More than 30,000 public school employees in California are set to walk off their jobs on Monday unless Los Angeles district officials approve a package that meets union officials’ funding demands.
The Los Angeles Times reports that Friday meetings between district officials and teachers union negotiators ended with no deal after the union rejected the city’s most recent offer, which would have decreased class sizes and provided an in-school nurse at every Los Angeles-area elementary school.
Union officials quickly rejected that plan, the Times reports, while criticizing the district for offering piecemeal, temporary concessions that would expire in a year.
“Get ready,” United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) President Alex Caputo-Pearl said at a Friday news conference, according to the Times. “Because on Monday we will go on strike for our students, for our schools and for the future of public education in Los Angeles.”
Los Angeles schools Superintendent Austin Beutner fired back, accusing the union of not negotiating in good faith and arguing that any further concessions would throw the district into bankruptcy.