The Los Angeles Living Wage Coalition explains the fight to extend the city’s living wage ordinance to workers at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). This 1998 production features interviews with Madeline Janis-Aparicio (LAANE) and Jackie Goldberg (L.A. City Counsel) as well as scenes of Mike Garcia leading a protest by SEIU Local 1877 at LAX. Rank-and-file workers explain the struggle of living in L.A. while earning low wages.
Cedillo, Gilbert. “All Should Feel Pain of Reform; Welfare: Business Must Pay Living Wages and Provide Health Benefits for All Workers.: [Home Edition].” Los Angeles Times (Pre-1997 Fulltext); Los Angeles, Calif., August 19, 1996, sec. Metro; PART-B; Op Ed Desk. http://search.proquest.com/latimes/docview/293362291/abstract/E3F4F4E3BCAF413CPQ/1.
Cardenas, Jose. “She’s Working Overtime for L.A.’s Living Wage Battle; Success Made Madeline Janis-Aparicio Labor’s Alter Ego. But Can She Do It Again in Santa Monica?: [Home Edition].” Los Angeles Times; Los Angeles, Calif., August 21, 2000, sec. Southern California Living; PART- E; PART-; View Desk. http://search.proquest.com/latimes/docview/421550115/abstract/1B2E1DCAC8744E85PQ/2.
As leader of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, Miguel Contreras (1952-2005) reshaped LA’s unions into a powerful political, economic, and social force. The child of farm workers, Contreras was an organizer for the United Farm Workers union (UFW), and later the Hotel and Restaurant Employees union (HERE). He led the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor from 1996 until is death in 2005. The LA Alliance for a New Economy produced this video documenting Contreras’s life story and his impact on the city’s labor movement and working people.
Milkman, Ruth, Kent Wong, and Miguel Contreras. “L.A. Confidential: An Interview with Miguel Contreras.” New Labor Forum, no. 10 (2002): 52–61. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40342341.
