Thousands of Los Angeles city workers plan to halt municipal operations for at least 24 hours on Tuesday after they say city administrators fell short of addressing employee resources and hiring more staff.
SEIU Local 721, which represents more than 98,000 county and city employees across Southern California, announced last weekend it plans to protest city management and other “unfair labor practices restricting employee and union rights,” according to a statement from union officials reported by ABC7. At least 11,000 plan to participate in the one-day strike.
“We’re going to shut down the city of Los Angeles,” David Green, SEIU Local 721 executive director and president, told The Washington Post. “The message we’re sending is that our workers are just fed up. They’ve reached a breaking point. And we need these folks in the city to come back to the table for the good of the city.”
Green reportedly told City News Service the protest would include more than 30 strike lines made up of sanitation workers, mechanics, traffic officers, engineers, and others. He added to The Post the move comes after “bad faith bargaining” by city officials.
“Sanitation alone has over 900 vacancies,” Green said. “Unfortunately, some of the people that work in City Hall are these out-of-touch administrators. And we’ve been sounding the alarm for years. So we’re saying, come back to the table.”
“We are going to be throughout the entire city striking to send a message that the city’s broken the law,” he said. “They need to come back to the table, they need to fill these vacancies, and they need to listen to the concerns of the public.”
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Green said that Los Angeles residents could experience a lack of services — from trash pickup to Los Angeles Airport security — on Tuesday. The union expects picket lines to start forming around 4:00 a.m. and workers to meet at City Hall for a march and rally at 11:00 a.m.
Los Angeles Democratic Mayor Karen Bass told ABC7 on Saturday that city workers are vital to the local economy, and officials were available to negotiate.
“They deserve fair contracts and we have been bargaining in good faith with SEIU 721 since January,” said Bass. “The City will always be available to make progress 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.”
A historic strike involving Hollywood actors and writers has also dragged into its second month.