420,000 pupils in Los Angeles are absent due to the education strike!!

Image provided via CNN

In Los Angeles, the second-largest school system in the country, approximately 500,000 kids had their classes canceled on Tuesday as 30,000 education professionals supported by the teachers' union went on a three-day strike. 

Many Service Employees International Union Local 99, including school bus drivers, custodians, school canteen employees, and classroom assistants, are currently making what the union labels "poverty wages," which average $25,000 annually. 

In front of the Los Angeles Unified School District's administrative offices, thousands of protestors rallied and resolved to keep up their picketing for an additional two days under the slogan "United for L.A. Schools." 

A special education teacher named Findlay Bunting spoke out in favor of the striking employee.

This school system is underfunded. As teachers, we spend a lot of time with the support staff. They're just magnificent. They've been underpaid for years.

Striking employees carried placards that said, "Respect Us!" at a previous picket at a school bus yard while marching in the pouring rain. 

The 35,000 members of the teachers' union United Teachers Los Angeles support the service workers and have refused to cross their picket line. 

The work stoppage is the most recent in a string of labor actions taken by teachers nationwide who have been protesting burnout and poor pay, resulting in a teacher shortage in many areas of the nation. 

Superintendent of L.A. schools Alberto Carvalho recognized that employees had been paid inadequately for several years and vowed to negotiate an agreement. 

Staff burnout has long been a concern for education professionals. These worries escalated due to the coronavirus epidemic, which increased the strain on teachers and caused many of them to quit their jobs in search of higher salaries in the private sector. 

In a study conducted by the National Education Association, the most prominent labor organization in the United States, last year, 55% of educators indicated they were considering quitting the field, and 86% said more of their peers have left since the epidemic began.

Four hundred twenty thousand kids who depend on schools for food, counseling, and other social services have disrupted their classes by the strike. Almost 124,000 meals were distributed by volunteers and school system staff on Tuesday at dozens of meal and safe-place locations across the city, according to the district. 

The union asks for a 30% pay raise and an additional $2 per hour for the lowest-paid employees. It claimed that 96% of its membership had approved the strike.