Tag: Living Wage Campaign
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Raise L.A. Coalition Victory
Read more: Raise L.A. Coalition VictoryA higher minimum wage for workers in big hotels Supporters of the Raise L.A. coalition celebrate a vote of the Los Angeles city council in September 2014. Under the new law, large non-union hotels in Los Angeles would raise their minimum wage to $15.37 by 2015. The campaign was part of a multi-year strategy led […]
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Santa Monica Living Wage – Journey For Justice
Read more: Santa Monica Living Wage – Journey For JusticeIn 1999, hospitality workers and their allies formed a new coalition to expand Los Angeles’ living wage ordinance to neighboring Santa Monica. Calling themselves SMART (Santa Monicans Allied for Responsible Tourism), they advanced a proposal to increase the minimum wage for the estimated 3,000 housekeepers, valet drivers, restaurant workers, and security guards who worked in […]
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Let Justice Roll Down
Read more: Let Justice Roll DownThe Working Poor: Challenge to the Religious Community What is the responsibility of people of faith when confronted with the poverty of working people in a wealthy country? That question is posed by Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE) in this 2000 video featuring the testimony of working people, faith leaders, academics, and […]
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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 […]
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Expanding the Living Wage at LAX
Read more: Expanding the Living Wage at LAXAs written, the Los Angeles Living Wage Ordinance only applied to large companies with contracts with the Los Angeles city government, exempting some 2000-3000 low-wage workers at the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), including baggage handlers, wheelchair runners, security officers, and janitorial staff. Their exclusion from the ordinance was based on a legal technicality: while […]
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Hold the Line Caravan
Read more: Hold the Line CaravanAs the Living Wage Coalition expanded its outreach, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors announced plans to restrict eligibility to, and cut benefits for, its General Relief (or “welfare”) program in accordance with the passage of the federal Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act (better known as “welfare reform”) of 1996. Coalition members, including […]
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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 […]
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Living Wage Holidays Action at City Hall
Read more: Living Wage Holidays Action at City HallIn 1996, as the Los Angeles City Council’s holiday recess approached, members of the Living Wage coalition organized a Christmas-themed action at the last committee hearing on the ordinance. In the preceding weeks, they had sent delegations of workers to council offices and sent heartfelt Thanksgiving messages written by workers and their families to each […]
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Lobbying Day At City Council
Read more: Lobbying Day At City CouncilThe Living Wage was the first major campaign of LAANE (Los Angeles Alliance for the New Economy, then known at the Tourism Industry Development Council), who helped to conceive of and craft the ordinance in close collaboration with HERE Local 11 (representing hospitality workers) and SEIU Local 399 (representing building services workers). To ensure its […]