Hundreds of thousands of kids have no school and over 65,000 Los Angeles Unified School District union workers are on strike. Now, a top union boss admits it’s all about creating leverage for future negotiations. Cecily Myart-Cruz runs United Teachers Los Angeles. She says “every visual [that] LAUSD gets of our solidarity is good for our ability to win a good contract.”
She goes on to say the current strike over SEIU service workers is really a way to scare new Superintendent Alberto Carvalho when the teacher’s union is negotiating their own contract:
“The superintendent has never seen a strike up close before. And we need him to look at these three days and decide he doesn’t want anything to do with that ever again.”
Carvalho says he’s ready to negotiate at any time. The strike is expected to last through Thursday.