Was the three-day strike earlier this month by Los Angeles Unified School District’s (LAUSD) two unions illegal?
An administrative judge for California’s Public Employee Relations Board may soon decide.
Last week, SEIU Local 99—the union representing LAUSD’s 30,000 cafeteria workers, bus drivers, custodians, and special education assistants—went on strike from March 21 through March 23.
United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA), the union representing 35,000 LAUSD teachers, joined the strike, halting classes for the district’s 420,000 students.
In the days leading up to the strike, LAUSD filed charges March 18 with the relations board asking it to issue an injunction to halt the strike, and alleged in a complaint that the strike was illegal because it was declared before the union completed the step-by-step process for negotiations, as required by the board….