The 140-member UTLA Bargaining Team met with LAUSD Monday, May 19, over Zoom for the seventh bargaining session.

Going into tonight’s meeting, LAUSD had not responded to 32 of our proposals. 

The district knows our track record from 2019 and 2023. When we take collective action, we force LAUSD to move on our demands. At the rally on Saturday at SpaceX, they saw the sea of educators, families, labor partners, and community organizations, and we reminded them of our power in the streets.

Tonight, they finally presented 13 counterproposals that engage with demands in the Win Our Future platform, including healthy green public schools, housing support, support for immigrant students and families, technology, and support for LGBTQIA+ students and staff. 

Their proposals fall short of what educators, students, and families need, but the language does express some commitment to addressing the critical issues that educators have identified. We recognize that LAUSD made movement, just not enough.

The district’s proposals have opened the door, and it will be up to all of us to push it further.

Given Trump’s attacks on our communities and his moves to swiftly dismantle the Department of Education and public services, we need the district to commit to bold actions in collaboration with UTLA educators.  

LAUSD failed big on that point when they rejected our proposal on Ethnic Studies, opting to hide behind state-level discussions while the Trump administration and the right wing attack such programs across the country. We will not accept that.

The district says they expect to have counterproposals on all remaining issues at the May 28 session. Those proposals should include salary, class size, staffing, and other key issues.

In the last round of negotiations, LAUSD had $4.9 billion in reserves and pled poverty.  Now they have $6.4 billion. There is no reason why they should not show up on May 28 with proposals that meet our demands on salary, class size, staffing, and the rest of the Win Our Future Platform. We will be ready for that, and if not we will wrap up this school year getting ready to again show LAUSD the power of 38,000 UTLA educators.