Statement for Matt Sedillo – community member
| I’m Matt Sedillo, a member of the Association of Raza Educators, Los Angeles. I serve on the board of ARE as a community member in the role of publicity coordinator.As a grassroots organization of public school educators, university professors, students, and community allies committed to using education as a tool for the liberation of our community, we stand in solidarity with SEIU Local 99. Our siblings in Local 99 are bus drivers, custodians, campus aides, paraprofessionals, cafeteria workers, etc. They do not make a living wage. The average salary of a Local 99 member is $25,000 a year. 24% of Local 99 members have reported they do not have enough food to eat. 1 in 3 Local 99 members has reported being houseless or at a high risk of becoming houseless while working for LAUSD. Their contract expired 2 years ago. Furthermore, many workers do not make enough hours to have health benefits or to make ends meet. The district should invest in full-time employees and minimize “three and four-hour workers.”This is unacceptable. We must stand in solidarity with our SEIU siblings who have been working without a contract for two years. They are an invaluable part of our schools and impact the education of thousands of students in Los Angeles. ARE Los Angeles stands in solidarity with SEIU Local 99 and UTLA? |
Statement for Alfred Mendoza – teacher
| I’m Alfred Mendoza, a member of the Association of Raza Educators, Los Angeles. I serve on the board of ARE as a teacher in the role of secretary.We urge all UTLA members to stand in solidarity with SEIU Local 99 in a “sympathy strike.” Both the UTLA Board of Directors and the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly in favor of a solidarity walkout. Together our education workers’ unions are stronger. When we fight together, we win. The demands are linked in that our working conditions are the students’ learning conditions. Our students deserve fully staffed schools with workers earning a living wage. The community supports us. Recent polling information proves this and we know that the district has more than enough money to spend. Our organization, ARE, understands that public education overall is underfunded and that continued privatization of education and charter school proliferation hurts our communities which is why we are supporting this strike and ongoing labor actions. The most vulnerable in our schools, the underserved, continue to suffer because of the lack of affordable housing which goes hand in hand with gentrification linked to the charter-ization of schools in our neighborhoods. That’s why ARE firmly supports the UTLA Beyond Recovery Platform urging housing solutions for our students and their families such as converting unused district property into low-income housing and providing Section 8 vouchers for families. We want to fight poverty together because we all deserve more. We support the fight to lift our SEIU siblings out of poverty. They should be paid the living wage they deserve as workers who keep our Los Angeles schools functioning.ARE Los Angeles stands in solidarity with SEIU Local 99 and UTLA? |
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