Los Angeles County Fed digital meeting April 2020



Chair Thom Davis began the online informational meeting by saying these were unprecedented, challenging times.

Jessie Moskeda of the Miguel Contreras foundation said the Fed got $500,000 in loan forgiveness for their program. 

They placed 40 of 50 of their second chance program people into jobs.

They postponed the May awards ceremony.



Rosemary Molina is continuing The Organize Amazon Campaign.

75 workers have fallen ill.

2 dead in Southern California Amazon fulfillment centers.

Amazon is not providing adequate PPE.

The Fed has begun a digital organizing effort.

100% of responding Amazon workers say they cannot afford health care.

The union is distributing PPE in Southern California to their drivers.

They are filing public health complaints.

There is a worker website. amazonworkeralliance.org



Claudia said they are doing affiliate outreach and need volunteers. They have 600 volunteers so far.

Devin gave a political action report. They have raised $240,000.00 for political organizing efforts.  



Hugo reported that they did webinars on EDD for entertainment and mental health workers and what to do when paychecks stop.

There are two in Spanish next week on rented housing and one on immigration law.



Rob Norhoff, worker outreach, is working on emergency sick leave for large employers. They are getting a right of recall and retention policies, so the grocery workers and hotel workers get priority on getting their old jobs back when things start back. 

They want a requirement that workers can wash hands every 30 minutes.

Employers need to pay for PPE, sanitize restrooms, have social distancing and PPE for all drivers. 

They want childcare to be a factor in employees scheduling.

They want us to help get the policies in place by contacting L.A. City council members.



Communications director Christian Castro reported on the digital transformation of the Fed.

They are getting national and international attention on how the unions are feeding people who need help.

Labor Community Services has a new website. www.lcs-la.org  

You can donate or get help. They are going to be posting food distribution there. They are moving to digital strategy for May Day.

They are available to help unions get digitized and there are available webinars.



Labor Community Services’ Armando reported the Fed and the Los Angeles food bank are working together to provide 50 food distributions that provided $1.4 million in food to 26,000 union families. There was a 4-mile long line of cars.

This Wednesday they will be at San Pedro ports, Harbor College, and next week next week will be the San Gabriel Valley (Pico Rivera). www.lcs-la.org for schedule.



 The COVID-19 report - We are midway through the first wave. The number of patient admissions to hospitals is lessening. Some hospitals are still having PPE challenges. COVID-19 spreads very easily. Reminders to frequently wash hands for 20 seconds.

There are promising experimental treatments that do seem to help in early stages. A recent study has shown 4-6% have been exposed. We need 40-60% exposure to be past the worst.

The total number of seriously ill is dropping as treatments seem to be working.

Shelter in place reduces the rate of infection.

Please thank a health care worker when you see one.

Southern California has flattened the curve.

Testing is the path out and it is ramping up every week.



President Ron Herrera asked everyone to be safe and healthy. Essential workers deserve essential protections.

The Federation is working remotely to service union members. They have assistance for applying for unemployment and SEIU and others have worked tirelessly to obtain PPE. There are emergency orders to protect essential workers. They are working to get food and shelter to the homeless.

They want the industry to respect seniority for the hospitality industry when they go back.

They helped push the governor to provide help through the worker centers.

They are working to get PPE to the farmworkers and port workers.

The Fed is soliciting donations to support their programs. They are starting a voucher program to help. Their webinars are educating affiliates. They started with food, then PPE, and they are going to start drive through COVID testing at the Fed tomorrow for the grocery workers.