Nearly 5,000 public school teachers went on strike Monday over $400,000 worth of health benefits - the first walkout in New Orleans schools since 1978.
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Union president Nat Lacour said the Orleans Parish School Board's refusal to bend on health benefits that demand triggered the strike. He reinstated earlier demands that had been dropped during bargaining, for a $45 million package that includes pay raises for the system's teachers plus 1,100 teachers' aides and school secretaries.The school board insisted that classes would continue almost as usual for more than 84,000 pupils, with substitute teachers and administrators replacing teachers who refused to cross picket lines.