Over 35,000 teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), members of United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), are set to vote on strike authorization from January 27 to 29, 2026. This move comes as the union bureaucracy is pushing for a separate vote on a concessionary healthcare bargaining tentative agreement reached with the district last December, which shifts costs to teachers through higher co-pays and deductibles.
The scheduling of a strike authorization vote reflects a profound buildup of anger among teachers and the working class in California and nationally. With 40,000 academic workers across the University of California system preparing to strike and 30,000 school support workers in LAUSD moving toward their own strike vote, the situation is escalating.
Across California, districts are reaching an impasse and preparing job actions. San Francisco educators are concluding a second strike authorization vote, while five Sacramento-area districts are described by unions as “strike ready” for spring 2026. The struggle is not isolated, with nurses striking in New York and preparing job actions at Kaiser facilities in California and Hawaii.
The strike authorization vote expresses a profound buildup of anger, not only among teachers but across the working class in California and nationally.
"Los Angeles teachers face especially brutal conditions, with the city being among the most expensive in the world yet starting pay for LAUSD educators being only about $65,000 a year. About 21 percent of full-time teachers qualify as low income for affordable housing programs, and 28 percent rely on second jobs to survive.
Teachers must vote YES for strike authorization and NO on the healthcare sellout. To win their fight, they must take the struggle out of the hands of a bureaucracy determined to contain and betray them. The objective necessity is to expand the fight, prepare for a general strike, and transform the struggle into a conscious political movement of the working class.
Teachers must vote YES for strike authorization and NO on the healthcare sellout. But to win their fight, they must take the struggle out of the hands of a bureaucracy determined to contain and betray them.
"The defense of public education, healthcare, and democratic rights requires the formation of independent rank-and-file committees, controlled by workers themselves, linking educators across districts and states and uniting with other sections of the working class. Learn more about how you can support this movement
