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The union contends the county is violating the terms of its 2022 contract by hiring contract workers.

Thousands of unionized Los Angeles County workers gathered outside the Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, demanding the county return to the bargaining table.

More than 55,000 Los Angeles County union workers in hospitals, social services, public health and other county departments represented by SEIU 721 are prepared to walk off the job over alleged failures by the county to follow their labor contract, union leaders said Tuesday.

Tens of thousands of LA County union workers could walk off the job in about three weeks.

In May, the Planning Commission unanimously voted in favor of a conditional use permit to build the research hub near the western side of the existing Keck Hospital at 1500 San Pablo Street. A month later, local organizers including labor union SEIU 721, USC Forward and Eastside LEADS, filed to appeal the vote.

Graduate student workers reached a deal two days before they were set to strike and shuttle drivers and dispatchers reached a deal the evening before they were set to hold an unfair labor practices strike to coincide with individual school’s commencement ceremonies May 10.

This is the third strike that the university has narrowly avoided in the last year, after USC shuttle drivers threatened to strike in May and graduate students picketed six months earlier.

The coalition of supporters includes more than 80 organizations such as the L.A. County Federation of Labor, California Community Foundation, United Way of Greater Los Angeles, Los Angeles/Orange Counties Building and Construction Trades Council, SEIU 721, among others.

Occidental College student workers have voted to join SEIU Local 721, allowing approximately 1,000 undergraduate workers — baristas, resident advisers, tutors, translators, lifeguards, and researchers among them — to collectively bargain with the private liberal arts college in northeast Los Angeles.

Nontenure-track faculty at the University of San Diego have voted overwhelmingly to join SEIU Local 721, following national unionization trends in academia.