VOA慢速英语2019 数千名教师在洛杉矶罢工（在线收听）

Thousands of Teachers Strike in Los Angeles

Tens of thousands of teachers went on strike Monday in Los Angeles, California.

加州洛杉矶市数万名教师周一继续罢工。

The teachers acted after contract negotiations failed.

这些教师在合同谈判失败后采取了行动。

"Students, we are striking for you," said teachers union President Alex Caputo-Pearl. He spoke to a cheering crowd of teachers marching in the rain.

教师工会主席Alex Caputo-Pearl说，“学生们，我们是为你们而罢工。”他向一群在雨中欢呼游行的老师发表了讲话。

Los Angeles is the second-largest school district in the United States.

洛杉矶是美国第二大学区。

Members of United Teachers Los Angeles voted last year to call a strike if the union and school district failed to reach an agreement. The teachers want higher wages and smaller class sizes.

洛杉矶教师工会成员去年投票同意，如果工会和学区不能达成协议就罢工。这些教师希望提高工资并缩减班级规模。

Months of negotiations between the two sides ended without a deal. It follows teacher strikes in other states.

双方经过数月谈判未能达成协议，其它州也发生了教师罢工。

Substitutes working for striking teachers

代课教师上场

The union has 35,000 members. Schools are open in the Los Angeles Unified School District, which serves 640,000 students.

教师工会有3.5万名会员。洛杉矶联合学区的学校有64万名学生。

The school district has hired hundreds of substitute teachers to work during the strike. The union calls that irresponsible and has called on parents to consider keeping students home or join marchers.

学区在罢工期间聘请了数百名代课教师。工会称这是不负责任的，并呼吁家长考虑让孩子不上学或者加入游行。

The district argues that the union's demands could lead to financial ruin. The school system says it expects a $500-million deficit this budget year. Billions of dollars are required for payments and health care for retired teachers.

学区辩称工会的要求可能会导致金融危机。学区表示，预计这个预算年度会出现5亿美元的赤字。退休教师的工资和医保需要数十亿美元。

Negotiations were suspended in December, and re-started this month, but little progress was evident in the contract dispute. The union rejected a district offer Friday. It proposed to add almost 1,200 teachers, guidance professionals, health care workers and librarians and reduce class size by two students.

谈判于12月暂停，并于本月重新开始，但是合同纠纷的进展甚微。工会拒绝了学区周五的开出的条件。学区提出增加近1200名教师、指导专家、医护人员以及图书管理员，并把班级规模减少2名学生。

The offer also included a proposed six percent pay raise over the first two years of a three-year contract. The teachers’ union wanted a 6.5 percent increase at the start of a two-year deal. The union also wants considerably smaller classes, now often filled by more than 30 students. The union is demanding more nurses, librarians and counselors to "fully staff" schools.

学区开出的条件还包括拟在三年合约的头两年涨薪6%。教师工会希望在两年合约一开始就涨薪6.5%。工会还希望相对更小的班级，现在班级经常超过了30多名学生。工会要求提供更多保育员、图书管理员和辅导员在学校全职工作。

The 'Red4Ed' movement

Red4Ed运动

Teachers are hoping to build on the "Red4Ed" movement that began last year in West Virginia and moved to five other states. It spread from conservative states with "right to work" laws, which limit the ability to strike, to the more liberal West Coast, with strong unions.

教师们希望以去年在西弗吉尼亚州开始并扩大到其它五个州的Red4Ed运动为基础。该运动保守州开始，这些州拥有限制罢工权利的工作权利法，蔓延到了更加自由的西海岸，这些地区拥有强大的工会。

Such actions energized Los Angeles teachers, Caputo-Pearl said before the strike.

Caputo-Pearl在罢工前表示，这类行动激励了洛杉矶教师。

The labor union argues that the school district has $1.8 billion that could be used to finance the pay and staffing increases. The district said that money is meant for retiree benefits and other costs.

工会认为，学区有18亿美元可用于提高薪水和增加人员。学区表示，这笔钱要用于退休人员的福利和其它开支。

School district Superintendent Austin Beutner asked Friday for California Governor Gavin Newsom to get involved to try to avoid a strike.

学区负责人Austin Beutner周五要求加州州长Gavin Newsom参与进来设法避免罢工。

The union says Beutner, an investment banker and former Los Angeles deputy mayor, and school board members are trying to privatize the district.

工会表示，作为投资银行家和前洛杉矶副市长的Beutner，以及学校董事会成员正试图把学区私有化。

The union says Beutner and the school board support calls for school closures. It says they are turning public schools into charter schools. Charters are privately operated public schools that compete for students and financial support.

工会表示，Beutner和学校董事会支持关闭学校。它说他们正在把公立学校变成特许学校。特许学校是争夺学生和财政支持的私营公立学校。

Beutner has said his plan to reorganize the school district would improve services to students and families. He and his supporters on the board want to create an education system with public and charter schools under the same leadership.

Beutner表示，他计划重组学校，这将会改善向学生和家庭提供的服务。他和董事会支持者希望建立一个学校体系，让公立和特许学校接受统一领导。

I’m Caty Weaver.

Words in This Story

hire – v. to give work or a job to (someone) in exchange for wages or a salary

substitute – n. a person or thing that takes the place of someone or something else

benefit – n. money that is paid by a company or by a government when someone dies, becomes sick or stops working

staff – v. to supply (an organization or business) with workers

librarian – n. a specialist in the care of books, magazines, documents and other records