[dropcap size=big]I[/dropcap]t could be make or break today. Despite little progress after more than 20 months of back and forth, UTLA, the union representing 34,000 Los Angeles teachers, and Austin Beutner, superintendent of the second largest school district in the country, are back at the negotiating table in yet another last ditch effort to avert a strike.
The woman at the front of these tough talks is a third-generation Japanese American with deep roots in Los Angeles. Her grandparents emigrated from Japan to Boyle Heights. They were incarcerated along with her mother in an internment camp during World War II.
Arlene Inouye is secretary of United Teachers Los Angeles and co-chair of the union’s contract bargaining team. Inouye has 18 years of experience as a Spanish bilingual speech and language specialist. L.A. Taco sat down with her the day before she goes back to the bargaining table with the district.