Author: admin
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A Living Wage
Read more: A Living WageAs written, Los Angeles’ Living Wage Ordinance, passed by the City Council in 1997, applied to all large companies doing business with the city government. But owed to the subcontracting practices used by major airlines at LAX, the baggage handlers, wheelchair runners, security officers, and janitorial staff who worked at the airport were exempted. After the ordinance’s passage, workers, religious leaders, and community members marched in support of expanding the ordinance to include service workers…
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Don’t be a Scrooge: Ghost of Christmas Past visits L.A. City Council
Read more: Don’t be a Scrooge: Ghost of Christmas Past visits L.A. City CouncilThis video produced by the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy documents elements of the Living Wage campaign in Los Angeles. After months of organizing and outreach, the campaign crested in December 1996, with a holidays-themed action at City Hall. Dressed as the ghost of Jacob Marley from Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” community member Dave Clennon entered City Hall with members of the coalition and addressed the Council, warning theme not to go…
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Taking on the New Otani
Read more: Taking on the New OtaniAfter a majority of workers at the New Otani Hotel in downtown Los Angeles supported unionization, hotel management refused to negotiate. Members of HERE Local 11 from other Los Angeles hotels pledged to support the New Otani workers with weekly demonstrations that escalated into long-lasting boycott. This 1996 video produced by HERE Local 11 documents the union’s strategy of targeting the Kajima Corporation, a large Japanese construction firm that was the major stakeholders in the…
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USC’s Workers Fight Back
Read more: USC’s Workers Fight BackIn August 1995, several union janitors working at USC were fired and replaced by non-union subcontractors with Service Master, launching a years-long struggle among service workers at USC. The campaign at USC brought together two unions and the forefront of the local labor movement: the Justice for Janitors (SEIU Local 399) campaign and HERE Local 11, which represented food service workers also treated by USC’s subcontracting practices. Both unions had prioritized organizing immigrant workers in…
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“Immigrant workers have always agreed with us philosophically”
Read more: “Immigrant workers have always agreed with us philosophically”Now I’m somebody who’s tried to organize immigrant workers in this town for 20 years. We’ve had some success here and there, but the movement’s never been able to prove to immigrant workers that it could deliver. That it could put its money where its mouth was. Immigrant workers have always agreed with us philosophically. They know we’re advocates; they know we’re on their side. But they’ve been reluctant to get on board with us…
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On Any Day: A Visit to Four L.A. Neighborhoods
Read more: On Any Day: A Visit to Four L.A. NeighborhoodsDuring the 1994 World Cup, which brought journalists from all over the world to Los Angeles, the Tourism Industry Development Council (TIDC, later known as the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, or LAANE) organized a bus tour, so that visiting journalists could “come with us into our city and meet its people.” They spotlighted four Los Angeles working class neighborhoods, East Los Angeles, Pico Union, Koreatown, and South Central, and coordinated visits with…
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Justice for Janitors 1995 Strike News
Read more: Justice for Janitors 1995 Strike NewsEnglish and Spanish TV news coverage of street actions leading up to the 1995 strike by SEIU Local 399, the Justice for Janitors campaign. The strike came in the wake of the passage of Proposition 187, which imposed severe new restrictions on the rights of undocumented immigrants, and amidst internal turmoil in the union, which eventually resulted in Local 399 being placed under a trusteeship. But despite these obstacles, the janitors mobilized like never before,…
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Pueblo, Unete! Vigil, March, and Mass for Immigrant Rights
Read more: Pueblo, Unete! Vigil, March, and Mass for Immigrant RightsIn the fall of 1993, conservative political operatives began circulating plans for an anti-immigrant California ballot proposition, what would become Proposition 187. Advocates of immigrant- and worker-rights raised alarms immediately, and mounted a vigorous opposition campaign. Voters approved Prop. 187 in 1994, but it was struck down by a federal judge. The fight against the anti-immigrant law helped propel a new progressive political coalition in California. This short film documents a vigil, march, and mass…
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“They embraced their cause 24 hours a day”
Read more: “They embraced their cause 24 hours a day”Three main ingredients account for the success of the drywallers strike. First, the determination of the strikers. They were not doing “strike duty”. They embraced their cause 24 hours a day and everything else became secondary to the strike. Additionally, the strikers were aware that they were being oppressed not only as workers but also as Mexicans, which made their bond twice as strong. This came particularly handy when entire families were evicted from their…
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Mop Man: La Union Lucha Por Tus Derechos! | Mopman: The Union Fights for Your Rights!
Read more: Mop Man: La Union Lucha Por Tus Derechos! | Mopman: The Union Fights for Your Rights!The Justice for Janitors campaign frequently used street theater to enliven their demonstrations and dramatize their cause. Among their most recognizable characters was a luchador named Mop Man, who (in comics and performances) defended janitors against abuses by the boss. In this comic from the early 1990s, Mop Man narrates a day-in-the-life of a janitor who works five, sometimes six days a week for minimum wages, to explain that the union fights for workers’ rights. Of particular…