L.A. City Councilmembers to Join Fix L.A. Coalition to Renew City’s Commitment to Restore Services and Create 5,000 New Front-Line Service Jobs as City Heads into Budget Season
Fix L.A. Accounts for Just 210 New Full-Time Hires One Year After Mayor Promised 5,000 New Jobs; Coalition Warns State of the City Is ‘Behind Schedule’; ‘Plenty of Work Left to Do’ as Trash, Bulky Items, Potholes, Broken Sidewalks Accumulate; Clean Streets Program Needs New Hires
LOS ANGELES, CA—Citing numerous examples of trash, bulky items, potholes, excess vegetation, dirty alleys and broken sidewalks that continue to accumulate throughout the City of Los Angeles, the Fix L.A. Coalition will call on city department heads to honor Mayor Eric Garcetti’s promise to create 5,000 new jobs by including all new hires in the next city budget. Despite pledges by top city officials last April to create 5,000 new jobs over a three-year period, the City of Los Angeles is critically behind schedule, with just 210 new full-time hires accounted. Compounding this challenge are impending employee retirements. By the year 2018, in the Los Angeles Sanitation District alone, 45 percent of employees – 1,072 workers – will be eligible for either regular or early retirement.
WHO:
Fix L.A. Coalition
City Council President Herb Wesson, Jr.
City Councilman Gil Cedillo
City Councilman David Ryu
Workers from the Los Angeles Sanitation Districts
Concerned Los Angeles residents
WHAT:
Fix L.A. Coalition Calls on City Hall to Honor 5,000 New Jobs Promise
WHEN:
Tuesday, April 18, 2017 at 9 a.m.
WHERE:
City Hall – South Lawn
200 N. Spring St.
Los Angeles, CA 90012
A key component of the 5,000 new hires pledge was a much vaunted program ensuring that local Angelenos – specifically, those living in underrepresented communities – be targeted for the 5,000 new jobs. So far, just five of the 210 new full-time hires come from underserved areas, falling well short of the city’s stated commitment. These disappointing results come on the heels of a study released in March of 2017 by the UCLA Labor Center and the Los Angeles Black Worker Center: “Ready to Work, Uprooting Inequity: Black Workers in Los Angeles County.” The study found that widening inequality, rising housing costs and a lack of opportunities has led to a compounded job crisis in the black community – and has intensified the need for urgent and comprehensive solutions for Los Angeles.
Though city officials claim to have made progress on sanitation through the Clean Streets Program, the Fix L.A. Coalition will cite multiple examples of streets, alleys and walkways in constant need of cleaning and repair – highlighting the urgency for a serious influx of new hires if Los Angeles is to make sustained progress on keeping Los Angeles clean, particularly in densely-populated areas. Joining the Fix L.A. Coalition will be workers from the Los Angeles Sanitation Districts, City Council President Herb Wesson, Jr., City Councilman Gil Cedillo, City Councilman David Ryu and concerned Los Angeles residents who all agree that there is plenty of work left to do – and a proven need for new hires to get the job done, especially with rising development throughout the city and the increasing likelihood of Los Angeles hosting the Summer Olympics in 2024.
The Fix L.A. Coalition cautioned that Los Angeles will continue to remain broken unless city department heads make significant progress on the 5,000 new hires. Any major municipal project or endeavor – including work on the Tillman Advanced Water Treatment Facility, clean-up of the San Fernando Valley’s aquifers, refilling the Silver Lake Reservoir or providing adequate staffing and maintenance for a future Summer Olympics – cannot materialize unless Los Angeles gets back to basics with a meaningful investment in the city’s workforce to create a better quality-of-life for all Angelenos.
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Contact: Roxane Marquez, (213) 705-1078, roxane.marquez@seiu721.org
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