About 55,000 Los Angeles County workers are about to leave their jobs on Monday evening, disturbing the public health care and social work services to libraries and parks.
The leaders of the Seiu local section 721 said that the two -day strike will start at 7 p.m. on Monday, launched by what they have qualified as a county failure to negotiate a new contract fairly.
“Obviously, they thought they were above the law. They thought we would never hit,” said Union chief David Green in a statement. “They thought badly.”
The union said it would be the first time that all of its members have left the post.
The strike, which should last until 7 p.m. Wednesday, will touch almost all County departments. Libraries and certain health clinics will be closed, although hospitals will remain open. Cleaning forest fire debris can be interrupted. Public service counters at the Hall of Administration could be closed.
The union leaders said that the impulse for the strike was a series of 44 violations of labor law which would have been committed by the county, in particular reprisals and work which would be carried out by the members of the union. The union contract expired at the end of March.
The union also expressed its indignation at what it described as an insulting salary offer. The county had initially declared that he could not afford the increases this year due to the costs of forest fires, a massive sexual abuse and the loss of federal subsidies. Director General of County, Fesia Davenport, said that the union’s initial salary proposals could have cost the county of billions.
Davenport said that county officials have “discouraged” a zero elevation offer in recent weeks, but have been careful about what they could offer.
“We do not want to negotiate ourselves in a structural deficit,” said Davenport in an interview on Monday. “We want to hold the line.”
Otherwise, she said, the county may have to reduce the positions on the road, similar to the mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, proposed. Last week, Bass published a budget proposal which included 1,650 layoffs to help close a million dollars deficit Partly fed by the employee increase The city accepted last year.
Davenport also stressed that she wanted to protect the county credit rating. The county has retained its AAA rating of S&P Global Ratings, despite the imminent regulations for sexual abuse of $ 4 billion, due to its reserves, the “Manager of Manageable Debt” and the deep tax base, according to a release of the credit rating agency. S&P recently downgraded the city’s rating because of its “weakened financial situation and an emerging structural imbalance”.
The strike comes when other unions have started to publicly chastise the Los Angeles County Supervisors’ Council for offers made at the negotiating table. A unions coalition representing the first county stakeholders made public advocacy Last week for a payroll, arguing that the efforts of their members during the unprecedented January forest fires had not been properly rewarded at the negotiating table.
California Daily Newspapers
