SEIU 721 Vice President Simboa Wright spoke on August 29th about how City Members have fought — and continue to fight — to keep Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream for jobs and freedom alive at an event celebrating the 60th anniversary of the historic March on Washington.
Wright said that SEIU 721’s City Members have fought for numerous programs that prioritize hiring and training people from the Los Angeles area — many of them people of color — such as the Targeted Local Hiring Program.
Wright said City Members will continue to call on LA officials to fill the many vacancies in LA City Departments — providing more Angelenos with good, union jobs — including, and especially, Black residents and other residents of color. He noted that LA workers walked off the job in an unfair labor practice strike earlier this month, in part, to advance this demand.
Watch a recording of the event here!
“We want to continue the legacy of Dr. King,” Wright said at the event, called Beyond the Dream, How the LA Labor Movement is Fulfilling Dr. King’s Dream for Jobs and Freedom. “We want to continue fighting for civil rights. It doesn’t stop.”
The event, held at the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor offices and streamed on Facebook, featured an array of labor leaders: Anton Farmby, SEIU-USWW vice president; Max Arias, SEIU Local 99 president; Eric Haywood, Writers Guild Of America eboard member; Victor Mineros, Teamsters 396 secretary-treasurer; Joely Fisher, SAG-AFTRA national secretary-treasurer; and Kurt Petersen, UNITE HERE Local 11 co-president. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Southern California hosted the event.