Posts tagged support staff
Opinion Editorial Board: There is no right to strike against public schools
April 14, 2026 // Government also can’t go out of business. Demands, no matter how exorbitant, can always be paid through higher taxes, which is what’s certain to now happen in Los Angeles. A 2021 paper found that school districts under pressure from collective bargaining raise spending with no improvements in student outcomes. It’s not as though LAUSD is a cheapskate district. The average teacher earns six figures, and the district covers 100 percent of teachers’ health insurance premiums. Teachers’ starting pay for the district is higher than teachers’ median pay for the country as a whole. Average spending per student has risen from $17,798 in 2020-2021 to $29,616 in 2024-2025.
Talks Resume Today Ahead of Potential LAUSD Strike Next Week
April 9, 2026 // Even a partial agreement may not be enough to keep schools open. If one or more unions fail to reach a deal, district officials have indicated that maintaining normal operations would be nearly impossible. Right now, union leaders are projecting unity across roles that don’t always align. In a statement, UTLA President Cecily Myart-Cruz emphasized that educators and school staff are “ready to act” next Tuesday, if meaningful progress isn’t made.
Aurora School Board Approves Union for Support Staffers
February 19, 2026 // Since August, dozens of classified employees at APS have been wearing red shirts and rallying at the board of education meetings whenever their potential union popped up on the agenda, which happened in August, October, January and finally this month. Classified employees have said that they need a union for better pay and benefits as the cost of living rises, as well as protection from retaliation when they speak out, better retention of long-time classified staff and better training for their replacements. According to APS estimates, the district has about 1,800 classified employees.
Aurora Public Schools Support Staff Losing Support for Union Efforts
October 24, 2025 // At an APS board meeting on Tuesday, October 21, a few dozen APS classified employees such as cafeteria workers, secretaries and preschool and special education teachers rallied and then spoke during the public comments to renew their call for a union, which they had first brought up in mid-August. With the school semester fully underway, Cy Alison, a pre-school facilitator at the Sable Child Development Center, told Westword that “it’s extremely stressful” to keep up the fight while trying to work.
Unionized doctors picket outside Allina clinics in first for Minnesota
June 4, 2025 // Braving rain and willdfire-induced bad air, the physicians at times seemed unfamiliar with picket line practices: A SEIU staff member shouted out instructions on picketing — where to start walking and where to pivot back — before they started. More than once the group seemed to forget to keep moving and came to a standstill, while two people led competing chants at different paces, muddying what’s typically a clear call-and-response. But nevertheless, they got their point across. Physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants are sure to become more practiced in blue collar labor demonstrations in the years to come as unionization increases. Just this year, resident physicians at Hennepin Healthcare and the University of Minnesota unionized with SEIU’s Committee of Interns and Residents, one of the fastest growing health care unions in the country.
NEW YORK: Contract Deal Poised to End Months-Long Legal Worker Strike
May 23, 2024 // In a statement accompanying the union’s announcement, paralegal and bargaining team member Ella Abeo said workers presented contract demands back in November “aiming to promote racial and economic justice by lifting wages, sustaining healthcare, and improving workplace equity.”
Planned Parenthood Northern California workers move to unionize
January 25, 2024 // Planned Parenthood Northern California workers announced their unionization efforts today at all of the nonprofit’s 18 regional locations, including a San Francisco health center at 1522 Bush St. A “supermajority” of the organization’s hundreds of clinicians, nurses, social workers, administrative and support staff voiced their support for the forthcoming union, PPNorCal United, through union authorization cards, according to Service Employees International Union Local 1021, which PPNorCal United intends to join. Chelsea Fink, a communications specialist with SEIU 1021, said the union drive grew rapidly over the past two months, fueled by the short staffing and scheduling issues that have plagued Planned Parenthood since the Supreme Court ended federal protections for abortion rights in June 2022.
Opinion: California’s minimum wage woes are a cautionary tale for the nation
January 10, 2024 // California politicians seem to have a penchant for doing whatever they can to reduce housing affordability and otherwise increase the cost of living in the state — high taxes, burdensome labor and environmental mandates, waste for boondoggles like the high-speed rail project and countless other laws and regulations. Then they attempt to be saviors by passing still more laws to benefit one group or another and alleviate the situation they have largely created.
Student workers at Cal Poly Humboldt, other Cal State schools, get the OK to hold a union vote
October 4, 2023 // California State University student workers are one step closer to unionizing after announcing Tuesday that the California Public Employment Relations Board has deemed there is enough student support to trigger a union vote. After vetting thousands of union cards submitted by student assistants, the board notified the CSU Employees Union on Sept. 27 they met the threshold following a wave of organizingthis past year. Over 19,300 student assistants will soon vote on forming one of the largest student worker unions in U.S. history. Their ranks would more than double the size of the employees union, which already represents 16,000 support staff across the 23 campuses.
L.A. schools would close if union workers go on massive three-day strike, Supt. Carvalho says
March 14, 2023 // United Teachers Los Angeles, which also is in contract talks, has advised its members that they should walk out in solidarity with Local 99 to ratchet up pressure on the district. Local 99 has described the strike as an unfair labor practice charge walkout in protest of alleged illegal actions by L.A. Unified during the negotiations process. Such strikes typically last for a fixed duration and can be staged without going through all the steps of bargaining that typically precede an open-ended strike, according to the unions. The union bargaining platform is extensive, covering a range of workplace and social-justice issues, including a commitment to extra resources for Black students and affordable housing for low-income families.