LA Teachers Won a Safe Schools Reopening by Organizing
United Teachers of Los Angeles won a strong health and safety agreement ahead of returning to classrooms later this month. They won it the old-fashioned way: organizing rank-and-file teachers to demand an agreement that benefits teachers, parents, and students.
A teacher at Westminster Elementary School in Venice joins demonstrators in a car caravan in downtown Los Angeles on February 20, 2021. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
After a year of remote classes, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) will soon welcome cohorts of students back to school campuses for hybrid learning now that Los Angeles County is in the “red tier,” the second-highest tier of COVID risk levels after the “purple tier,” as designated by the California Department of Public Health.
Opening campuses will affect more than just students and teachers. LAUSD schools are central to the communities they serve. LA County has been in the purple tier for most of the 2020–21 school year, but it has finally transitioned to red, which allows for in-person instruction. LAUSD’s superintendent, Austin Beutner, announced an April 19 elementary campus phased reopening after the “Sideletter Agreement” with United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), the city teachers’ union of which I am a member, was finalized.
The agreement isn’t perfect, but it is very strong. That strength wasn’t benevolently bestowed upon us by district management, of course — it’s the product of our union’s insistence on a safe reopening, backed up by years of rank-and-file organizing (including our 2019 strike) and an orientation toward bargaining for the common good.
This article is for subscribers only. Please login or subscribe to access our full archives and beautiful print and digital magazine starting at just $3 a month.