MEDIA ADVISORY
| For Tuesday, June 13, 2017 |
Contact: Blanca Gallegos 213-500-9594, Terry Carter 213-700-5617, |
As the “Cruel Summer” begins…
LAUSD school workers speak-out for fair wages to ease summer crisis for their families
| WHAT: |
As the summer break begins and the LAUSD School Board reviews its budget for next school year, Cafeteria Workers, Custodians, Bus Drivers, Special Education Assistants and other school workers providing essential student services will rally outside LAUSD Headquarters. They will urge the School Board to ensure fair wages for dedicated school workers who struggle to pay for rent, food, and other basic necessities during what many call the “cruel summer.”
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| WHY: |
During the school year, nearly 30,000 dedicated school workers at LAUSD help children learn to read, safety transport thousands of students to and from school every day, ensure children don’t go to class hungry, and make sure that students learn in a clean, safe, and supportive environment. Yet, during the summer break they struggle to provide for their own children. Many collect cans, line up at food banks, or are forced into an endless cycle of debt just to make ends meet. While the minimum wage at LAUSD has increased to $15/hour in the last year, LAUSD continues to depend on a largely part time and seasonal workforce to provide critical student services. A majority of school workers—many them parents of LAUSD students and members of the predominantly Black and Latino communities they serve—are employed for only 10 months and average an annual salary of $22,500. Low wages for parents mean students too often don’t have the stability at home that they need to succeed in school. Furthermore, during the summer break, school workers are not eligible to receive state unemployment insurance benefits and most cannot find additional work because many employers are reluctant to hire and train short term employees. A bill currently in the state legislature, AB621, would help lessen the economic insecurity faced by school workers by setting up a voluntary Summer Bridge Fund. SEIU Local 99 school workers are currently in contract negotiations with the District. They are urging the School Board to support a budget that lifts schools and raises communities with: fair wages so dedicated school workers can raise their families with dignity and stability, greater training opportunities to grow more teachers from local communities, and improved staffing levels for critical student programs and services including school cleanliness, special education, and parent engagement.
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| WHO: |
Cafeteria workers, bus drivers, special education assistants, custodians and other school workers.
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| WHEN: |
Tuesday, June 13, 2017 10:30 am: Rally and Speak-out outside LAUSD Board Room 1:30 pm (approx.): Cafeteria Worker, Special Education Assistant speak during LAUSD Board Meeting
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| WHERE: |
LAUSD Headquarters 333 S. Beaudry Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90005 |
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SEIU Local 99 is a union of 35,000 education workers in K-12 schools, early education centers and homes, administrative offices, and community colleges throughout Southern California, including 30,000 cafeteria workers, teacher aides, custodians, bus drivers and others providing essential student services at LAUSD schools. Nearly 50% of SEIU Local 99 members are also parents or guardians of school-aged children.
