Hundreds of thousands of students in Los Angeles Unified School District woke up Tuesday to districtwide school closures as employees of the nation's second-largest school district began a massive three-day strike.

The district's 30,000 service workers, members of the Service Employees International Union Local 99, began picketing on Tuesday as collective bargaining negotiations between the school district and the union have so far failed to reach an agreement. The walkout means more than 600,000 students from more than 1,000 schools are sitting at home.

LOS ANGELES SCHOOL WORKERS PLAN MASSIVE STRIKE TO SHUT DOWN PUBLIC EDUCATION

Damian Dovarganes/AP

The service workers, including bus drivers and cafeteria workers, are seeking improved working conditions and higher pay and have accused LAUSD of negotiating in bad faith and subjecting the union to intimidation and harassment. The service workers are being joined on the picket line by the United Teachers Los Angeles.

“As LAUSD parents and workers, SEIU Local 99 members know a strike will be a sacrifice but the school district has pushed workers to take this action,” SEIU Local 99 Executive Director Max Arias said last week. “Families have been sacrificing for far too long on poverty wages. Students have been sacrificing for too long in school environments that are not clean, safe, or supportive for all. Too many workers have been subjected to harassment simply for demanding change. Enough is enough!”

District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho criticized the strike in a statement Monday, saying, "We should not be depriving our students of an opportunity to learn," in particular pointing to lost learning thanks to school shutdowns during the coronavirus pandemic.

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“We do not need to debate or litigate the fact that during the pandemic, kids lost a lot of ground,” Carvalho tweeted. "Reading and math proficiency were hit especially hard, particularly kids who are English language learners, students in poverty and students with disabilities. They cannot afford to be out of school and that is why I am appealing directly to the union leadership to engage and negotiate in good faith and find a solution that addresses the needs of all, including our students."

In a follow-up tweet, the superintendent wrote that the union and the district can "find a solution that dignifies our workforce and avoids an unnecessary shutdown of schools while protecting the long term viability of the school system."