For Immediate Release October 19, 2022
Contact Blanca Gallegos 213-500-9594, bgallegos@seiu99.org

Los Angeles, CA – Cafeteria workers, custodians, special education assistants and other workers providing essential student services at the Los Angeles Unified School District led informational picket lines in front of school sites on Wednesday, October 19 to protest the harassment and intimidation they have been subjected to in retaliation for their union activity.

Workers at LAUSD are currently in contract negotiations with the district. Their demands include improved wages and more full-time work. As they have attempted to discuss the status of negotiations with their co-workers, union members have been subjected to surveillance, intimidation, and harassment.

In one of the most egregious incidents, a principal at 75th Street Elementary threatened Special Education Assistant Rosa Perasa with arrest, called the police into the school and aggressively pushed a table to block Rosa from posting union information on a bulletin board.

“I felt humiliated and discriminated against for simply exercising my rights to speak with workers about our union contract,” says Rosa Perasa. “I am a parent with a child at LAUSD and 5-year employee of the school district. But none of this mattered. They abused their power and were trying to silence me and intimidate my co-workers in the worst way possible. The district must treat us with respect.”

SEIU Local 99, the union representing nearly 30,000 school workers at LAUSD has filed unfair practice charges with the Public Employment Relations Board to demand an end to the district’s unlawful activity.

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SEIU Local 99 represents 50,000 education workers throughout Los Angeles, Ventura and San Bernardino Counties, including nearly 30,000 food service workers, custodians, special education assistants, bus drivers and other essential workers providing student services at the Los Angeles Unified School District.