Tens of hundreds of Los Angeles County staff walked off their jobs and onto picket traces Tuesday, amid what their union described as a failure by the county to pretty discount for a brand new contract.
SEIU Native 721, which represents roughly 55,000 staff, started a two-day strike Monday night with social staff, nurses, clerical staff and different public workers strolling off the job. The union mentioned that is the primary time in county historical past that every one its members have joined a strike.
Because of this, libraries, nonurgent well being clinics and parks are closed. Public service counters all through the county shall be transferring extra slowly. Wildfire particles clearance could also be paused.
A sea of staff in SEIU Native 721’s signature royal purple T-shirts descended on the county Corridor of Administration in downtown L.A. on Tuesday for a rally marking the primary full day of the strike.
Mike Lengthy, a spokesperson for the union, mentioned 14 members have been arrested for refusing to disperse at a march after the rally, a tactic, he mentioned, meant to underscore the severity of the scenario.
The impetus for the strike, union leaders mentioned, was 44 labor regulation violations allegedly dedicated by the county, together with retaliation and contracting of jobs which can be speculated to be crammed by union staff. Union members mentioned they have been additionally insulted by the pay supplied by county officers, who’ve mentioned they’ll’t afford important will increase attributable to a dizzying variety of monetary woes.
A sea of SEIU Native 721 hanging staff rally and march in downtown Los Angles on Tuesday, April 29, 2025.
(Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Instances)
“Does anybody keep in mind what they tried to offer us within the fall? Zeroes,” mentioned union head David Inexperienced as staff dinged purple cowbells on the downtown rally. “Will we deserve zeros?”
L.A. County Chief Govt Fesia Davenport mentioned county officers have “moved off” a zero elevate provide in latest weeks however remained cautious about what they might provide.
“We don’t need to negotiate ourselves right into a structural deficit,” Davenport mentioned in an interview Monday. “We need to maintain the road.”
In any other case, she mentioned, the county might need to chop positions down the highway, just like what Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has proposed. Final week, Bass launched a funds proposal that included 1,650 layoffs to assist shut a virtually $1-billion deficit fueled partially by worker raises the town agreed to final yr.
The county mentioned it’s now providing SEIU Native 721 members a $5,000 bonus within the first yr of the contract, in addition to a cost-of-living adjustment and a further bonus.
Valencia Simpson (left) and Asiata Adekunle Murtala (proper) march down the road with hundreds of hanging SEIU Native 721 members in Los Angeles on Tuesday, April 29, 2025.
(Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Instances)
“The County is providing what we imagine is a good three-year compensation bundle, contemplating the super budgetary pressures we face,” Davenport’s workplace mentioned in a press release.
Steve Koffroth, SEIU’s chief contract negotiator, mentioned the county waited till the final second to reply to the union’s first proposal for a brand new contract. The earlier contract expired on the finish of March.
“We bought it to them earlier than Christmas, and so they sat on it for months,” Koffroth advised the booing crowd.
When county officers made a counteroffer, he mentioned, “they got here with a pittance.”
The county had initially mentioned it couldn’t afford raises this yr due to wildfire prices, a large intercourse abuse settlement and the lack of federal grants. Davenport mentioned the union’s preliminary wage proposals may have value the county billions of {dollars}.
Union members allege the county has spent an excessive amount of cash on exterior contract staff somewhat than filling hundreds of vacancies. Many audio system on the rally pointed to a union-led research final December that discovered the county spent billions on non-public corporations, in what amounted to a “taxpayer-to-private-sector-pipeline.”
The county dismissed the report as a “deceptive and inaccurate” negotiation tactic.
Union members mentioned the reliance on contractors has been notably obvious in healthcare, the place they mentioned that vacancies are briefly crammed by extremely paid contract staff.
“How would you are feeling if somebody comes into your hospital for 3 weeks and makes 4 instances your wage and leaves you,” mentioned Theresa Velasco, a member of the union’s govt board, who works as a neighborhood well being employee at Rancho Los Amigos, the county rehabilitation hospital.
