Reform the Charter: Restore our Jobs
Rewrite the Rules. Restore Public Jobs. Reclaim Power in Los Angeles.
Los Angeles is rewriting its City Charter for the first time in a generation. This moment will determine who has access to stable public-sector jobs, how public dollars are spent, and whose voices shape the future of the city. The Los Angeles Black Worker Center has put forward Charter reform recommendations to confront structural exclusion, restore access to public-sector careers, and make workforce equity enforceable in law. This campaign is about rewriting the rules so the people who built Los Angeles can thrive in it.
This campaign is led by Black workers and community members, in solidarity with unions, workers of the global majority, and community allies who understand that governance systems shape material conditions.
We recognize the legacy of slavery, Jim Crow, racial capitalism, and criminalization as foundational to the systems that continue to marginalize Black communities. Charter reform is a tool to interrupt that legacy and build something different.
Los Angeles works because working people make it work.
It’s time for the rules to reflect that.
The City Charter Is Not Neutral
For generations, Black workers and workers of the global majority built Los Angeles, yet the City Charter upholds systems that exclude them from stable public-sector jobs and concentrate power away from communities. Created in an era of racial exclusion, these rules persist through biased hiring, weak oversight, and budgets that prioritize policing and privatization. This is not accidental. It is policy choice.
Why Public-Sector Jobs Matter
Public-sector jobs were once one of the strongest engines of Black economic mobility in Los Angeles. Unionized city jobs with benefits, pensions, and career pathways stabilized families and neighborhoods. Their dismantling through austerity, privatization, and criminalization helped create the crises the City now labels as public safety issues. Stable public-sector employment: Keeps families housed Reduces community violence Interrupts the pipe
This Is a Structural Fight
The City Charter sets the foundation for how power operates in Los Angeles. It determines who gets hired, who controls budgets, how accountability works, and whose interests are protected. This Charter rewrite is a rare and time-sensitive opportunity to address harm at the level of rules, not symptoms. Incremental fixes and symbolic commitments are not enough. Equity must be enforceable. LABWC’s recommendations are designed to rewrite the gover
LABWC’s Charter recommendations call for structural reforms that:
Restore fair and transparent pathways into unionized public-sector employment, center Black workers and workers of the global majority in workforce policy, and reframe public-sector jobs as a core public safety strategy. They strengthen civilian oversight and democratic accountability, ensure public dollars serve public needs rather than private contractors, and create durable, meaningful community participation in decision-making.
These are not suggestions. They are demands for enforceable change.
What Guides This Campaign
Belonging We have the right to live, work, and thrive in the city we built. Dignity of Work If we can do the work, we deserve the job and the benefits. Fair Rules Merit is not neutral. The system must be rewritten for justice. Multiracial Working-Class Power Black workers centered, all workers united. Restoration We are restoring what was taken, not asking for favors.
Stand With Black Workers
This Charter rewrite will not happen on its own. Community pressure matters. Support LABWC’s Charter Reform recommendations Send a message to City Council Sign the petition as a member or ally Share this campaign with your network This is a fight over power, resources, and who gets to stay in Los Angeles. We invite you to stand with us.