A thousand workers for the County of Los Angeles in the Service\r\nEmployees International Union (S.E.I.U.) Local 660 marched Tuesday, August\r\n14, at 4:00 for a \"Fair Share for Los Angeles County's Working Families\"\r\nto Staples Center where they had a short rally. They had listened to\r\nPresident Clinton's speech the night before lauding the prosperity in this\r\ncounty, and the county workers answered President Clinton that most working\r\nfamilies have not shared in the prosperity.They marched to ask political\r\nleaders for policies to address the growing economic hardships in America\r\nfor LA County working families and for working families throughout America.\r\nAt the rally they were joined by State Senator Richard Alarcon (D-Van\r\nNuys), Miguel Contreras who is head of the LA County AFL-CIO; and SEIU\r\nLocal 1887's Mike Garcia who led the victorious janitors' strike.\r\n<\/p>
\r\n The march was organized by S.E.I.U. Local 660 which represents\r\n45,000 county workers. They gathered at Grand and Hope Park at 3:30:\r\nlibrarians, eligibility workers, flood control workers, court employees,\r\nclerical employees, nurses, maintenance workers, health inspectors. Many\r\nwere dressed in purple t-shirts, waved blue-green signs saying \"Fair\r\nShare,\" had whistles which they blew, or pounded drums. A loudspeaker\r\nblared \"The Heat is On,\" and many marchers danced to the disco beat. Penny\r\nLagusoonthorn, who works for the LA County Fire Department Headquarters,\r\nexplained that their contract is soon up at the end of September.\r\n<\/p>
\r\n At 4:00 the march moved out down 9th Street which was deserted with\r\njust a few police around and turned left at Figueroa arriving at the\r\nStaples Center. As they marched they chanted, \"What do you want?\" Then the\r\ncrowd chanted \"Fair share.\" \"When do you want it?\" \"Now.\" The S.E.I.U\r\nspeaker at the rally said that in the midst of great prosperity and\r\ngovernment surpluses county workers aren't better than they were four years\r\nago. He added that later that evening they were taking a strike vote and\r\nthey were putting the County of Los Angeles on notice that \"we're strong,\r\nunited and organized.\"\r\n<\/p>
\r\n Alejandro Stephens, President of Local 660, said, \"We want the\r\nCounty Board of Supervisors to recognize our members' sacrifices over the\r\npast ten years of tight budgets, hiring freezes, and cost-cutting.\"\r\nStephens added, \"L.A. County workers have lost ground over the last decade\"\r\nas county workers salaries have not kept up with inflation. The county is\r\noffering a 9% raise spread over three years. S.E.I.U.'s Local 660's Mark\r\nTarnawsky said that the county's offer of a 9% raise over the next three\r\nyears wouldn't even keep up with the inflation rate so county employees\r\nwould fall even furthur behind in their wages. The union is asking for 15%\r\nover three years which just barely keeps them ahead of inflation.\r\n<\/p>
\r\n Darla Alexander, Intermediate Typist Clerk for the L.A. County\r\nDepartment of Children and Family Services, is a single mother like many\r\nother county workers. She said on her clerk's wages she can't afford to buy\r\na car and \"there's no way that I can save up any money--for a car, a home,\r\nor a college for my little one ... If not having any money left over at the\r\nend of the month is being poor, then I'm poor.\"\r\n<\/p>
\r\n SEIU Local 660 points out that many of its members are part of the\r\ndisappearing middle class and \"thousand of Local 660 members live from\r\npaycheck to paycheck--juggling rent with child care, food, and emergencies,\r\nsuch as unexpected car repairs.\" A union spokesperson said that although\r\nLos Angeles County board of Supervisors adopted an ordinance requiring\r\nCounty contractors to pay their employees a living wage of at least\r\n$9.46\/hour, they don't pay their own employees a living wages. Many Library\r\nAides and Library pages earn \"less than $8 per hour with no health benefits\r\nof even sick leave.\"\r\n<\/p>
\r\n The union is also asking to extend health care benefits and\r\nretirement to temporary and part-time workers and resist any cutbacks in\r\nhealth care for full time workers. Since 70% of Local 660 members are women\r\nand many single mothers with children who pay up to a third of their income\r\nin child care, Local 660 is asking for the county to provide more\r\naffordable child care. The union wants to county to invest in its own\r\nemployees by expanding the $1 million Labor-Management Training Found to\r\ngive career development for county employees.\r\n<\/p>
\r\n After the spirited rally, the County workers marched another mile\r\nthrough downtown to the Grand Olympic Auditorium for their strike vote.\r\nThere they overwhelmingly voted to authorize their bargaining committee to\r\ncall a strike if negotiations over the next month don't give a satisfactory\r\ncontract. According to SEIU Local 660;'s Mark Tarnawsky the members are\r\nready for a strike.\r\n<\/p>\n","contact":"","link":"","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/html","summary":"\r\nReport on the march.","numcomment":0,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/2000\/08\/la_county_.html","filesize":"4.8 kibibytes","article_url":"\/news\/2000\/08\/2917.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[]}