A massive three-day strike calling for better wages and working conditions for some of Los Angeles public schools’ lowest paid employees — bus drivers, custodians, special education assistants and others — kicked off early Tuesday, with picketers marching through the dark, rainy morning. Those striking school employees, joined in solidarity by the teachers union, shuttered…

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Last-minute talks failed to avert a Tuesday strike that will shut down Los Angeles public schools and lead to a massive disruption in the nation’s second-largest school system. There had been some hope of averting the walkout based on the formal resumption Monday afternoon of discussions between the school district and the union that is…

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If a lightbulb burns out at the preschool where she works, Bernice Young climbs a ladder to change it. If playground trees shed their leaves, she comes out with the leaf-blower. She mops the restroom stalls and shampoos the classroom carpets. For generations of 2-to-5-year-olds who call her Miss Bernice, she has brought the blankets…

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After Alberto Carvalho’s first three months as superintendent of the Los Angeles schools, Nery Paiz, president of the district’s administrators’ union, predicted the job would only “get exponentially harder.” He was right. Thirteen months into his post as chief of the nation’s second-largest district, the former Miami-Dade superintendent has had to contend with declining enrollment,…

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A last-ditch legal effort by the Los Angeles school district has failed for now to avert a three-day strike and school closures scheduled for Tuesday, but district officials said Sunday that their case remains under consideration by a state labor board and that a decision could come as soon as Monday. L.A. Unified had argued…

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Los Angeles Unified officials are mounting a last-ditch legal challenge to stall or prevent a three-day strike that would shut down classrooms across the nation’s second-largest school district starting on Tuesday. The district has asked state labor regulators to issue an injunction to halt the strike, alleging that it is illegal. District sources acknowledged that they don’t…

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A potentially crippling strike by service workers that would shut down Los Angeles Unified School District campuses for three days was looming large Friday, with little hope of any resolution being reached before the planned Tuesday walkout. It was unclear when, or if, the Service Employees International Local 99 union — representing roughly 30,000 cafeteria…

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