Los Angeles County workers were back on the picket line Wednesday following a rally and march in downtown L.A. on Tuesday.
Wednesday’s rally took place outside the Children and Family Services office in Commerce. Hector Arroyo, one of the county workers striking, told KNX News’ Jon Baird he’s feeling positive after Tuesday’s rally.
“I think [county officials] are starting to hear us,” he said. “I think we're starting to move the needle, and hopefully we get back to the table and get an honest contract bargained up.”
Another striking worker said that while it is painful to lose a couple of days' pay, it’s worth it.
“It’s going to be worth it in the long run with our new contract,” she said.
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The strike started Monday night. Service Employees International Union Local 721, the union representing the workers, claimed that county officials were not bargaining in good faith and that the new contract they offered had a zero percent cost-of-living increase.
Stephanie Rigulotte, a children’s social worker, told Baird that county officials have also been “retaliating against union members in the office.”
“What they're doing is they're not hiring when they said that they were going to hire new social workers, which puts more work on us and it takes us away from child safety,” she said. “That's just a couple of them … and we just want fair bargaining. That's all fair labor contracts.”
The strike will come to an end on Wednesday night.
A county official told KNX News 97.1 FM that there was at least one bargaining session, and while they haven’t yet reached an agreement, there has been progress.
