LA shutdown looms as more than 11,000 city workers plan to join hotel staff and Hollywood actors and writers who have walked off the job over ‘bad faith bargaining’ with city hall
- More than 11,000 city workers in LA are due to go on strike on Tuesday
- Their union accuses City Hall of refusing to bargain in good faith over salaries
- In striking they would be joining Hollywood actors and writers and hotel workers
More than 11,000 city workers in Los Angeles are set to go on strike – further paralyzing a city beset by walkouts staged by multiple trade unions.
On Tuesday morning, sanitation workers, traffic officers and mechanics will picket across the city, including outside the LA City Hall and LAX Airport, their union SEIU Local 721 said.
The union, which represents city and county employees in Southern California, said the one-day strike is a response to the city’s ‘refusal to bargain in good faith’ during negotiations for higher wages.
It noted its membership includes more than a thousand airport workers, including custodians, mechanics and shuttle drivers. If it goes ahead it would be the first major city worker strike in at least 15 years.
The city workers will be joining Hollywood actors and writers, who are striking simultaneously for the first time in more than 50 years – shutting down the country’s film and television industry.
More than 11,000 city workers in Los Angeles are set to go on strike – further paralyzing a city beset by walkouts staged by multiple trade unions. Pictured is a hotel worker strike in LA on July 21
Sanitation workers, traffic officers and mechanics will picket across the city, including outside the LA City Hall (pictured) and LAX Airport on Tuesday morning
Hotel workers in LA also staged a strike for three days last month. It was coordinated by Unite HERE Local 11, which represents thousands of cooks, maids, dishwashers, servers, bellmen and front-desk agents from 46 LA hotels.
This year unemployment levels in the US have been at their lowest levels in around 54 years, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Low unemployment is a sign demand for labor in the U.S. is high. Workers are therefore less replaceable and likely to wield greater bargaining power in negotiating with their employers.
Los Angeles City Hall is experiencing a more than 20 percent job vacancy rate across some departments, according to ABC7.
SEIU Local 721 union members voted 98 percent in favor of the action to launch an Unfair Labor Practice strike if negotiations stalled.
Union officials said the workers will meet at 11am outside City Hall but that picket lines would begin as early as 4am at other sites throughout the city.
‘Despite repeated attempts by city workers to engage management in a fair bargaining process, the City has flat-out refused to honor previous agreements at the bargaining table, prompting workers to file charges alleging unfair labor practices with the city of Los Angeles Employee Relations Board,’ SEIU 721 officials said in a statement last week.
SAG-AFTRA actors and Writers Guild of America strike outside Netflix offices in Los Angeles, California, on August 4
The strike on Tuesday is expected to create disruptions at LAX (pictured), the Port of Los Angeles and City Hall
LA Mayor Karen Bass said the city was actively seeking a resolution.
‘City workers are vital to the function of services for millions of Angelenos every day and to our local economy. They deserve fair contracts and we have been bargaining in good faith with SEIU 721 since January,’ Bass said in a statement on Friday.
‘The City will always be available to make progress 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,’ it read.
‘We’re going to shut down the city of Los Angeles,’ David Green, the executive director and president SEIU Local 721, told The Washington Post.
‘The message we’re sending is that our workers are just fed up. They’ve reached a breaking point. And we need these folks in the city to come back to the table for the good of the city.’
