Over 50000 LA County Workers May Resort to Strike on Matters Related to Unfair Treatment

The county of Los Angeles is on track for a major strike of its workers wherein more than 55000 government employees may walk off from their jobs if their demands are not met. Their union the SEIU Local 721 has given a 10-day strike notice, charging the county with unfair labor practices and ignoring employee concerns for the last six months.

What Are They Asking?

The union, which includes healthcare workers, social workers, clerical staff, public works teams, and many other occupations, claims that the county has failed them in several ways. Their demands include:

• Improved salary adjusted for the rising cost of living
• Fill up the more than 12,000 job vacancies
• Outsourcing should stop, and jobs should revert to county staff
• Respect and Fair Treatment at Work

What Upsets the Workers?

Union leaders speak of expenditures by the county on the private contractor—$7.7 billion, to be precise—and absolutely nothing spent on its own workforce. An anecdote furnished by the union: the county reportedly pays different hundreds of dollars an hour for outsourced workforce, while the so-called rank-and-file employees receive “pennies” and are even asked to train them.

Meanwhile, L.A. County also spent $205 million on a new skyscraper for office space in downtown LA-just raising questions on why there’s “no money” for staff on the frontlines.

When Will the Strike Start?

If there is no agreement between both sides, the strike shall start at 7 PM on April 28. This could bring about a majority of essential services in LA County to a standstill.

In response, L.A. County officials denied the accusations and said they are open to negotiations without being fair-minded. However, they pointed to the financial pressures on the county budget, which was at $6 billion.