The Los Angeles City Council voted Friday to establish Juneteenth as a permanent paid vacation for city employees, a year after then-Mayor Eric Garcetti announced a

proclamation creating the holiday

.

Juneteenth celebrates the end of slavery in the United States. The holiday commemorates the events of June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, two months after the end of the Civil War and two years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation brought news of freedom to black slaves.

President Biden signed legislation making Juneteenth a federal holiday in 2021.

Garcetti’s resolution for 2022 came two years after council members Curren D. Price and Marqueece Harris-Dawson and former council member Herb J. Wesson

submitted a proposal

in July 2020 to discover how to make Juneteenth a city getaway.

The two votes by the city council

on

Friday deal detailing holiday rules for an employer with tens of thousands of employees.

With one vote, the Los Angeles Administrative Code is amended to add Juneteenth as a holiday for “unrepresented” employees, or those

that who

have no union agreements with the city.

The council also voted to approve contract changes recognizing Juneteenth as a holiday for those workers for agreements with nearly two dozen unions representing city employees.

“We have been negotiating with all of our unions to make the holiday permanent citywide,” city manager Matt Szabo said Friday.

The holiday is celebrated every year on June 19, unless June 19 falls on a weekend, in which case it is celebrated on Friday or Monday, as stipulated in the Administrative Code and individual employment contracts.

Employees working on the holiday “will be compensated in accordance with the provisions of their”

memorandum of understanding

according to an email Dana H. Brown, general manager of the city’s human resources department, sent to city employees.