Labor leaders rally in support of striking county social workers

Labor leaders backed striking Los Angeles County social workers at a raucous rally near downtown Thursday morning, underscoring the seriousness of the first county employee walk-out in more than a decade.

Union officials are trying to keep the focus on the social worker caseload issue that is one of two major sticking points in a stalled contract negotiation between the county and its largest public-employee union.

“Nobody, nobody ever jumps at the chance to go out on strike,” said Maria Elena Durazo, executive secretary-treasurer of the county Federation of Labor, speaking to a few hundred picketing workers from the bed of a flatbed truck outside the Metro North office of the county Department of Children and Family Services in the Historic South-Central district.

“Making the decision to go out on strike is very serious and I know you struggled with that,” she said. “I know that was a hard decision, but you made it in the name of the children that you serve every day.”

Durazo said county unions would be meeting later Thursday to affirm the social workers’ action.

It was unclear how many of the county’s 3,600 social workers and supervisors took to the picket lines on Thursday. Scattered picketing was taking place at locations across the county, but significant numbers of workers were crossing picket lines.

In Compton, where a couple of hundred people work, the employee parking lot was full and a few dozen workers picketed outside.

“It’s shameful,” said Gerson Salazar, 40, a dependency investigator who said his caseload of 67 children hampers his ability to do his job. “They’re up there worried about their Christmas ham. Shame on them. This office is full of people.”

The social workers are part of the 55,000-member Service Employee International Union Local 721, which has been working without a contract for more than two months.

The contract is currently stalled over the timing of a proposed salary increase and a demand that more social workers be hired to reduce caseloads. While labor emails to workers have hammered county leaders on the pay issue, the union’s public actions in front of news cameras have stayed singularly focused on the social worker issue.

“Look, I can’t ever think of a strike that was more righteous than this one,” Bob Schoonover, president of Local 721, told the striking workers. “This is a perfectly selfless thing. This isn’t about money or benefits. Let’s keep that in mind and tell that to everybody you talk to.”

The last time the SEIU held a strike authorization vote, in 2000, workers walked picket lines for 11 days in a dispute over pay and benefits. The action ended when Cardinal Roger Mahony intervened and urged both sides to come back to the table.

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Twitter: @LATSeema

seema.mehta@latimes.com