Pickets & Power: 68,000 LA Education Workers Ready to Walkout; AI Strike Hits Newsroom; Union Now Looks to the Unorganized
UTLA reaches TA; 68,000 LA education workers still prepare to strike
A potential strike of up to 68,000 workers across Los Angeles schools is rapidly approaching the April 14 deadline. United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) reached a TA with the district early morning on Sunday, April 12 through the strength of their strike threat. School support staff and administrators with SEIU Local 99 and ALAA Teamsters Local 2010, respectively are still negotiating and planning to strike on April 14 if they don’t have a deal. UTLA has committed to join in a sympathy strike to support their colleagues. This would shut down the second-largest school district in the country, and could be the largest coordinated education strike in years.
At the center of the fight are familiar issues, but they are getting worse: Underfunded schools and staffing shortages, rising cost of living pushing educators out of the profession, overcrowded classrooms and lack of student support.
Beyond these longstanding underfunding of CA public education, educators are also fighting to defend their most vulnerable students from the impacts of the Trump administration on working class and immigrant communities. Educators are dealing with the growing impact of immigration enforcement, ICE raids, and the presence of law enforcement and the National Guard in communities, which are directly affecting students’ ability to learn. Schools are increasingly being asked to absorb the fallout of broader political crises and cuts to programs for working families, without the resources to respond.
At the beginning of the school year, LAUSD had over $5 billion in reserves, and has been called out for committing $10 billion to private multiyear contracts during 2022-2025. This reinforces the core message of the statewide We Can’t Wait campaign: the money is there, it’s just not being spent on our students. After strike victories from Richmond to San Francisco to Sacramento, Los Angeles now represents the crest of a statewide wave – one that is linking contract fights to broader demands for fully funded schools and protections for immigrant communities.
ProPublica workers strike over AI impacts
Roughly 150 workers at ProPublica walked out on April 8, launching a one-day strike in their fight for a first contract with the usage and impacts of artificial intelligence (AI) at the center. Workers are demanding protections against layoffs driven by AI, “just cause” standards, and a say in how AI is implemented in their work, after management introduced new policies without bargaining.
Journalists at ProPublica and other outlets have been raising concerns about how the technology has undermined job security for the entire industry as outlets turn to AI for faster output. This transformation is felt acutely by journalists who see how these tools are being pushed not only as a supplement to their work, but already as a means of replacing them in research, data analysis, writing, and editing.
Ultimately, ProPublica workers have stated they aren’t completely opposed to using new technology as a tool for their reporting, but believe that without proper protections these tools pose a threat to their job security and journalistic ethics and standards.
Add to these threats the decades-long decline of print media. With more outlets closing or downsizing and losses to advertising revenue, the industry has seen work become less and less secure. And more recently the second Trump administration has put a target on journalists critical of his policies and actions.
The attacks on free press have resulted in arrests and trials of journalists – like Don Lemon and Georgia Fort, who were arrested in Minnesota for reporting on anti-ICE protest actions – and Mario Guevara, who faced detention and deportation. All of these challenges feed into the need for these workers to have guarantees of job security in the face of an uncertain future.
“Union Now” launch reflects growing demand for organized labor
A new national effort – Union Now, launched by Sara Nelson, President of the Association of Flight Attendants – is aiming to scale union organizing nationwide, with backing from Senator Bernie Sanders and NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani. The project is focused on supporting new organizing drives and strikes at a moment when more workers are looking to unions as a vehicle for change.
Public approval of unions has surged in recent years, reaching levels not seen in decades, while trust in traditional institutions – from government to corporations – continues to fall. Union Now is an attempt to meet that moment and to turn growing pro-union sentiment into actual organizing and workplace power.
It also reflects a broader recognition inside the labor movement that this is not a normal period we are in. The second Trump administration has carried out some of the biggest assaults on organized labor in years – attempting to eliminate collective bargaining rights for one million federal workers amid mass layoffs, stripping workers of many critical federal protections, and leaving federal labor law enforcement in shambles.
With mass protests, strike waves, and economic pressure building at the same time, there is an opportunity and urgency to expand labor’s reach.
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The Pickets & Power Bulletin covers the biggest stories impacting all working people today. Share these stories with your union siblings, coworkers, friends, and family. Read it together, discuss, and take lessons to strengthen your own fights. When we fight, we win – and when we fight, we learn. Tell us in the comments about campaigns you think we should include in our next bulletin!