County Workers Walk Out Over Air-Conditioning
More than 200 workers from the county Department of Public Social Services on Thursday held a 15-minute break-time “walk-out” to demand that money be allocated to fix their air-conditioning system, which has been broken for about two months.
“We are dealing with millions of dollars in benefits, and it’s very hard for us to make accurate decisions when we’re burning up in here,” said Luis Gonzales, a Medi-Cal eligibility supervisor at the department’s Belvedere District office at 5445 E. Whittier Blvd.
Mike Collins, a division chief for the Department of Public Social Services, said a new 100-ton air-conditioning unit is due on Sept. 12. He said the office has another air-conditioning unit that still works. Employees said the working unit is only cooling a small section of the facility where almost no one works.
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