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JUST IN: Courtni Pugh, executive director of SEIU 99, steps down*
*UPDATED with response from Courti Pugh The Executive Director of SEIU Local 99, LA Unified’s school workers union, announced today she is stepping down to take a job in Sacramento. Cournti Pugh, who’s been at the helm of the local union for four years, announced her plans today on SEIU’s website and Facebook page. Pugh...
By Vanessa Romo | June 24, 2014
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LAUSD school board candidate drops out, replaced by her twin
Barbara Torres, the president of SEIU 99, one of the most powerful unions in the Los Angeles school district, said today she is stepping aside in the 2015 race for school board in District 5, currently held by school board member Bennett Kayser. Torres said she made her decision after a story in LA School Report...
By Vanessa Romo | May 16, 2014
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SEIU Local 99 outlines its contract demands from LA Unified
SEIU Local 99, the union of cafeteria workers, custodians, bus drivers, special education assistants who work for LA Unified announced today it is seeking a minimum of $15 an hour for all workers who currently earn less than that and a 15 percent raise for all workers who earn more. The union thus became the...
By LA School Report | May 8, 2014
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SEIU 99 president — and board candidate — a union concern
Barbara Torres, president of SEIU Local 99, the local school workers union with 45,000 members, is raising alarms within the union over her intention to run for an LA Unified school board seat. The potential conflict is over her role as a member of the union’s bargaining committee, which is negotiating a new labor contract...
By Vanessa Romo | April 23, 2014
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SEIU 99 decides not to endorse a candidate for District 1 board seat
SEIU Local 99, the service employees union, which represents more than 30,000 cafeteria workers, custodians, bus drivers, special education assistants and other school support staff at LAUSD, has decided not to endorse a candidate for the district’s vacant District 1 Board seat. The local is the largest labor unit within LA Unified that chose not...
By LA School Report | April 14, 2014
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SEIU Local 99 starting process to endorse District 1 candidate
SEIU Local 99, one of the most powerful and influential unions in the LA Unified School District, is holding an exclusive forum next week for union members to meet the candidates running for the open District 1 board seat. With more than 30,000 cafeteria workers, special education assistants, custodians, bus drivers and others, the union...
By Yana Gracile | March 24, 2014
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Service Workers Union Looking to Expand LA Unified Role
For years, the SEIU Local 99 has been “the other union” in LAUSD. Representing custodians, cooks, bus drivers and other “classified” workers, the union is just as politically influential, if not more so, than the teachers union, UTLA. And yet its voice is rarely heard in policy debates. That might be about to change. In...
By Hillel Aron | October 4, 2013
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Joe Nunez, CTA Head, No. 2 Again in ‘Capitol Weekly’ 100
Capitol Weekly’s annual Top 100 list — what it calls a “subjective ranking of unelected political players” — is out, and for the second year in a row, Joe Nunez, the head of the California Teachers Association, is #2, just behind Ann Gust, who is Governor Jerry Brown‘s wife. The paper called the 325,000 member...
By Hillel Aron | August 21, 2013
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Deasy’s School Breakfast Gambit Confuses Supporters
On Thursday, LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy unexpectedly announced that he was putting a controversial classroom breakfast program’s fate in the hands of the School Board. The possible elimination of a program Southern California Public Radio described as “a political hot potato” presumably pleased the teachers union, which has long called for its end. But Deasy’s plan to remove...
By Samantha Oltman | April 29, 2013
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SEIU Local 99 Wins Highlight Value of Field Operations
Unlike the closely watched Coalition for School Reform and the teachers union, SEIU Local 99 — which represents LAUSD classified employees like cafeteria workers and custodians — came out of Tuesday’s election an unequivocal winner. The union was two for three on election night, having backed both Monica Garcia and Steve Zimmer — and could...
By Hillel Aron | March 7, 2013