Dive Brief:

• Approximately 60% of unionized waste haulers missed two days of work due to a labor dispute in Los Angeles.
• The action was “not a union-sanctioned activity,” according to Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 721 spokesperson Coral Itzcalli. A majority of workers were absent the day after the union started voting about whether to strike if negotiations with the city weren’t fruitful. 
• About 90% of sanitation workers in Los Angeles were back on the job Friday, an increase since Wednesday, when only 40% of the city’s 500 waste employees showed up.

Dive Insight:

The waste dispute escalated after an ongoing deadlock between Mayor Eric Garcetti’s administration and the unions who represent public workers. Leaflets distributed to SEIU members last week suggest there is a lack of “movement by the city at the bargaining table,” and urges members toward a strike vote.

Union leaders expect a substantial disruption of city services if workers go on strike, asserting that City Managers will “feel the effects of the strike in a way they didn’t before.”