Plus a recap of Friday's LA City Council meeting

Urge your County Supervisor to support the Healthy LA platform.
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Friends,

If you’ve been keeping up with Healthy L.A. ([link removed]) , you may already know that the Los Angeles City Council held a marathon emergency meeting on Friday to discuss COVID-19 relief measures. We are grateful to Council President Nury Martinez and the city staff who overcame significant obstacles to make this meeting happen.

After almost 11 hours of deliberation and debate, our coalition walked away with some big wins—like expanded paid sick leave for workers in large companies—though we did not get everything we were pushing for. Scroll to the bottom of this email for a recap of the L.A. City Council meeting.

TOMORROW, Tuesday, March 31, the L.A. County Board of Supervisors will meet to discuss COVID-19 relief efforts of their own. The County includes 10 million residents (not just L.A. City, but 87 other cities). The five Supervisors each have a huge amount of power and they need to hear from you ([link removed]) !

Call your County Supervisor and urge them to support the Healthy L.A. platform to protect workers, renters, and Angelenos who are undocumented or unhoused. ([link removed])
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We know that the economic and public health impacts of COVID-19 will be devastating for the most vulnerable people in our communities. We need a decisive public health and economic response that prioritizes caring for elderly residents, workers, families, the undocumented, the unhoused, and the uninsured.

The Executive Order issued by the Chair of the County Board of Supervisors on March 20 is a good first step, but much more is needed to ensure the protection of all L.A. County residents. This must include bold, immediate, and ambitious measures that set a progressive model for local leaders of the 88 cities within L.A. County to follow.

CALL your County Supervisor and urge them to take action.

You can use the following script:

Hello, my name is [your name] and I am your constituent from [your neighborhood]. I am calling as part of the Healthy L.A. coalition to ask [Supervisor’s name] to enact stronger protections for our community in response to COVID-19. Our families and communities need immediate action to protect our health and our livelihoods. I urge [Supervisor’s name] to draft and support motions to:
* Make sure all workers have 14 days of paid sick leave and prohibit retaliation against those who take it. Workers must feel safe to stay home through their illness for the public’s safety.

* Protect workers' livelihoods by enacting Right of Recall and Worker Retention policies to ensure that when it is safe to return to work, people still have jobs to return to. Laid-off workers should be first to be rehired after the crisis, and be retained even if their place of employment changes ownership.

* Prioritize workplace health and safety, including mandated paid time for and access to hand-washing and sanitizing, provision of protective gear, and appropriate training for those still at work, especially grocery workers, food service workers, and delivery drivers.

* Institute a complete and universal eviction moratorium. No one should be forced to contend with an eviction notice from their landlord because of this public health crisis.

L.A. City Council Update
We’ll start with the good news: about 440,000 additional Los Angeles workers will now be guaranteed 14 days of paid sick leave. Congress excluded workers at firms with 500+ employees from the federal paid sick leave policy, and L.A. City Council voted to close that gap.

We won protections for grocery and drug store workers and for delivery drivers who work for platforms like UberEats, Instacart, and Postmates. These essential workers now must be allowed to take sick leave if they feel ill and change their schedules if they need to care for their children or for sick or elderly family members. Employers are barred from retaliating against workers for making such requests.

City Council voted to prohibit landlords from evicting tenants for a range of reasons, including inability to pay, having extra tenants, or keeping pets. They also agreed to waive late fees and expand the rent repayment period from 6 months to 12 months.

Unfortunately, tenants may still have to fight those evictions when the courts reopen. An effort to cover all renters in the city regardless of their ability to prove hardship caused by COVID-19 failed to pass by one vote.

Council also did not provide laid-off workers—especially those in the devastated hospitality industry—the confidence that their jobs will be there when this crisis is over. However, we do expect the council to vote on right of recall and worker retention policies soon.
In Solidarity,

Roxana Tynan
LAANE Executive Director
LAANE is a leading advocacy organization dedicated to building a new economy for all. Combining dynamic research, innovative public policy and the organizing of broad alliances, LAANE promotes a new economic approach based on good jobs, thriving communities, and a healthy environment.
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