Thousands of LA county workers walked off their jobs last Tuesday after their contract with the county expired at midnight and marched through downtown LA.

The workers want raises as well as a reduction in the number of caseloads for those County workers who are employed as social workers. They also want to close loopholes enabling corporations to avoid paying taxes since those taxes fund cash-strapped County services.

LA County employs 100,000 workers of which SEIU represents approximately 55,000. Half of those earn $40,000 a year or less and have not received a cost-of-living increase in five years.

Uprising host Sonali Kolhatkar recently spoke with Lowell Goodman, Communications Director of SEIU Local 721 about the contract negotiations.

Watch a video of the interview here:

Bipasha Shom recorded this interview.