LAUSD teachers, administrators ratify contracts, averting strike

Los Angeles Unified School District administrators and teachers ratified new labor contracts Friday, averting a planned strike that would have forced school closures across the nation's second-largest school district.

The agreements, reached on the eve of a planned walkout, deliver wage increases and workload protections for thousands of LAUSD employees — and signal the leverage that coordinated union action carries in one of the country's largest public school systems.

The Associated Administrators of Los Angeles/Teamsters Local 2010, which represents roughly 3,000 district administrators, ratified its contract with 96% approval, ABC7 Los Angeles reported. United Teachers Los Angeles also approved its agreement. Results from Service Employees International Union Local 99 — representing about 30,000 bus drivers, custodians, cafeteria workers and special education assistants — remained pending Friday.

The administrators' contract delivers a 12.15% wage increase phased over two years: 2% retroactive to July 1, 2025; 2% retroactive to January 1, 2026; 4% effective July 1, 2026; and 3.65% beginning January 1, 2027, according to ABC7. Principals in priority schools or single-administrator schools with 275 or more students will also receive a $5,000 annual stipend.

Union officials said the pact adds workload protections, including "a defined 8-hour workday, a reasonable 40-hour workweek, and flex time with notice and no pre-approval."

Maria Nichols, president of AALA/Teamsters Local 2010, credited member solidarity for forcing the district's hand. "This contract, and the gains won across the LAUSD workforce, are the result of our members standing together and exercising their collective power," Nichols said in a statement. "Administrators made it clear we would not be used to hold the system together while our brothers and sisters fought for basic respect. We stood shoulder to shoulder with our union siblings, and that unity forced LAUSD to deliver real change."

"This victory belongs to the members who organized, took action, and refused to settle for less," she added.

Ratification results from SEIU Local 99, whose roughly 30,000 members were among those set to walk out alongside teachers and administrators, had not yet been announced as of Friday, City News Service reported.