For Release: Monday, January 15, 2018
LOS ANGELES — For the fifth year in a row, hundreds of teacher and special education assistants, school custodians, cafeteria workers, bus drivers, child care providers and other dedicated education workers who make up SEIU Local 99 honored Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy by participating in the annual Kingdom Day Parade. This year, workers highlighted Dr. King’s deep commitment to unionism as a way for people of color to improve their lives.
Carrying picket signs reminiscent of the ones held up during the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the union members’ picket signs read: “We Demand Quality Schools for All LAUSD Students Now!” and “We Fight for Freedom and Equality Now!” These spoke to their dissatisfaction over their ongoing, nearly year-long contract negotiations with the Los Angeles Unified School District, the second largest in the nation. School service workers employed by LAUSD are predominantly Black and Latino and despite the essential student services they provide, their work is relegated to low wage, part time status.
“Dr. King believed that you couldn’t achieve racial justice without economic justice,” Local 99 Executive Director Max Arias said. “We saw that reflected in his courageous support for Memphis’s 1,300 black sanitation workers in 1968. He literally died fighting for their right to have a union. And although tragically he didn’t live to see that campaign through, those sanitation workers ultimately won their union. It’s that same spirit of justice that is fueling our fight for quality schools and better lives.”
Marchers also highlighted Dr. King’s work to ensure equal access to a quality education for all students. They raised awareness about staffing shortages that are impacting the quality of student services at LAUSD.
“Our children’s education is suffering right now because our schools are so understaffed,” said Tanya Walters, an LAUSD Bus Driver and Vice President of SEIU Local 99. “Students with special needs aren’t getting the services they need. Our schools are dirtier. There are locked bathrooms because there’s no custodians to clean them. Students get dropped off at school late because there are fewer school bus drivers. I’m here today because I want the School Board members to know that us LAUSD employees and our children, many of them LAUSD students, deserve much better. I think Dr. King would agree. It’s an injustice that LAUSD students, a majority of them Black and Latino, don’t have the full resources they need to succeed in school and life.”
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SEIU Local 99 represents 35,000 employees in public and non-public organizations in early education, child care, K-12, and community college levels. SEIU Local 99 members are: Teacher’s Assistants, Playground Workers, Special Education Assistants, Bus Drivers, Gardeners, Custodians, Cafeteria Workers, Maintenance Workers, Family Service Workers, Child Care Providers, and others working in schools, colleges, and administrative offices throughout Southern California.
