Read all about Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s “war on women” in the Los Angeles Times. Ironically, this is the upcoming Democratic National Convention Chairman.

The press corps was out in force on the steps of Los Angeles City Hall recently, where LA City Employee Unions represented by Council 36 joined conservationists and Council members Eric Garcetti and Tom LaBonge and developer/philanthropist Steve Soboroff to demand the protection of Los Angeles’ parks.

On May 4, 2012, AFSCME Council 36 and other members of the Coalition of LA City Unions were invited by Councilman Paul Krekorian to make a rare formal presentation to the Budget and Finance Committee.

AFSCME Council 36 and other members of the Coalition of LA City Unions recently presented a 20-page report containing more than $100 million in revenue ideas and budget-balancing solutions for the City of Los Angeles to the City Budget and Finance Committee.

AFSCME Local 3090 (LA City clerical and support staff) and other union members with the Coalition of LA City Unions have worked assiduously with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to help the residents of Los Angeles during these tough economic times.

Calling for a sea-change in the management culture of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office, the Association of Deputy District Attorneys (AFSCME Local 2682), voted this week to endorse the candidacy of Danette Meyers for District Attorney in the upcoming June election.

Cathedral City employees represented by Local 3961 made the headlines recently when they packed the City Council chambers to speak against threatened mass layoffs and service cuts to the community.

In a new low, Los Angeles City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana made an announcement to the press in late March – before speaking to the Coalition of LA City Unions – that the City “can no longer afford to pay raises that are due to roughly 20,000 of its workers July 1.” Then, adding insult to injury, Mayor Villaraigosa threw another bomb when he told the LA Times in late March that he is prepared to put a measure on the city ballot to raise the retirement age of new hires “if the City Council refuses to enact such a proposal."

Leaders from AFSCME’s four courts Locals have been meeting for months with legislators about the boondoggle Court computer system, known as CCMS, saying that the funding for that project should instead be used to keep trial courts open. In these austere budgetary times, a mismanaged project that had ballooned from a $250-million to $1.9 BILLION could no longer be justified.

Council 36 launched a major member-to-member organizing campaign to fight back against the Nov. 2012 “Corporate Deception” ballot measure. For all of our Local leaders and rank-and-file activists who showed up on Feb. 25 – thank you! The room was packed!

Council 36’s Committee for Universal Health Care (pictured) met on Feb. 9 with special guest speaker, Dr. King Reilly from Physicians for a National Health Program, discussing the problem of local healthcare disparities in our communities. To join the Committee, please email andrea@laborforhealthcare.org or call 213-252-1351.

Click here to download the photos.

On January 18, hundreds of lawyers, judges, court clerks and mediators, as well as other workers and supporters, came together at a noon rally to highlight the toll of dire cutbacks in the LA Superior Court system over the past three years.

Watch this brief TV news clip, one of many media reports featuring activists from Council 36 and across California at a press conference on pension reform at the State Capitol on December 1, 2011.

AFSCME District Council 36 'sBiennial Convention, which took place October 21-23, 2011 in Long Beach, put the spotlight on our members’ unique struggles and our shared victories.

The video clip here, produced for the Convention, highlights some of our Council’s spirited union activism, in Madison, WI, and right here at home.

Congratulations to our new Council 36 officers! (Click here to see swearing-in photo and elected officers list).

Report on Council political, organizing, and other achievements over the last two years here (Click here to see the report).

Read the Resolutions adopted by the Council at the Convention (click here for the resolutions).