#ICYMI, LA County webinar updates us on ULP Strike basics

In case you missed it, our union held a successful webinar for all of our LA County members yesterday evening – which is when our contract with LA County expired. During our webinar, we went over several critical points in the lead up to a possible Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) Strike.

As our union Executive Director and President David Green explained, the law requires that – while we’re bargaining – our wages, benefits and working conditions do not change. However, the “No Strike” article is no longer in effect in our contract.

“To be clear: Our contract has expired but we are NOT on a ULP Strike yet,” Green stated.

Until our union announces ULP Strike, he said, all of us should keep up the pressure at our worksites and show solidarity with one another by participating in Practice Pickets and encouraging our co-workers to join us.

“You cannot oppress people that are no longer afraid,” Green said. “I know a lot of us are really fired up.”

SEIU 721 Deputy Chief of Staff Raymond Meza then reminded us how we got to this point:

• It all began at our July 20 contract kick-off at the JW Marriot in downtown LA. There, we held a voice vote acclamation to launch a ULP Strike authorization vote.
• By September, we’d amassed a 99% “YES” ULP Strike authorization vote – and we announced this milestone at a massive “Pack the Chambers” action outside the Board of Supervisors meeting.
• The Board came back to the bargaining table, reaching a historic agreement with us to start negotiating early – and breaking the Line Pass negotiations log-jam.
• By December, our union released a landmark study, “Shining a Light on Contracting Out at Los Angeles County.” It detailed how the county operates a taxpayer-to-private-sector pipeline – shelling out more than $6.2 billion to private firms in just one fiscal year.
• Before Christmas, we’d put across the table all common language, fringe, unit table and inequity proposals.
• After the New Year, we continued putting pressure on LA County by signing up approximately 25,000 union members on ULP Strike pledge cards.
• Throughout February and March, we conducted wave after wave of Practice Pickets at all major facilities across LA County to show we mean business.

Details on the current state of contract negotiations came from Steve Koffroth, Chief Negotiator at SEIU 721. He emphasized how we have done our part to negotiate in good faith.

“Our bargaining teams did our job!” said Koffroth. “We started official bargaining on November 7 and by Christmas we gave 525 proposals to the county. Our common financial proposals include aggressive monetary increases in line with member priorities to keep up with inflation and the high cost of housing. Our common language proposals include improvements like making telework permanent, to reduce contracting out, and to fill vacancies. Our fringe benefit proposals include significant improvements in our medical and retirement benefits in line with member priorities. Our unit table proposals include increases in shift pay, differentials for specific assignments, and other items specific to their classifications/positions. We also spent three full days making presentations for ALL our inequity proposals. An inequity is a proposal to adjust the pay for a position or classification series due to their pay being lower than comparable positions in the market.”

“What have we received back from LA County so far?” Koffroth continued. “Almost NOTHING. In fact, we just received the county’s official full proposal five days ago. If you think that sounds insane, you’re right. I have never seen this in my 35-year career. The county’s proposal included a 0% cost of living raise – sometimes called a COLA – which effectively means a pay cut when you consider the effect of inflation. They proposed a minor increase in health benefits, which doesn’t cover half the expected premium increases. They also rejected ALL our language proposals and the balance of our economic proposals. To make matters worse, they’ve proposed language take aways, in contracting, union access, and management rights.”

We then got an official ULP Strike update from SEIU 721 Chief of Staff Gilda Valdez.

“A ULP is a violation of labor law,” Valdez reminded everyone. “Violations can occur at the worksite or at the bargaining table – and, so far, we have filed 44 ULPs comprised of worksite AND bargaining labor law violations. We must be ready for a ULP Strike.”

If and when we strike, Valdez noted:

• It will be a ULP Strike.
• SEIU 721 members will be protected, which means that we will be able to return to work without the fear of being permanently replaced.
• Our union will give LA County (and our union membership) a 10-day strike notice. We will NOT give a longer strike notification.

During the next few weeks, there will be plenty of activity as our union’s LA County membership potentially goes on a ULP Strike. You’ll be hearing lots of information from various sources – but the best place to get the news is from our union, SEIU 721:

• BY TEXT: Text SEIU to 721721 to get the latest updates from our union.
• BY EMAIL: Keep an eye on your email inbox for updates from us – and read all emails from our union thoroughly.

Together, we win!