Sixty-eight thousand education workers in Los Angeles — teachers, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, janitors, special ed assistants — are set to walk out on April 14th. Three separate unions, all at once. You know things are cooked when even the principals are joining the picket line. The district is offering a staggered 4% raise while teachers are pushing for 13% to starting salaries because rent in LA costs more than most people’s entire paycheck. The district is sitting on a billion-dollar reserve fund. They have the money. They just don’t want to spend it on the people who actually run the schools.
Here’s the part that should make you sick: when those 68,000 workers walk, the district says it’ll have to pause meal programs. Meal programs — as in the meals that thousands of kids in one of the poorest districts in the country depend on to eat. The district has turned child hunger into a negotiating chip against the very people who feed those kids every day. Cafeteria workers making poverty wages are being told their strike will starve children. That’s not a labor dispute. That’s a hostage situation run by administrators making six figures.