Members of United Teachers Los Angeles have voted overwhelmingly to authorize their leadership to call a strike, increasing pressure as negotiations stall and LA Unified warns of possible staff layoffs and future budget shortfalls.
A similar strike authorization vote is scheduled to begin next week by the school system's other largest union, Service Employees International Union Local 99.
The UTLA vote count was 94% in favor of authorizing the strike and was announced early Saturday morning.
The union is focused on an immediate 16% raise for new teachers, a 3% overall raise in the second year of the contract, and significant automatic pay increases tied to years of experience and continuing education. The district offers 2.5% for the first year of a three-year contract; 2% the next, plus a one-time 1% bonus.
“The current pay scale is so low that thousands of LAUSD educators qualify as low-income for affordable housing,” the union said in a recent statement. Thousands more teachers “barely scrape by just above the median income, living paycheck to paycheck after decades working for the district,” the union statement said.
For speech therapist Kyoko Bristow, who works with elementary school students in Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles, a key issue is staffing ratios.
“I love my job. I love my students. We all love him,” Bristow said. But there are students who do not receive speech therapy, who need it, and many students who receive only some of the services they need to access their education. And that's not right, especially when the district has billions in reserves.”
He is also concerned that pay is well below the cost of living, making it difficult to recruit and retain talented educators.
The minimum annual salary is about $69,000, and veteran teachers with additional educational credits can earn more than $100,000.
The district said it cannot afford the union's proposal.
“Ultimately, we are struggling to achieve this balance that must be struck between multi-year fiscal solvency” and “well-protected students, programs, schools and workforces,” the Los Angeles superintendent of schools said. Alberto Carvalho. “This balance needs to be preserved.”
An authorization vote does not mean the union, which represents about 37,000 workers, will strike, but it gives leaders the power to call a strike without going back to members for an additional vote. Strike authorizations are a pressure tactic that unions apply to demonstrate solidarity and threaten an almost immediate work stoppage.
In addition to classroom teachers, UTLA represents teachers who work outside the classroom, counselors, psychologists, psychiatric social workers, librarians and nurses.
The teachers union participates in a remarkably public bargaining process. Its negotiating team has 150 participants and the union publishes each side's offers and counteroffers online.
Union members are currently working under the terms of a contract that expired on June 30, 2025, so the first year's raise would apply retroactively to the current school year.
Budget Questions
Broadly, the teachers union has focused on the size of the district's reserve last July, which was $5 billion out of a total budget of $18.8 billion.
In contrast, Los Angeles Unified officials have pointed to what they call a massive structural deficit. Specifically, the district is spending more than $2 billion of its revenue, according to the current year's approved budget. And this annual shortfall will continue unless further progress and cost cuts occur. The district estimates it would deplete its reserve and not be able to pay all of its bills within three years.
The $5 billion reserve was built up during the era of COVID-19 relief funding, when the district received more money than it could spend. During that period, the district budgeted for an expansion of 6,000 jobs to support students and families (but 2,000 were never filled), contributing to the multimillion-dollar reserve.
Still, many jobs were filled, and the district also avoided reducing staff at the pace of declining enrollment. With the end of one-time funding for pandemic relief, officials estimate they will have to reduce staff by about 1,200 workers. Last week, the district warned that some layoffs would be necessary. Specific details are expected to be released for school board deliberation in February.
Union leaders maintain that the school system's looming financial crisis is a mirage created by overly cautious accounting assumptions.
Increasing teachers' salaries is a union priority
One of the union's goals is to improve automatic annual pay increases, intended to reward experience and additional education. This would result in higher annual increases without having to negotiate them each contract cycle.
Salaries aside, UTLA's broad, socially conscious platform stems from 665 membership meetings held at schools last year, when the union also sought extensive input from students, parents and other community members.
The union also proposes increasing hiring to better serve students, even as the district announces plans to reduce staff.
In a statement, district officials said UTLA's proposal is unaffordable.
“UTLA's proposals exceed $1.3 billion annually in total cost and amount to more than $4 billion over the three-year contract,” the district said in a statement Friday. “This comes at a time when district revenues continue to decline and a one-time influx of funds from the state is not guaranteed.”
Also on Friday, the district valued its offer to the teachers union at more than $550 million.
“This follows 26% salary increases negotiated between 2021 and 2025,” a district spokesperson said.
Other unions are also pushing to improve contracts
Local 99's 30,000 members are also working under the terms of an expired contract, effective June 30, 2024. Local 99 members include bus drivers, teacher aides, special education aides, custodians and food service workers.
These workers, on average, earn much less than teachers union members.
The two unions last went on strike in 2023, when they held a three-day joint strike. Both unions quickly reached an agreement with the second-largest school district in the country in the wake of that strike: first Local 99 and then UTLA.
Other unions also represent district workers and have also been in negotiations.
Earlier this week, the district reached a tentative agreement with Teamsters Local 572, which represents more than 3,200 workers, including school administrative assistants, food service managers and plant managers.
The agreement includes a 13% pay increase over three years, with 6% retroactive to 2024-25, a 4% increase to 2025-26 and a 3% increase to 2026-27.
All unions have collectively agreed with the district on a health benefits package. UTLA members approved the health care package on the same ballot as the strike authorization, with 99% voting in favor.
