President's Report

Watching bargaining with the City of L.A. earlier this month, I felt like I was trapped in a Charles Dickens novel. That’s because Los Angeles is becoming a Tale of Two Cities. In the first, workers sacrifice to help the city thrive and wind up being punished for it. In the second, the big banks that broke the economy and top City of L.A. executives get rewarded. In the first L.A., city workers stepped up and helped bail out the city in the wake of the 2007 Wall Street crash, losing 5,000 positions.

Earlier this month, 721 members gathered high up in the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains for a day-long summit on the future of our work in L.A. County. From the vantage point of the Mount St. Mary’s campus, L.A. looks completely different. It’s a good reminder that, when it seems like we face insurmountable problems, we need to shift our perspective to find a way to win.

721 members who’ve participated in Sacramento lobby days know that it’s hot, stressful and often tedious work. But it’s all worth it if, after all the running between offices in the sweltering Sacramento sun, the marathon committee hearings, the rushed meetings with harried legislators and the line-by-line review of bills, you score victories like 721 members just achieved for county eligibility workers and children’s social workers.

721 members would fight to increase L.A.’s minimum wage even if it didn’t benefit them directly — the gap between the richest Angelenos and average workers is the widest it’s ever been. But winning a minimum wage increase for all L.A. workers isn’t just the right thing to do — it’s good for every member of 721.

What a difference a month makes. In June, pundits were predicting the Supreme Court decision in Harris v. Quinn would effectively end the union movement. While the ruling was wrong-headed, it was far from the predicted deathblow.

The recent Supreme Court decision about the union rights of Illinois homecare workers focused national attention on the well-funded legal attacks on public employees, but they’re nothing new.

SEIU 721 members won two big victories this month that illustrates why we use all the tools in the union toolbox to protect working people.

We’re bringing up some new ideas in the City of Los Angeles—ones that can make the city a whole lot better for our members and all residents. We want to fix LA and restore neighborhood services to every single community in the city.

I’ve got some big news. At the end of February, SEIU 721 members at St. John’s Well Child and Family Center voted overwhelmingly to ratify a new three year contract. It contains improved healthcare benefits, provides for better staff development and safeguards employee vacation time. These are all important wins for our members. But that’s not the whole story.

It wasn’t easy, but we changed the conversation. When our LA County Children’s Social Workers went out on strike last December, no one could really predict how it would end. All of our LA County members had worked hard for nine months to win a good contract. We held rallies, mass pickets and a huge walk-out on Oct. 1.