On the Heels of a Massive Downtown Rally and March Where Members Risked Arrest in a Non-Violent Act of Civil Disobedience, Thousands of Striking Union Members Will Host Picket Lines Across Los Angeles to Protest Unfair Labor Practices
LOS ANGELES – Fed up with Los Angeles County management’s repeated law-breaking and failure to bargain in good faith, more than 55,000 members of SEIU 721 walked off the job in an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) Strike beginning Monday, April 28th at 7 PM. Yesterday at 9:30 AM, more than 10,000 striking union members held a rally at the Los Angeles County Hall of Administration with a march through the Civic Center. The action culminated with 14 members being arrested for non-violent civil disobedience – an act meant to shine a light on County management’s rampant law-breaking throughout contract negotiations.
To ensure that their message of solidarity is heard by the LA County Board of Supervisors and county management, thousands of union members on ULP Strike will continue picket lines across Los Angeles County Wednesday.
“LA County management keeps breaking the law – and we have had enough,” said David Green, SEIU 721’s Executive Director and President, who has worked as an LA County Children’s Social Worker II for more than two decades. “They’ve stalled contract negotiations for months. And they’ve committed at least 44 labor law violations to-date. Clearly, they thought they were above the law. They thought we would never strike. They thought wrong.”
Though plans are in place to ensure that emergency health services continue unimpeded, SEIU 721’s LA County workforce affected by the upcoming ULP Strike nonetheless includes health, public health and mental health care professionals; social workers; parks & recreation staff; eligibility workers; public works personnel; clerical workers; custodians; coroner personnel; beaches & harbors staff, traffic & lighting personnel; and more.
WHO:
Thousands of LA County Employees Represented by SEIU 721
WHAT:
55,000+ Union Members from SEIU 721 Go On ULP Strike at LA County
WHERE & WHEN:
Wednesday, April 30th
7:00 AM – Picket Lines at Los Angeles General Medical Center
2051 Marengo Street, Los Angeles, CA 90033
Wednesday, April 30th
10:00 AM – Picket Lines at Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS)
5835 S. Eastern Avenue #200, Commerce, CA 90040
PARKING:
LA General: Street parking is available and visitor parking is available at the entrance at State St. and Marengo St.
DCFS: Ample parking available.
VISUALS:
Hundreds of LA County workers represented by labor union SEIU 721 will gather with banners and picket signs at several locations. Workers from a variety of different jobs will be holding picket signs, chanting pro-union slogans, and making themselves available for media interviews.
BACKGROUND:
The 55,000 union strong LA County workforce has serviced nearly 10 million residents in a 4,084 square-mile service area through the COVID pandemic, through the recent Winter wildfires and through non-stop emergency situations in healthcare, foster care, social welfare, traffic enforcement, street repair and much more for many years. Instead of being thanked by LA County management with good faith bargaining resulting in a strong contract, they have been on the receiving end of management’s repeated law-breaking, bearing the brunt of at least 44 alleged Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) violations during this contract bargaining cycle. These include:
- Refusal to bargain with union members in good faith
- Surveillance and retaliation against SEIU 721 members engaged in union activity
- Restricting union organizers’ access to worksites
- Contracting out of SEIU 721-represented positions
To add insult to injury, for years, LA County management simultaneously has been operating a taxpayer-to-private sector pipeline – funneling $7.7 billion in FY 2024-2025 to private firms while not requiring them to pay a living wage. Instead of privatizing good union jobs, those dollars should be staying in-house. And while claiming money is a problem, the Board of Supervisors somehow found a spare $205 million recently to buy a skyscraper in downtown LA that will serve as new office space for themselves and LA County management. These are the very same people telling the workforce – and taxpayers – that there is no money for more services or frontline staff.
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Contact: Roxane Marquez, (213) 705-1078, Roxane.Marquez@seiu721.org
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