UTLA/Reclaim Strike Showed What Labor + Community Can Do

​By. Alex Caputo-Pearl
 
In the strike, we won enforceable class size caps (which very few districts have) for the first time in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD).  Before the strike, LAUSD put class size numbers on a page, but they meant nothing because they were not legally enforceable.  There were hundreds of K-3 classes with over 30 students in them, and many high school classes with over 50.  Our victory required every class to come down to cap numbers, impacting classes all over the district at every grade level.  The strike put us in the driver’s seat on class size for the first time--winning enforceable caps in 2019 means we can use every round of bargaining from the strike forward to push caps down. 
In the strike, we won a salary increase among the highest in the state at the time and beat back the district’s attempt to create a two-tier healthcare plan, one of the most insidious attacks on workers and unions.  LAUSD wanted educators hired after 2019 to have a weaker healthcare plan than those hired before 2019.  If we had not won this, our union would have had a divisive dilemma at its core.   
In the strike, we won unprecedented Common Good bargaining victories on racial justice, including:,,,,,
https://convergencemag.com/articles/utla-reclaim-strike-showed-what-labor-community-can-do/