This year’s teachers strike has reached Los Angeles. Members of the United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) recently voted to authorize a strike, with 98 percent of teachers voting in favor. The union says the Los Angeles United School District (LAUSD), under its new superintendent Austin Beutner, is pushing a charterization, privatization, and austerity agenda.

UTLA, meanwhile, is part of a growing national union movement centered on “bargaining for the common good,” with demands and proposals that have come from months of working with community organizations, students, and parents.

Alex Caputo-Pearl worked as a teacher for twenty-two years in the Compton and Los Angeles school districts before being elected UTLA president in 2014. He recently spoke with Suzi Weissman for her podcast on Jacobin Radio, which you can listen and subscribe to here.