As you know we’ve been steadily at the bargaining table negotiating our City of LA successor contract.
Make no mistake, our top our priorities are winning strong and competitive wage increases, solving the short-staffing crisis, defending and expanding our healthcare, a secure retirement, winning a stronger union voice on the job, and fully funding the City Worker next door program.
But did you know that less than half of our members that took the LA City Bargaining Survey reported owning their home? It’s imperative that we not only fight for our bread-and-butter issues, but that we join the citywide efforts to address the housing issues that put any member at risk of being homeless.
That’s why yesterday, our unprecedented alliance of SEIU 721 members, Coalition of LA City Unions members, housing activists, clergy, community members, and labor groups, came together as the Fix LA Alliance at the old LAPD Parker Center site in Downtown Los Angeles to launch our “Common Good” bargaining campaign.
Our Common Good demands include:
- developing thousands of units of social and permanent supportive housing built by and maintained with union labor.
- setting a Housing Minimum Wage for LA City Workers.
- filling all vacancies within City departments to enhance community services and expand good, union jobs — including in the Housing Department (LAHD).
- reconstituting and fully funding the “City Worker Next Door” program to provide support for employees to afford a home or rent in the City, offer similar housing assistance to all rent-burdened employees no matter where they live, and ensure that City Workers are prioritized for social and permanent supportive housing units.
- strengthening LA’s tenant protections.
- establishing a Los Angeles Public Bank, a continuance of the Fix LA work that we started during our 2014-2015 contract fight to get the City to step sending millions to Wall Street.
This bargaining cycle we’ve adopted Bargaining for the Common Good principles for our contract fight, in addition to bread-and-butter proposals like winning strong and competitive wages, and expanded healthcare. That means we aim to win big for ALL City Workers at the bargaining table and gain major victories for our ALL residents of LA — see our Fix LA Alliance and Common Good Bargaining video.
We City Workers are members of the LA community, and we benefit when we fight to make LA a city that works for everyone — that is affordable, tenant friendly, and doesn’t only cater to the rich.
“We’re bargaining for the common good,” said our union vice president Simboa Wright at the rally. “Today, too many working Angelenos — including City Workers — are one missed paycheck, one broken down car, one hospital bill, away from losing their housing. FIX LA’s goal is to make the City affordable for everyone, not just the few. I know that if we keep fighting together, we will win.
“When LA’s communities win, LA City Workers win,” added Joe Martinez, an SEIU 721 Executive Board member and a Construction Equipment and Services Worker at Los Angeles World Airport. “Many of us live in the City and we face all the challenges that all other residents face — including the extremely high cost of living. It’s time we start changing things, and that’s why labor and communities are in this effort together, fighting for common goals.”
Our FIX LA’s demands come at an unprecedented moment in LA history — in which homelessness and housing are top agenda items for the City Council and a labor friendly Mayor — and as officials prepare for the 2026 World Cup and the 2028 Olympics.
We and other FIX LA Alliance members believe our demands and advocacy will be a game changer that will help LA make inroads into solving its homelessness and housing crises, make the City more affordable, and finally give City Workers the wages they need to live in LA.
Stay tuned for more actions with our Fix LA Alliance partners and sign-up to be a Fix LA Alliance CAT member.
When we fight, we win!