, students, and communities.

After weeks with no new salary proposal from LAUSD, the district came to bargaining tonight with an insulting offer that proves they are not serious about reaching a contract agreement that supports educators. 

Their new offer scarcely deviates from their original 2% + 2% proposal: It increases the year-one pay raise to 2.5% and adds a one-time payment of 1% in year two that wouldn’t count toward retirement. LAUSD’s pay raise offer underscores the low priority they place on the people who do the work of the district every day while the district sits on $5.03 billion in reserves.

The district continued to cite unidentified budget concerns to justify their low-ball salary offer, even though their financial team confirmed the funding that was hidden from the district’s budget presentations and can be used to meet our demands on salary, staffing, and more. 

The UTLA Bargaining Team outright rejected the salary offer tonight and informed LAUSD that we will file for impasse on Wednesday with the state Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) and start the mediation and fact-finding process. 

“It’s insulting that after nine months of bargaining, the district’s response to our crisis is to move half a percent on salary and offer a 1% one-time bonus that doesn’t even change our base salary. I am almost 30, with a master’s degree from one of the top education universities in the country, and I am still living at home because I cannot afford my own housing on my LAUSD salary. The proposal they brought to the table tonight feels like a slap in the face, especially when our cost of living keeps climbing. 

 If LAUSD truly values educators, they would come to the table with a significant proposal to fix the broken salary table and allow educators to live with dignity in the communities we serve.” 

—Jon Paul Arciniega, Social Studies Teacher at Roybal Learning Center and Bargaining Team Member 

The current salary schedule is so low that thousands of LAUSD educatorsqualify as low-income for affordable housing, and thousands more are barely getting by just above the median income, living paycheck to paycheck after decades working for the district. 

Outside of the offensive salary offer, LAUSD did move on some issues — but they still have given us nothing to work with on increased staffing; enforcing class size and staffing ratio violations; parental leave; Arts Education; PE; elementary prep time; and other critical issues. From PSAs to PSWs and school psychologists, from elementary arts itinerants and DIS providers, the district continues to blatantly ignore these critical staff members at a time of heightened need. Services and our most vulnerable students will suffer.

While we continue to try to reach a fair agreement as we move through the impasse process, we must prepare for the possibility that LAUSD will force us to strike to get any real commitment from them to invest some of the $5.03 billion in reserves into staff and students.

Chapter leaders from all over LAUSD have endorsed a strike authorization vote at every school site in January if LAUSD does not settle the contract by then. Your YES vote to authorize the UTLA Board of Directors to call a strike if necessary will send LAUSD a message that we are united and ready.