Thousands of teachers and staff at the Los Angeles Unified School District are expected to rally in downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday as three unions say negotiations with the district have stalled.
United Teachers Los Angeles confirmed to NBC4 that they will announce a potential teacher strike during today’s rally.
According to the union, the strike can be avoided if the union and LAUSD can come to an agreement before the strike date arrives.
If a strike does happen, the hundreds of thousands of students in the district would be impacted.
A similar strike happened in 2019, which lasted six days, and although many schools stayed open, many of them operated with skeleton staff.
Back in March 2023, the Los Angeles teachers union joined SEIU in supporting them during three three-day walk outs.
The two main focuses of the rally set for 4:30 p.m. Wednesday are potential layoffs and salary negotiations.
Amid the ongoing high temperatures, the UTLA alerted attendees to bring water, sun protection and stay hydrated.
The LAUSD is also facing possible layoffs as it faces a nearly $900 million budget shortfall.
The layoff notices are a huge reason for the rally today.
Over 2,000 employees are expected to get notices that their contracts are ending and more than 700 of those positions could be impacted by layoffs, reduced hours, and fewer scheduled days.
According to LAUSD, teachers and counselors will not be cut.