Summer could also be on its final legs, however California’s scorching labor summer season definitely isn’t.
It’s been an exceptionally busy few months for labor actions within the Golden State, with dozens of strikes since May throughout a variety of occupations, together with housekeepers, Los Angeles metropolis staff, McDonalds staff and dockworkers. The walkouts by tens of hundreds of Hollywood actors and writers — collectively, the nation’s greatest strike in years — are nonetheless going robust.
And quickly the checklist might get even larger.
A coalition of a dozen native unions representing 85,000 pharmacists, nursing assistants, occupational therapists and different Kaiser Permanente staff have begun voting on whether or not to authorize a strike, as their present contract approaches its expiration on the finish of September. Though the employees are in a number of states, the good majority (78 %) are in California, in response to coalition information.
Union leaders are calling for larger wages, and so they have stated {that a} staffing scarcity at Kaiser hospitals and clinics is making it unimaginable to offer ample care to sufferers.
“Kaiser is facing chronic understaffing, because workers can’t afford to live in L.A. on the low wages they pay us,” Miriam de la Paz, a unit secretary who works at Kaiser Permanente in Downey, stated in a press release.
If all 85,000 staff coated by the contract had been to stroll out, it could be the most important strike by well being care staff in U.S. historical past, in response to the coalition. The soonest a strike would occur is Oct. 1.
On Labor Day, the union that represents many of the staff, S.E.I.U.-United Healthcare Workers West, organized an illustration outdoors of Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center in Hollywood to spotlight its name for improved working situations, officers stated. In a deliberate act of civil disobedience, protesters sat in the midst of Sunset Boulevard, and 25 of them had been arrested by the police, LAist reported.
Kaiser Permanente stated in a press release that it was assured that an settlement can be reached earlier than the present contract expired, and that the strike authorization vote “does not reflect any breakdown in bargaining, nor does it indicate a strike is imminent or will happen at all.”
“It is a disappointing action, considering our progress at the bargaining table,” the assertion added.
Labor actions are surging throughout the nation: More staff had been on strike within the United States in July than at any time since at the least January 2021, in response to the Cornell-ILR Labor Action Tracker. There had been 205,000 U.S. staff on strike in July, the tracker says; a yr earlier there have been simply 8,000.
“Strike activity has very much been driven by workers in Southern California,” Johnnie Kallas, who runs Cornell’s tracker, stated. “There seems to me to be an intimate connection between these strikes and the really high cost of living in the L.A. area.”
As my colleagues have reported, 2023 has introduced an unprecedented degree of cross-sector solidarity amongst unions in Los Angeles. The excessive price of residing and rising revenue inequality in Southern California seem to have fostered frequent floor amongst hundreds of thousands of residents.
Kallas stated it was tough to estimate precisely what number of staff in California had gone on strike since May, as a result of lots of the actions concerned unions with members in different states. Roughly 37,000 staff have walked out in California-only strikes that started on or after May 1, he stated, however the bulk of the placing staff within the state are among the many roughly 171,000 writers and actors who’re placing in opposition to the movie studios.
For extra:
Where we’re touring
Today’s tip comes from Bill Hildebrand, who recommends Northern California’s distant and rugged shoreline:
“The Lost Coast is an amazing place too few people experience. About four hours north of San Francisco on Highway 101, it is home to pristine redwood forests, crystalline rivers and gorgeous, rugged beaches. Imagine Big Sur without the tourists. Take your time and see charming small towns and beautiful beaches at Point Reyes, Mendocino, and Ft. Bragg along the way.”
Tell us about your favourite locations to go to in California. Email your strategies to CAtoday@nytimes.com. We’ll be sharing extra in upcoming editions of the publication.
Tell us
Recent shifts in how we collect and spend our free time have affected how ceaselessly we socialize. But our need to be collectively and the necessity for human connection stays unchanged. Tell us about the way you collect.
And earlier than you go, some good news
A brand new images exhibition on the California African American Museum in Los Angeles explores the tales of Black Americans who settled on the California coast within the early 1900s, and the way their creation of vibrant, leisure areas challenged the white supremacy of the day.
On show is a trove of archival images, collected by the historian Alison Rose Jefferson, depicting Black beachside communities all through the Jim Crow period partaking in moments of leisure, recreation and pleasure.
See a preview of the present’s images right here.
Source: www.nytimes.com