A strike by school support staff, including bus drivers, cafeteria workers, and teaching assistants, could happen in Los Angeles next week.

The Los Angeles Times reports:

“Los Angeles schools Supt. Alberto Carvalho said Wednesday morning that he and district negotiators are prepared to meet around the clock to avert a planned three-day strike by unions representing teachers and campus support staff.

His public invitation comes as the school system’s two largest employee unions prepare for a joint rally Wednesday afternoon at Grand Park in downtown Los Angeles. At the rally, union leaders have said they will announce the date of the strike, which could be scheduled for as early as next week.

The strike would shut down schools attended by more than 420,000 students,

‘I have 2, 3, 4 chairs around the table,” Carvalho said at a press conference, “and I commit myself 24/7, day and night … to find a solution that will avoid, will avert a strike that will avoid keeping kids home, will avoid kids from going hungry in our community without access to the food they get in school.’

The anticipated walkout of as many as 65,000 workers would represent the largest and longest full disruption of education in the nation’s second-largest school system since the six-day teachers’ strike of 2019. Not even the campus closures of the COVID-19 pandemic, which lasted more than a year in Los Angeles, resulted in a complete halt to academic instruction . . .

The looming walkout would be led by Local 99 of SEIU. Local 99 represents about 30,000 workers including bus drivers, custodians, cafeteria and other food service workers, campus security aides, teaching assistants and aides for students with disabilities.

Local 99 would be joined in a solidarity strike by UTLA, which represents 35,000 teachers, counselors, therapists, nurses and librarians.”

For the rest of the story, visit the Los Angeles Times here.