{"id":1391,"date":"2022-04-11T15:07:48","date_gmt":"2022-04-11T19:07:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/communicator.pef.org\/?p=1391"},"modified":"2022-04-13T14:09:50","modified_gmt":"2022-04-13T18:09:50","slug":"pef-lends-a-hand-to-seiu-local-721-in-los-angeles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communicator.pef.org\/issue\/volume-40-no-3\/pef-lends-a-hand-to-seiu-local-721-in-los-angeles\/","title":{"rendered":"PEF lends a hand to SEIU Local 721 in Los Angeles"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Volunteers from SEIU affiliates around the country and the international union pose for a group shot in front of the rally stage on March 31.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
A marshal\u2019s view of the parade from behind as it heads into L.A.\u2019s Financial District.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

April 12, 2022 —<\/em> Solidarity. It\u2019s a word you hear often in the organized labor movement. And for good reason. The fight for a fair contract, good benefits and safe workplaces is a universal one.\u00a0 So when PEF President Wayne Spence was asked by the Public Services Division of SEIU to send a PEF team to Los Angeles to help SEIU Local 721 organize members for a march on city hall, he answered the call.<\/span> \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Region 2 coordinator Andrew Puleo, Council Leader Ron O\u2019Bryan and PEF Communications Director Rob Merrill joined about 20 other SEIU affiliate members from around the country to help with the so-called \u201cescalation event.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Local 721 represents 95,000 public sector employees in L.A. county, many of them with titles familiar to PEF members \u2013 from nurses and engineers to law enforcement and judges. Their contract with the county expired on March 31, 2022, and they are negotiating for a new three-year deal.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur message is simple: Respect us, protect us, pay us!\u201d lead Local 721 organizer Gilda Alvarez told a tent-full of activists the day before the march. \u201cPoliticians love to thank us, but we\u2019re still understaffed, underpaid. Every day the county privatizes good union jobs. It hurts our communities and the people we serve.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sound familiar?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The campaign resonated with President Spence because of its focus on privatization, one of the principle targets of PEF\u2019s ongoing \u201cFund Our Future\u201d campaign.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe push to privatize public jobs is definitely not limited to New York,\u201d said Spence. \u201cOur fight is their fight and the more we can elevate our anti-privatization message, the more politicians will hear it and the more likely we\u2019ll impact positive changes.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
PEF Director of Communications Rob Merrill, PEF WNY Organizer Andrew Puleo, SEIU Local 721 President David Green and PEF Div. 357 Council Leader Ron O\u2019Bryan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Puleo, O\u2019Bryan and Merrill were put right to work after a day of cross-country travel.\u00a0 On day one they knocked on more than 30 doors in Long Beach, Calif., a working-class suburb about 10 miles outside downtown L.A.\u00a0 They successfully engaged with members about half of the time, leaving campaign literature on the doorstep of union members who weren\u2019t home.\u00a0 <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

According to the MiniVAN mobile canvassing app used by Local 721, from March 21-30, 2022, the full escalation team reached out to about 3,000 bargaining unit members either via direct door knocking or phone banking. Of those 3,000 contacts, about 600 were classified as \u201csuccessful,\u201d meaning an organizer was able to talk to the member.\u00a0 And of those 600, 200 of them agreed to participate in the March 31 rally, a 33% positive rate.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The morning of day two for Team PEF was spent at Local 721 headquarters on Wilshire Blvd., hearing from the union\u2019s statewide officers about their contract fight and helping build picket signs for the marchers. Local 721 President David Green provided the crowd of about 300 people with an update on the negotiations. The county\u2019s latest offer of \u201c3, 3 and 3\u201d \u2013 or 3% annual raises for three years \u2013 was immediately rejected by the union because it doesn\u2019t keep pace with the increased cost of living brought on by the pandemic.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThree percent won\u2019t pay for the extra cost of gas it takes public workers to get to their jobs,\u201d said Green, noting for the out-of-staters in the audience that the price at L.A. pumps now exceeds $6 per gallon. \u201cWe countered \u20183-3-3\u2019 with no number, but asked them to index the contract to inflation.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The afternoon of March 30 was devoted to one final round of phone banking, reconfirming attendance at the March 31 rally with members who already indicated they would attend either in a phone call or a digital Hustle.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

March 31 dawned cool and overcast in L.A. as SEIU set up their stage and tents near Grand Park downtown.\u00a0 Buses began arriving about 9:30 in the morning and the street was soon filled with thousands of fired up members, ready to take to the streets.\u00a0 As a DJ blared high-energy tunes and members danced between speakers, they heard from Local 721 officers, as well as SEIU President Mary Kay Henry via video message and SEIU Executive Vice President Heather Conroy on stage. Long-handled signs reading \u201cRespect Us, Pay Us, Protect Us!\u201d were handed out, and large banners were unfurled that read \u201cReady to Fight! Ready to Strike!\u201d Some members agreed to wear backpacks that supported 10\u2019 tall vertical banners sporting the campaign\u2019s slogan, the better to be captured by the news helicopters and drones buzzing overhead.\u00a0 When the march stepped off at about 11:30, organizers estimated 3,000 members were in attendance, particularly impressive since it was a Thursday and they had to tap their own accruals if they were scheduled to work.\u00a0 Members made a 2-mile trek through downtown L.A., forcing authorities to temporarily close the L.A. Civic Center as the crowd walked by, and eventually finishing outside the County Board of Supervisors, which is the management party in their contract negotiations.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The rally and march concluded phase two of the escalation campaign, which will ramp up to phase three if no contract is reached. As of early April, the L.A. County Board of Supervisors requested additional time to seek authorization before submitting a counter proposal, surely a good sign in a long negotiation.\u00a0 California does not have a version of New York\u2019s Taylor Law, so unionized employees do have the right to strike.\u00a0 It was a word mentioned often by speakers at the rally. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to strike, but we\u2019re ready!\u201d Local 721 President Green told the marchers.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

PEF members who want to know how it all turns out can keep an eye on the <\/span>SEIU Local 721 website<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

April 12, 2022 — Solidarity. It\u2019s a word you hear often in the organized labor movement. And for good reason. The fight for a fair contract, good benefits and safe…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"division":[],"allowed_regions":[],"allowed_divisions":[],"class_list":["post-1391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","issue-volume-40-no-3"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPEF lends a hand to SEIU Local 721 in Los Angeles - PEF Communicator<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/communicator.pef.org\/issue\/volume-40-no-3\/pef-lends-a-hand-to-seiu-local-721-in-los-angeles\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"PEF lends a hand to SEIU Local 721 in Los Angeles\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"April 12, 2022 — Solidarity. 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