LOS ANGELES—Union workers staged a candlelight vigil on Tuesday, November 19 at 5 p.m. in defiance of the county delaying fair labor contract negotiations.
Los Angeles County’s largest labor union, SEIU 721, announced in a press release that “several hundred LA County public employees” would attend a demonstration on Tuesday, at 555 W. Temple Street in an effort to motivate County officials to find the “moral courage” and “political will” to end stalled contract negotiations and “embrace social and economic policies that would benefit Los Angeles communities.”
Children’s social workers, nurses, librarians and other county workers representing the union’s 55,000 members joined community members and clergy on the front steps of Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels to recite hymns and participate in a candlelight vigil. Clergy from the Black-Brown Coalition attended, including Reverend William Smart of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Reverend Lewis E. Logan of the Ruach Christian Community Fellowship of LA.
The demonstration is one of the aggressive steps the union has taken since bargaining teams from the Los Angeles County’s Board of Supervisors and SEIU 721 failed to compromise over a new labor contract, which officially expired on October 1.
According to the press release by SEIU 721 Communications Specialist Roshin Mathew, county executives have still not budged and the Board of Supervisors has failed to intervene on behalf of county workers’ requests. On November 9, county workers voted to escalate actions and authorized union leaders to call for a possible strike in order to obtain what they call, “bargaining for the common good.”
The union’s proposed requests include initiatives such as expanding the Ride Share and green commuter program, improving the foster care system and working conditions for children’s social workers, increasing living wages for county contractors and revising a real estate tax loophole used by corporations that costs the county millions in property taxes.
County workers have not received a raise in wages or cost-of-living for the past five years due to the recession, and employees of companies that contract services with the county have not received a raise in living wages for over 10 years.
SEIU 721 argues that, “Like most Americans who fear the middle class is slipping out of reach, the hike in health premiums they are being asked to absorb would leave most county workers with lower family budget levels than 2008,” despite the county having $2.6 billion in reserves.
