The faculty members joined the Service Employees International Union Local 721 last summer and started negotiating a contract in September. They say the university cut courses without bargaining over the impact on union members.
The roughly 200 teachers from the College of Arts and Sciences started daylong picketing at 7 a.m. Non-tenure track (NTT) faculty members in the University of San Diego’s College of Arts and Sciences, who are members of SEIU Local 721, along with other faculty and students marched through the school during an unfair labor practice strike on Wednesday, May 7, 2025.
Among other findings of the report, CHIRLA and the California Fast Food Workers Union, a group formed by SEIU Local 721, found: 67% of workers surveyed worried about their immigration status and were at greater risk of being cheated out of their pay; 94% of workers did not know about benefits and programs were available to them; 63% of workers did not know they have rights to file complaints related to workplace safety hazards, wage theft, harassment and discrimination; and 77% of workers said they feared their immigration status would deter assistance related to workplace injuries.
The union faculty members with Service Employees International Union Local 721 filed an Unfair Labor Practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board in April in response to the cuts.
During Wednesday’s rally, union members, most wearing purple shirts and many waving signs, marched through the downtown area. Workers carried banners at the head of the march, reading “LA County Workers on ULP Strike,” and “We are the Safety Net.”
The two-day strike that began Monday evening followed failed negotiations with the county for a new contract after the last one expired in March, according to the Service Employees International Union Local 721.
LOS ANGELES — More than 50,000 Los Angeles county workers began a two-day strike Monday evening, closing libraries and disrupting administrative operations across the nation’s most populous county.
Tens of thousands of Los Angeles County workers went on strike Monday night, citing county management’s “law-breaking and failure to bargain in good faith.”
The nation’s most populous county was already juggling legal liabilities, wildfire costs and threats to federal funding. Now its largest union is holding a 48-hour strike.
55,000 L.A. County workers just walked off the job. Striking was their only way to win raises commensurate with the cost of living.