March 11, 2010—A message to LA City professionals from Michael Hunt of the Department of Transportation, an MOU 17 bargaining team member: 

I joined more than 400 SEIU members at City Council on Feb. 24 to tell them about the negative impacts furloughs have on our jobs and to get the City moving on bargaining. Here's some of what I told them:

"I'm special funded and my furloughs do nothing to help solve the budget problem.  Who's going to explain to all of these people that their concerns aren't going to be addressed because the city is furloughing people they don't need to?"

After my testimony, Councilmember Bill Rosendahl immediately pulled me out of the audience to discuss this issue in more detail. He assumed that because we had joined SEIU back in Nov. 2009, that we were no longer being furloughed.  He was unaware that we're still beholden to the furloughs with our old contract.  He wants to see this issue resolved as soon as possible and will assist any way he can.  He asked me to keep him informed of our progress. Read more at SEIU721.org.

March 5, 2010—LA City workers held a mock red carpet event and an awards ceremony Thursday, March 4, honoring the best in City services, spotlighting the impact that thousands of layoffs and drastic service cuts will have on the entertainment industry.

More than 75 workers from SEIU and the Coalition of LA City Unions gathered outside the Mayor's mansion as he hosted Hollywood celebrities at a pre-Oscars party. But it was engineers, librarians, chemists, animal service employees and street and tree workers who stole the spotlight. View a photo gallery on Flickr | Read more at SEIU721.org

February 5, 2010—LA City professionals pressed the LA City Council to put off a harmful plan to lay off 1,000 employees. But Mayor Villaraigosa is pushing ahead with his plan. On February 4, he pledged to speed up implementation of the Coalition of LA City Unions agreement for early retirements and transfers—but also threatened to move forward with 1,000 layoffs.

"The impact of not implementing the Coalition's Contract Agreement is the ripple effect it has on more than 2,000 city professionals including engineers, criminalists and scientists." -Chad Doi, Structural Engineering Associate, Building and Safety Department.

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February 1, 2010—A blog post by Terry Keating, City of Los Angeles engineer and MOU 8 bargaining team member

After years of alleged legal victories that always disappointed, we are seeing proof that our reasons for moving out of our old union, Engineers and Architects Association, were absolutely right. Working together, member to member, to forge shared objectives and strategies, standing up for ourselves, and speaking with our own voices is getting the job done right, right now.

Read the full 'One to One' blog post at seiu721.org.

December 16, 2009—Just three weeks after officially becoming members of SEIU Local 721, City of Los Angeles professionals and engineers on Tuesday presented their initial bargaining proposals to the City and demanded a comprehensive budget overview from the City. Core principles of the proposals include: ▪ An immediate end to furloughs ▪ No layoffs, cuts, takeaways or steps backward ▪ Ensuring public work is done by public workers

MOU 8 bargaining team members, from left: Terry Keating, Chad Doi, Nady Maechling, Bryan Low, Patricia Huck, Azar Nejad, John Hawkins, Eric Maya. Not pictured: Kris Flaig.

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