(The Center Square) – Fifty-five thousand Los Angeles County employees are on their second day of their 48-hour strike, citing “unfair labor practices” amid ongoing labor negotiations.
The median employee for LA County makes nearly two and a half times more than the median private sector employee in the county, which is home to 10 million residents.
Facing a $4 billion lawsuit loss from earlier this month, LA County has proposed $1.3 billion in budget cuts for the coming year, while still adding 14 new positions that would bring the county’s total employees to 117,100.
According to Transparent California, the median pay and benefits for employees working for the county is $141,508 per year, or nearly two and a half times more than the median private sector pay in the county of $57,815.
SEIU 721, the union representing the 55,000 striking government employees and conducting negotiations with the county for pay and benefit increases, said it is “fed up with Los Angeles County management’s repeated law-breaking and failure to bargain in good faith.”
“This is the workforce that got LA County through emergency after emergency: the January wildfires, public health emergencies, mental health emergencies, social service emergencies and more” said David Green, SEIU 721 executive director and president in a statement. “We have had it with the labor law violations and demand respect for our workers.”
LA County CEO Fesia A. Davenport’s letter on her proposed $47.9 billion budget highlighted the county’s challenging fiscal predicament in the face of suspended federal grants, wildfire costs, property tax extensions, slowing property tax revenue growth and tapping out of COVID relief funds.
“Although negotiations are occurring during a time of heightened budgetary challenges and new constraints in an uncertain and evolving broader economic landscape, we remain hopeful of reaching agreements that are fair to our valued workforce, enable us to sustain vital services to the public, in alignment with our budgetary reality,” said Davenport.
Davenport also noted a worsening macroeconomic outlook is damping the county’s fiscal flexibility.
“While initial projections pointed to slow growth in 2025, the outlook is increasingly becoming negative,” said Davenport. “The uncertainty at the national level coupled with local budgetary pressures is painting a bleak picture of the County’s economic outlook in the coming years.”
Davenport also said “relatively little funding remains to fund new programs and initiatives,” suggesting pay increases would have to be covered by more spending cuts elsewhere or higher taxes.
