LOS ANGELES — The strike by tens of thousands of public school employees in Los Angeles, the nation’s second-largest district, comes against a backdrop of growing economic inequality in the state and a surging cost of living.
On Wednesday, the second day of the planned three-day work stoppage that has left classrooms for 420,000 students sitting vacant, the striking cafeteria workers, gardeners and other service employees said they were on the picket lines to demand raises that would keep up with rising costs in the region.
The strike has affected hundreds of thousands of families who are also straining under the weight of an increasingly expensive city. Most students enrolled in the Los Angeles Unified School District come from low-income households.
Because the strike was called specifically to protest what the service workers’ union says are unfair negotiating tactics by the district, it is being conducted with some protection for workers who walk out, the union said. But under the law, such a strike must have a set time limit. Classes are scheduled to resume on Friday.
The union — Local 99 of the Service Employees International Union — is seeking a 30 percent pay increase for roughly 30,000 teachers’ assistants, bus drivers, custodians and cafeteria workers, many of whom the union says are paid little more than the minimum wage. The Los Angeles teachers’ union, which is also negotiating a contract, is not a party to the dispute, but it asked its 35,000 members to walk...
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