Over 11,000 Los Angeles City Workers Launch 24-Hour Strike—Joining Hollywood And Hotel Workers. Here’s What We Know. - Forbes

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Topline

Over 11,000 Los Angeles city workers have headed to the picket lines for a 24-hour strike, protesting what they view as unfair practices by the city—joining up to 11,500 writers, nearly 65,000 actors and 15,000 hotel workers in a wave of strikes impacting Southern California.

Key Facts

Thousands of sanitation workers, traffic officers and airport personnel started their first “unfair labor practices” strike in over 40 years at 4 a.m. Tuesday, with union members picketing at city hall and the airport, according to Service Employees International Union Local 721, the public sector union representing them.

The strike received 98% approval from union members in May and is provoked by what the SEIU says is “City management’s refusal to bargain with members in good faith and other unfair labor practices restricting employee and union rights.”

Workers also filed an Unfair Labor Practices charge with the Los Angeles Employee Relations Board, citing alleged retaliation against union-affiliated employees and interference with the union’s ability to bargain for employees, per SEIU Local 721, an alleged violation of Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act.

California requires charges to be filed within six months of the alleged violation, according to the state’s Chamber of Commerce.

Karen Bass, the first Black woman to serve as mayor of Los Angeles, said in a statement that city workers “deserve fair contracts and we have been bargaining in good faith with SEIU 721 since January.”

Bass assured Angelenos that the current strike would not cause a city shut down, confirming that public safety, homelessness and housing and public library services would not be impacted, though some sanitation, traffic and Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) services may be delayed and some pools and parks and animal shelters will be closed.

Key Background

SEIU Local 721 provided Forbes with copies of their unfair labor practice filings. In one, SEIU Local 721 alleges the Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA), the city department that owns and runs LAX and Van Nuys Airport, interfered “with the Union’s right to represent bargaining unit employees,” among other allegations, after the airport authority allegedly contacted recycling crew employees demanding they sign an agreement changing recycling employees’ schedule from from 80 hours worked across nine days to a standard 40 hours of work across five days to cut overtime costs. Another filing alleged the City retaliated “against represented employees exercising their protected rights” after a Heavy-Duty Truck Operator at LAWA and union member received a General Discussion Record, a form of workplace discipline, “for conducting union business while on duty.” Overall, the union is requesting city executives to engage in good faith bargaining, which is constituted by agencies not making changes without bargaining with the union. Forbes reached out to the mayor’s office, the city’s employee relations board and the city administrative office for comment.

Surprising Fact

The city of Los Angeles is preparing for the 2026 FIFA World Cup and 2028 Olympic Games, with SEIU Local 721 saying, “Both events promise to have long-lasting impacts on the entire Southern California region, with a massive influx of tourists and athletes putting an enormous strain on the city’s frontline services, all on the world stage.” Taylor Swift is currently in the city for the three-night Los Angeles leg of her Eras tour after state officials penned a letter requesting she postpone amid the hotel strikes. Beyonce will be in Inglewood, California, a part of Los Angeles County, at the beginning of September for three nights of performances on her Renaissance World Tour.

Crucial Quote

“A ULP strike is not a small matter… that’s a fancy way of saying the city is breaking the law, and these are the same city officials who create the laws. We expect them to follow them,” Roxane Marquez, a spokesperson for SEIU Local 721, said.

Tangent

The LA city workers’ strike is occurring simultaneously with major strikes by Hollywood and hotel workers. The Writers Guild of America has been on strike since May 2, pushing for pay increases and minimum staffing rules for TV and film writers, while their acting counterparts in the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) union began striking last month for similar concerns. Though the strike is occurring nationally, California’s film and television production industry is responsible for over 700,000 local jobs and $70 billion in in-state wages, according to the California Film Commission. A little over a week before SAG-AFTRA announced their strike, thousands of workers at 33 California hotels, including cooks, bellmen, front desk agents and housekeepers, began conducting rolling strikes for a housing fund, higher wages and other demands. Earlier this year, the United Teachers of Los Angeles mobilized 80,000 people in a teacher’s strike for higher pay that shut closed Los Angeles Unified School District schools for three days. Marquez said the city workers have garnered support from the teachers’, writers and actors’ unions, and some local elected officials, such as Congressman Adam Schiff, who previously joined SEIU Local 99 on strike.