Around 55,000 Los Angeles County workers are ready to get out of their work on Monday night, interrupting public services from medical care and social work to libraries and parks.
Seiu’s 721 local leaders said that the two days will begin at 7 pm on Monday, caused by what they characterized as a failure by the county of negotiating a new contract.
“Clearly, they thought they were above the law. They thought we would never attack,” said Union David Green in a statement. “They thought badly.”
The union said it will be the first time that all its members leave work.
The strike, which will last until 7 pm on Wednesday, will play almost everything County departments. Libraries and some medical care clinics will be closed, thought that hospitals will remain open. Cleaning of forest fires can be stopped. Public service counters in the administration hall could close.
The union leaders said that the impetus for the strike was a series of 44 violations of the labor law allegedly committed by the county, including reprisals and hiring work that the union members should be carried out. The union contract expired at the end of March.
The union has also expressed indignation for what he described as an insultingly low salary sacrifice. Initially, the County had said that it could pay increases this year due to forest fire costs, a massive agreement of sexual abuse and the loss of federal subsidies. The executive director of the County, Festia Davenport, said that the initial salary proposals of the union could have cost the county billions.
Davenport said that County officials “have moved” a sacrifice of zero in the last week, but remained cautious about what they could sacrifice.
“We do not do it because to negotiate our elements in a structural deficit,” Davenport said in an interview on Monday. “We want to keep the line.”
Otherwise, he said, the county could have to cut positions in the future, similar to what the mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, has proposed. Last week, Bass launched a budget proposal that included 1,650 layoffs to help close a almost $ 1 billion deficit Partially fed by the employee Increases The city agreed last year.
Davenport also emphasized that he wanted to protect County’s credit qualification. The County has maintained its AAA rating of the Global S&P ratings, despite the imminent sexual abuse agreement of $ 4 billion, due to its reserves, “manageable debt load” and a deep tax base, according to a release Of the Credit Qualification Agency. S&P, meanwhile, recently reduced the qualification of the city of due to its “fabric financial position and an emerging structural imbalance.”
The strike occurs when other unions have begun to publicly punish the Board of County Supervisors for the offers made at the negotiating table. A coalition of unions representing the county lifeguards made an audience appeal Last week for a salary increase, arguing that the efforts of its members last the unprecedented January fires had not properly rewarded the negotiating table.
