More than 11,000 employees of the city of Los Angeles will take part in a one-day walkout on Tuesday for what leaders of the work stoppage blamed on "a refusal to bargain in good faith" on the part of the city.
From the Harbor to the Valley, pickets by the trash haulers, traffic cops, heavy-duty mechanics, and engineers will begin as early as 4 a.m. at City Hall and Los Angeles International Airport, among other sites throughout the city. The strikers will gather at 11 a.m. Tuesday for a march and rally at City Hall.
"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," officials of SEIU Local 721, the labor union that is organizing the 24-hour strike, said in a statement last Friday.
Faced with the first strike action by L.A. City workers in forty years, Mayor Karen Bass struck a cooperative tone.
"City workers are vital to the function of services for millions of Angelenos every day and to our local economy," Bass said in a statement. "They deserve fair contracts and we have been bargaining in good faith with SEIU 721 since January. The City will always be available to make progress 24 hours a day, 7 days a week."
In May, 98 percent of the membership of SEIU Local 721 pre-authorized an Unfair Labor Practice Strike in the event negotiations bogged down. The job vacancy rate across city departments is 20 percent. In their statement, the union leaders looked ahead to strains on frontline city services from the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the 2028 Summer Olympics.
The planned walkout is only the latest labor-management flare-up in what is being called L.A.’s 'Hot Labor Summer.
All major film production in Hollywood has been shut down for weeks amid strikes by writers and actors. Last weekend, thousands of cooks, maids, dishwashers, servers, bellmen, and front-desk agents—members of Unite HERE Local 11—walked off the job at 22 hotels across downtown L.A., Santa Monica, and West Hollywood.
On Twitter, Unite HERE Local 11 declared Friday’s walkouts the largest since the union’s contract with 61 hotels in Southern California and Arizona expired on the Friday before the Fourth of July weekend.
"We are going to be throughout the entire city striking to send a message that the city's broken the law," David Green, president, and executive director of SEIU 721, told City News Service last week. "They need to come back to the table, they need to fill these vacancies and they need to listen to the concerns of the public."
More than 30 picket lines are expected to form throughout the city on Tuesday.