More than 11,000 LA city workers go on strike for first time in 40 YEARS over ‘repeated violations of labor laws’
More than 11,000 Los Angeles city workers are expected to strike Tuesday for the first time in four decades, with union members feeling on edge as the city tries to deal with hundreds of job openings.
City employees represented by SEIU Local 721 include those who work in the sanitation department, in the city’s incredibly busy port, and at Los Angeles International Airport.
The strike will last 24 hours as workers form picket lines for City Hall and LAX, it said CNN. The city is preparing for service interruptions in services ranging from garbage collection to swimming pools.
David Green, president of SEIU Local 721, said, “Each of our city employees is a frontline public sector worker who serves the public every day. Much goes unnoticed. But on Tuesday we will make sure everyone notices.’
The strike is LA’s latest strike, with thousands of hotel workers taking to the picket lines to demand better wages and Hollywood actors and writers still embroiled in a bitter dispute that has brought the television and film industries to a standstill.
Public service workers in Southern California gather outside LAX along with some 11,000 other striking workers on Tuesday, August 8 to protest
SEIU Local 721 workers pick up outside Los Angeles City Hall early Tuesday morning. The one-day strike is likely to cause disruptions to services ranging from garbage collection to opening swimming pools
SEIU 721 members, numbering more than 95,000 across Southern California, said members voted for the strike after “repeated labor law violations” by the LA city government.
“Fortunately, we have a great mayor who is new to Los Angeles. We have some great city councilors, but we have some administrators who are out of touch and who didn’t want to come to the table and who negotiated in bad faith,” Green said. “It was a slap in the face to our members.”
“Coming out of the pandemic, I think people learned that you can’t take workers for granted,” he continued. ‘We are the fabric of the community, we influence your life day by day.’
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement that the city had negotiated with the union in good faith.
“City workers are vital every day to the functioning of services for millions of Angelenos and to our local economy. They deserve fair contracts and we have been negotiating with SEIU 721 in good faith since January. The city will always be available to make progress 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,” she said.
Los Angeles residents and city departments are bracing for the impact Tuesday’s work stoppage will have on city operations.
LAX has warned travelers to allow extra time on Tuesday to get to and from the airport.
“LAX is working diligently with our airport partners to ensure that our operations remain as normal as possible and to mitigate the impact of the work action on our guests,” said a Los Angeles World Airports spokesperson.
The Port of Los Angeles, one of the busiest ports in the United States, said operations will continue — even though 300 of its employees, including harbor masters, are represented by the union.
Alongside SEIU 721 members, hundreds of hotel workers in LA gathered downtown on Monday to protest what their union described as a pattern of violent happenings in their picket lines in recent weeks.
11,000 SEIU 721 members began a 24-hour strike on Tuesday to protest “repeated labor law violations” by the LA city government
Members marched in front of City Hall and around the city at dawn
The SEIU strike is the latest to affect business this summer, following strikes by hotel workers, writers and Hollywood actors
SEIU 721 Union President Daniel Green said, “I think as people come out of the pandemic, they’ve learned that you can’t take employees for granted. We are the fabric of the community, we influence your life day by day’
LA strikers join a number of other unions who have staged strikes across the city and across the country this summer
Since the beginning of July, thousands of hotel workers have staged strikes to demand higher wages and better working conditions. Contracts for more than 15,000 employees and more than 60 hotels expired at the end of June.
Last week, hotel employees encouraged Taylor Swift to postpone her August 3-9 concerts at SoFi Stadium to support their pay rise. The workers say they don’t earn enough to afford housing near their jobs.
So far, only the Westin Bonaventure has reached a tentative agreement with its staff to avoid a strike.
A spokesman for the California Hotel and Lodging Association said unionized hotel employees are engaging in “extremely aggressive and unlawful protest tactics.”
‘Representatives of trade unions blare sirens and alarms at odd times that not only disturb the peace and local residents, but also clearly pose a safety risk.’
Hotels have notified law enforcement and the mayor’s office of these increasingly aggressive actions by picketers targeting guests, employees and our communities. We have asked the police to take concrete steps to ensure the safety of everyone,” Peter Hillan told the Los Angeles Times.
The striking hotel employees are part of the Local 11 trade union.
LAX has warned travelers of possible delays entering and exiting the airport due to Tuesday’s strike
SEIU employees pick up at LAX as shuttles try to get through
The Port of Los Angeles — the busiest in the U.S. by some estimates — says it will remain operational Tuesday, though some 300 of its employees, including ship captains, are union members
In Los Angeles, only the Westin Bonaventure has managed to avoid a staff strike after reaching a tentative deal with their workers
Eleven local union members who staff LA hotels have been on intermittent strikes since early July
Los Angeles is also currently the epicenter of ongoing Hollywood actor and writer strikes that have shut down studios.
Picket lines are still being spotted with celebrities who may have starred in your favorite TV show, but things are expected to take a turn for the ugly in the fall, when there are no new episodes of shows and the actors and writers are starting to run out of money.
In northern San Jose, California, more than 4,500 city workers have announced they will strike for three days starting Aug. 15 in a bid to demand wages that keep up with living costs.
And across the country in Detroit, thousands of United Auto Workers union members are threatening to strike in September if a labor agreement is not reached with the three major automakers: Ford, GM and Stellantis.