The World Thousands of LA workers join wave of strikes disrupting key industries

By Laura Curtis & Nadia Lopez

LOS Angeles is embroiled in a summer of labor unrest as thousands of city workers joined a wave of strikes across the area’s major industries, demanding higher wages and better working conditions.

More than 11,000 municipal employees walked off the job for 24 hours on Tuesday, causing minor disruptions for trash collection, airport, postal, and port services. They’re uniting with actors, writers, and hotel workers who have taken to picket lines in recent months to protest stalled contract negotiations, while advocating for issues like affordable housing and curbing Hollywood’s use of artificial intelligence.

The surge of union activity in Los Angeles reflects a broader trend of labor unrest in the US, where workers have been emboldened by the economic recovery from the pandemic and frustrated by rising inflation and inequality.

“This has been called hot labor summer and I think that that is completely accurate,” said Kent Wong, director of the UCLA Labor Center, in an interview. “I have not seen this level of strikes as well as worker activism in decades.”

The city workers who are participating in the one-day strike are represented by SEIU Local 721, the largest public sector union in Southern California with more than 95,000 members. They include sanitation workers, mechanics, traffic officers and engineers who work for various city departments.

The workers say their pay has not kept up with the cost of living and that they need better benefits. They also accuse the city of violating labor laws by imposing changes to their working conditions without bargaining.

The wide gap between the rich and poor in Los Angeles coupled with its expensive living conditions have fueled the labor unrest, said Wong. “You have communities of Bel Air, Brentwood, Beverly Hills, Malibu, where every single house is worth millions of dollars,” he said. “And yet on the other side of town, you have conditions that rival some of the poorest parts of the developing world.”

LA Mayor Karen Bass has said that she respects the city’s employees and their right to fair contracts. The city has been “bargaining in good faith with SEIU 721 since January” and is committed to reaching an agreement as soon as possible, said Bass.

“The city will always be available to make progress 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” she said.

The strike is the first to be held by the city’s employees in more than 40 years, according to the union. They are held rallies at the Los Angeles airport and City Hall on Tuesday morning before joining picket lines at various locations across the city.

Dae Levine, a spokesperson for the airport, warned travelers to allow extra time to come and go during the planned action.

Another potential flashpoint is the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, which together form the largest container hub in the US and one of the region’s most important economic engines.

The strike was unlikely to have a major impact on cargo operations, since most of the workers who unload container ships belong to a different group, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. Dockworkers with the ILWU reached a tentative agreement at all 29 West Coast ports earlier this year, following a win for LA school district support staff.

“The Port of Los Angeles respects the fair bargaining rights of all employees,” spokesman Phillip Sanfield said in a statement.

Bloomberg News

Stuffed Russian grain ports show risk of escalation in the Black Sea

By Áine Quinn

RUSSIAN grain ports are overflowing after two big harvests. That means any military escalation in the crucial Black Sea risks depriving the world of huge amounts of crops it’s counting on.

Port capacity is being stretched as the wheat giant struggles to clear the volumes despite massive exports. Russia shipped 4.4 million tons of wheat in July, a record for the month and almost 60% above average, according to consultant SovEcon.

Some terminals on the Azov Sea stopped accepting grain due to lack of storage capacity, SovEcon said. That’s a problem for farmers if the situation in the Black Sea between Ukraine and Moscow worsens and slows Russian flows, because they’ll have nowhere to send their harvest that’s critical to global food supplies.

Top wheat shipper Russia, which last month exited a deal allowing Ukraine to export from Black Sea ports, moves most of its grain through the waterway. The country started the export season with the largest wheat stockpile in three decades, according to the US government. The big supplies have helped make Russian wheat among the world’s cheapest.

Russian sales slowed in recent weeks because of bottlenecks caused by handling so much grain, according to SovEcon.

“You have rail traffic jams and delays around seaports and it