Working Life

One of the dumbest, and pernicious, obsessions has to be trying to tag teachers for the bad state of a lot of schools. Seriously? It’s just mindless, blind ideological hatred that comes straight from a hostile right-wing that wants to eviscerate the political power of teachers’ unions. In the list of the assault add the bad decision coming out of the mouth of a mediocre Los Angeles judge.

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This is not really an entirely new story. But, it’s good to see something positive about organized labor — and particularly about a dynamic labor leader.

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Yes, unions brought us the weekend. But, there are life-changing skills that unions often open up for people who might not have access to them. Something to remember via a strong Labor Day column from Michael Hiltzik in The Los Angeles Times, a piece that celebrates, rather than bemoans, the state of unions.

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   People who live in New York City and don’t even own cars might shrug about this. But, in the car culture everywhere else, this is an interesting development: Workers at a Southern California car wash have organized and won a labor contract with their employers, making it what’s believed to be the only unionized […]

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   Hey, as someone who lived just up the road from Redondo Beach for a bit, here’s some good news: In a decision that could have a wide-ranging effect on other cities with similar laws, a federal appeals court ruled that a Redondo Beach ordinance aimed at cracking down on day laborers is an unconstitutional […]

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   Interesting to see different takes on the deal reached in Los Angeles for city workers’ contracts. First, the LATimes: Unions representing 6,300 L.A. workers reject Villaraigosa’s labor deal Four out of 18 labor groups at Los Angeles City Hall have rejected Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s proposal for reducing the city’s budget shortfall by scaling back […]

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For those of us who remember the long grocery workers’ strike that went on for almost five months back in 2003-2004, there apparently won’t be a repeat. The Los Angeles Times was reporting yesterday that: Grocery clerks appear to be backing new contract By Richard Verrier and Jerry Hirsch Times Staff Writers July 23, 2007 […]

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I did a stretch of seven years in Los Angeles so I keep my ear to the ground on whatever is happening there in the house of labor. The last couple of weeks, I keep hearing from friends who are holding their breathe, hoping that Antonio Villaraigosa beats incumbent Mayor Jim Hahn in the election […]

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Damn. In case you haven’t heard, Miguel Contreras, secretary-treasurer of the Los Angles County Labor Federation, died suddenly last night of a heart attack. I never had the good fortune of working with Contreras but anyone who did spoke highly of him. There’s a fairly detailed obit of him in today’s Los Angeles Times. I […]

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