Union Strong: SEIU Local 721 Goes On 55,000-Member Strike
Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 721 launched a 48-hour Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) strike across Los Angeles County on April 28, with 55,000 service workers walking off the job over 44 alleged labor law violations and stalled contract negotiations.
Union members started striking at 7 p.m. on April 28. On April 29, SEIU 721 rallied outside the Los Angeles County Hall of Administration, followed by a march into downtown L.A.’s Financial District. Then, union members boarded buses and commenced holding picket lines at various worksites until April 30 at 6:59 p.m.
Thousands of SEIU 721 members attended Tuesday’s rally. According to SEIU 721, 14 union members and community supporters were arrested after a non-violent act of disobedience, sitting on the street in front of a banner reading “LA County Workers on ULP strike.” Those members were then cited and released.
In a press release, SEIU 721’s Chief of Staff Gilda Valdez said, “Our union could have gone on strike after just one ULP violation. We have been bargaining this contract since the Fall. We were very patient. Now we have 44 alleged labor law violations and no contract. That’s unacceptable — and our union’s LA County members came out in historic, unprecedented numbers to say so.”
The press release specifically cites “refusal to bargain with union members in good faith, surveillance and retaliation against SEIU 721 members engaged in union activity, restricting union organizers’ access to worksites and contracting out of SEIU 721-represented positions” as alleged labor law violations.
“Some of the ones that stand out are members spying,” said Thanh Nguy, a registered nurse at Harbor UCLA-Medical Center. “They listen into conversations that members have or when we have member meetings, they come and interrupt the meeting and tell members they’re not allowed to be there.”
In an emailed statement to the Corsair, the Chief Executive Office of L.A. County said, “The county disputes the union’s assertion that the County has engaged in unfair labor practices. There is a process for resolving those kinds of charges — and that is before the County’s Employee Relations Commission, known as ERCOM. The union has chosen to go on strike rather than waiting for ERCOM to resolve the large number of claims that SEIU has filed. The county disagrees with these charges — most of which have not yet been adjudicated — and looks forward to having these claims resolved, not through press releases but at the Employee Relations Commission.”
The county’s recommended budget for fiscal year 2025-26 is $47.9 billion, compared to last year's approved budget of $49.173 billion. That’s approximately a $1.3 billion net loss.
In the same statement to the Corsair, the Chief Executive Office said, “The County is facing tremendous stresses on our budget, including a $4 billion settlement of thousands of childhood sexual assault claims brought under AB 218, a projected $2 billion in impacts related to the January wildfires and recovery, and the potentially catastrophic loss of hundreds of millions or more in federal funding.” The office then said, any one of these would be challenging, “but taken together, they are unprecedented.”
The statement ends saying, “We are working hard to make sure our labor union partners understand the financial reality of our situation. The County is offering what we believe is a fair three-year compensation package, considering the tremendous budgetary pressures we face. We do not want to negotiate ourselves into a structural deficit — which could lead to layoffs. LA County is not offering a 0% cost of living increase. We are offering a $5,000 bonus in year one as a part of a three-year deal that includes an additional bonus and cost of living adjustment.”
The two-day strike affected four hospitals, eight clinics with urgent care, 15 regular clinics and other public service facilities. SEIU Local 721 represents public health and mental health care professionals, social workers, public works personnel, and many more service jobs in L.A. County.
Gerardo Navarro, a registered nurse at the LA General Medical Center, said, “It’s all county-wide, not just the hospitals. There’s public libraries that are affected, public records, anyone who’s trying to buy a house at this moment, they’re affected. A lot of our patients are diverted to other hospitals. Other hospitals are really feeling the effect because we are the busiest emergency departments in California, one of the top 10 in the nation.”
He then said, “I’m sure we’re in diversion right now, other hospitals are really feeling it, and thankfully we’re in diversion because I’ve heard some horror stories about some of the travelers that came in, arguing with our current staff, arguments with our management. It’s insane. Hopefully the agreement between the union and the county is fair and we’re able to go back to work and serve our community.”
“The travelers” Navarro referenced are hired contractors, replacement nurses who break picket lines — often derogatorily labeled as “scabs” by union members.
Hospitals entered “Internal Disaster Mode” on April 28 before the strike even commenced. In an emailed statement to the Corsair, the L.A. County Department of Health Services said, “On Monday April 28th, just hours before the strike, our Medical Centers activated the ‘Internal Disaster Mode’ in anticipation of the imminent strike to ensure critical services were preserved. ‘Internal Disaster Mode’ is simply a proactive set of steps taken to reduce ambulance traffic by diverting them to nearby medical centers fully prepared to deliver emergency care. This is done precisely to protect patient care and safety.”
“It’s important to underscore that the ‘Internal Disaster Mode’ is a tool commonly used by hospitals when facing a wide number of issues, including strikes, power outages or similar,” said the department. “While ambulances were proactively diverted from our Emergency Departments at certain points during the strike period, it is important to underscore that our Emergency Rooms and Urgent Cares remained open to the public (who may have walked in or driven themselves in) throughout the duration of the strike.”
The statement ends by stating, “We are immensely grateful to the thousands of workforce members who reported for duty during the strike to care for our patients.”
The Chief Executive Office said, “Contracting for services can be a tool to spur economic growth in disadvantaged areas and communities of color, supporting wealth generation and closing the gender and racial wealth gap.”
The statement then says, “The County awarded $1.1 billion in contracts for goods and services to small, minority, women-owned, veteran-owned and other preference-program businesses in 2023-2024. The County has a Living Wage Ordinance that applies to Proposition A contracts. This is the subset of County contracts used when it is determined that services can be performed more cost-effectively by contractors rather than County employees. In addition, contracts not covered by the County’s Living Wage Ordinance generally provide a wage higher than the living wage and/or have other statutory or oversight requirements in place to ensure fair compensation.”
The statement ends by saying, “And the County’s budget to pay employee salaries and benefits has grown over the past 5 years from $15.9 billion in 2019-20 to $20.6 billion 2024-25 — an increase of 30%.”
Although there has been a budgetary increase of 30% to pay employee salaries and benefits over the last five years, inflation saw a historic spike due to COVID-19, and hasn’t recovered since.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), Los Angeles saw a peak inflation rate in 2022, showing a 7% increase over the prior year on average. Inflation began to drop in 2023 and has been stable, but still historically high. The Los Angeles inflation rate right now is approximately 3% higher than the prior year for March.
In a press release, SEIU 721 said, “The more than 55,000 union strong LA County workforce has serviced nearly 10 million residents in a 4,084 square-mile service area through the COVID pandemic, through the recent winter wildfires and the through non-stop emergency situations in healthcare, foster care, social welfare, traffic enforcement, street repair and much more for many years.”
The statement then says, “Instead of being thanked by LA County management with good faith bargaining resulting in a strong contract, they have been on the receiving end of management’s repeated law-breaking, bearing the brunt of at least 44 alleged ULP violations during this contract bargaining cycle.”
Union members also criticized the county’s use of replacement nurses during the negotiation period. “County needs to realize that its workers possess a very particular set of skills that no one else can possibly have. We, as the workers in the hospital, realize that the county must know this because they replaced us during this picket with contracted people that they’re paying at a rate that’s extremely exorbitant to what any of us might hear, but they still felt that these people were not adequate enough so they declared an internal disaster,” Nguy said.
He then said, “They need to realize that they don’t need to declare an internal disaster. Come talk to your members, give your members what they deserve, increase staffing, respect the ratios and stuff like this wouldn’t have to happen.”
While on strike, the hospital operated with a reduced amount of union personnel. According to Nguy, “We have a very specific number of people that we’ve determined to be essential for each department, but not every member is working.”
He then says, “Numbers are going to be a little different between hospitals, but it’s an essential number of workers to make sure that patient care is done safely and adequately.”
The County used hired contractors to fill temporarily vacant positions to help facilitate daily hospital operations. The Chief Executive Office said, “The County is taking every possible step to mitigate the impacts of the strike.”
The statement then says, “County departments are relying on County employees who are not participating in the strike to continue services, and 15 of the 18 departments that provide essential services have been authorized by the Board of Supervisors to contract for replacement staff during the strike. This contracting is required by law so we can enable workers to strike if they choose to do so.”
Over the course of the two-day strike, union members picketed in front of hospitals, marching in circles and waving signs that read “WE ARE THE SAFETY NET.”
People stopped to record videos and show their support to union members as they walked down the sidewalk or entered the hospital.
“Give them a raise, give them a fair contract. Give them what they want. These people work hard for their money, really hard. A lot of people are dying in the hospital. Let’s hope they get a fair contract, they deserve it,” said Rafael Flores, a Los Angeles resident.
The Los Angeles County 2025-26 recommended budget asks “departments to identify cost savings of 3%.” The county’s goal is to save $88.9 million by cutting: 310 vacant positions, reducing the scope of various programs, cutting supplies and cutting equipment purchases.
According to a presentation on the recommended budget by Fasia Davenport, CEO of Los Angeles County, the 3% curtailment aims to minimize “operational impacts” and prevent layoffs. Essential services such as public safety and law enforcement won’t be affected by the proposed 3% curtailment. The proposed budget cuts might prevent layoffs, but the cuts could create larger workloads for county employees, including union members.
The county is currently looking for a compromise with SEIU 721. The Chief Executive Office said, “We are trying to strike a balance: fair compensation for our workforce while sustaining services and avoiding layoffs in the midst of some of the worst financial challenges we have ever experienced.”
Contract negotiations began in fall 2024 and came to an abrupt halt in March 2025 when the union’s contract expired. Union members feel that the county has been negotiating in bad faith since the start of the union’s proposal.
“All proposals were given to (the) county early December and (the) county itself has failed to even comment on most proposals, stating that ‘they’re all being vetted,’ ‘all being looked at.’ A lot of the comments that they say are ‘not interested,’ ‘no financial authority,” said Nguy.
“The members know. They’ve been educated. Many of the bargaining members have been keeping all of our staff informed of what’s going on at the tables and they’re disgusted.”
Aside from being disgusted, union members also said they feel disrespected. “The county table didn’t even decide to meet in the bargaining table until five days before (March 31). We’re considered heroes, but they’re treating us like zeroes,” Navarro said.
“We’re asking for a fair contract, we’re not asking for something excessive. We love serving this community. I grew up in the area. I’ve always wanted to serve this community, and I’m still here. I want to continue being here, and a little bit of respect would go a long way.”
The strike and picket line ended on April 30. SEIU 721 is still negotiating its contract, but according to Navarro, “the county hasn’t budged.” SEIU 721 members are currently waiting for further instructions on how to proceed and whether to continue striking.