City Workers to ‘Shut Down’ Los Angeles

Over 11,000 city government employees plan to join a 24-hour strike, piggybacking off the ongoing strike of Hollywood actors and screenwriters.

SEIU Local 721, a union that represents more than 95,000 city and county workers, said its members would strike on August 8th due to “bad faith bargaining” by Los Angeles management.

Its members include sanitation workers, traffic officers, and heavy duty mechanics.

“#HotLaborSummer lives on,” SEIU Local 721 posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. “We’re proud to join writers, actors, and our countless other Union siblings striking for respect in Los Angeles.”

It’s the first strike of its kind by the union in over 40 years.

“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 Unfair Labor Practice charges with the City of Los Angeles Employee Relations Board,” the union wrote in a Facebook post.

“We’re striking for respect, plain and simple — and if we don’t get it we’ll shut it down,” the union wrote.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) said the city government is “available” to bargain, assuring residents that the city would not shut down due to the strike.

“The City of Los Angeles is not going to shut down,” Bass said. “My office is implementing a plan ensuring no public safety or housing and homelessness emergency operations are impacted by this action. Like I said over the weekend, the City will always be available to make progress with SEIU 721 and we will continue bargaining in good faith.”

“City workers are vital to the function of services for millions of Angelenos every day and to our local economy. They deserve fair contracts and we have been bargaining in good faith with SEIU 721 since January,” she said in a separate statement.