Posts tagged Los Angeles
Matt Welch: L.A. Teachers Union Flunks Math, Blames Billionaires
October 29, 2026 // Faced with LAUSD's "high risk" of insolvency due to plummeting enrollment and increased hiring, the union is railing against a "fake independent analysis" and pushing for two separate wealth taxes.
LAUSD’s insane priorities: Lavish union deals, fewer school cops and bullies running wild
October 27, 2026 // Public employee unions wield enormous influence over LAUSD elections. United Teachers Los Angeles spent roughly $2.4 million each supporting Scott Schmerelson and Karla Griego, and nearly $890,000 backing Rocío Rivas. Those same board members vote on contracts with the unions that spent millions helping elect them. School police, meanwhile, are represented separately. The board approved expensive labor agreements while identifying school police as another place to cut.
California’s billionaire tax divides unions against their leaders
October 27, 2026 // Despite opposition to Prop. 40 from Gov. Gavin Newsom and several major labor groups, teachers in San Francisco and Los Angeles are backing the tax.
Opinion: California’s construction unions are running ads against their own jobs
October 23, 2026 // Construction unions formed an unholy alliance with their longtime enemy, environmentalists, to defeat a ballot measure and, apparently, winning requires burning down their own village. Their coalition recently launched an ad demonizing “dangerous” gas pipelines, industrial warehouses and data centers.
Crisis team: Los Angeles schools face risk of insolvency
October 22, 2026 // Izumi, senior director of the Center for Education at the Pacific Research Institute, characterized the board’s decision on the raise as "governance malpractice." "This fiscal train wreck - you could see it coming from a mile off," Izumi told The Center Square. "One of the big reasons why L.A. is in such bad shape right now is because they agreed to a massive union contract with the teachers that they simply couldn't afford. The board did not look at its funding sources and its potential spending cuts that it would have to do in order to afford the teacher union contract that it was about to sign." Prior to those collective bargaining agreements, the Los Angeles County Office of Education had warned district leaders of escalating county supervision actions if deficit spending continued unchecked.
California superintendent candidate calls out teachers union, says she’s a ‘real threat’ to ‘socialist agenda’
October 1, 2026 // Conservative California superintendent candidate Sonja Shaw told Fox News Digital on Tuesday that she would not back down from confronting the United Teachers Los Angeles union (UTLA), after a circulated video allegedly showed a union leader calling Shaw a "real threat" and warning that her election "would cause a huge problem for us." Shaw, the president of the Chino Valley Unified School District board, pointed to Los Angeles student achievement scores as she accused UTLA of protecting the education establishment rather than focusing on academic outcomes.
Ballot Question 2 asks: Should public defenders have the right to unionize?
September 29, 2026 // Question 2 would allow employees of the Committee for Public Counsel Services, or CPCS, to participate in collective bargaining. If they negotiate a contract, CPCS would then be required to request the funding needed for that agreement from the governor within 30 days. The Yes On 2 campaign was organized to help grant public defenders the right to join a union. The campaign’s central argument states: CPCS employees should have the same opportunity to organize and negotiate collectively that many others have.
What happened to North Hollywood’s Star Garden, the nation’s only unionized strip club
September 24, 2026 // Since the NLRB complaint was filed in 2024, the club has not resumed normal operations with its 17 unionized dancers on an indefinite strike. Without a hearing, it’s uncertain if a union will operate anytime soon in a strip club industry valued at $7.7 billion. The Star Garden owners, Yevgenya “Jenny” Kazaryan and Stepan “Steve” Kazaryan, and their attorneys could not be reached by LA Public Press for comment. Stepan Kazaryan is also the registered owner of Dreams strip club in Wilmington. Other business filings show he owns Pink Diamonds Club in North Hollywood and Burlesque Enterprise Inc.
Ignored by Her Union: LA County Homecare Provider Speaks Out
September 21, 2026 // Dallas, TX — In a video released today by the Freedom Foundation, Shequita Chamberlain, an in-home healthcare provider for her mother, exposes how SEIU 2015 has trapped her in union membership despite never joining, and has continually ignored her requests to opt-out. Chamberlain has been trying to leave SEIU 2015 since 2021. She has sent four certified letters, called repeatedly, emailed, and even showed up in-person at SEIU 2015’s headquarters—only to be turned away under supposed COVID protocols.
L.A. Mayor Karen Bass sends letter to USC president urging administration to drop appeal and allow faculty to unionize
September 7, 2026 // Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass told USC President Beong-Soo Kim she was “concerned” by their move to ask the National Labor Relations Board to evaluate whether university faculty had a right to form a union in a letter Sept. 1.