Tag: Living Wage Campaign

As 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 the airlines at LAX maintained contracts with the City of Los Angeles in the form of leases, thanks to a change in city policies, most services at the airport were provided by companies subcontracted by the airlines, which meant that the Living Wage Ordinance did not apply to them. The change in employment relations at LAX meant that jobs once filled by unionized workers employed directly by the airlines became low-wage subcontracted ones, with LAX workers paid wages of as little as $5.15 per hour and with no sick days, holidays, or health benefits. Mayor Richard Riordan, who had initiated the changes that enabled the subcontracting schemes at the airport, made clear his intentions to prevent the ordinance’s expansion at LAX. 

SEIU Local 399, representing building trades workers in Los Angeles, had been working to unionize the subcontracted LAX workers for several years before the Living Wage campaign began. When it became clear that airport subcontractors would not abide by the new standards, Local 399 worked with other members of the Living Wage Coalition to organize massive demonstrations at the airport, including this one in October 1997. After months of pressure, the Los Angeles’ Bureau of Contract Administration ruled that the ordinance did apply to the airlines and their subcontractors, but the airlines still refused to comply. Just a few days later, 450 workers at LAX announced their intention to unionize with Local 399.   

JIM NEWTON, “Mayor Trying to Keep LAX Exempt From New Pay Law,” Los Angeles Times, Oct. 2, 1997 https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-oct-02-mn-38322-story.html 

JIM NEWTON, “Agency Says ‘Living Wage’ Law Covers Airport Guards, Janitors; Labor: Ruling is a loss for Riordan, who seeks only voluntary compliance by airlines. Carriers vow to appeal.” Los Angeles Times, June 11, 1998.  https://www.proquest.com/latimes/docview/421279834/abstract/D912AFE4172245AEPQ/211

JIM NEWTON, “LAX Security Staff Begins Union Drive; Airport: Workers seek benefits of city’s ‘living wage’ law. They also say employers have threatened retaliation.” Los Angeles Times June 27, 1998. https://www.proquest.com/latimes/docview/421305299/abstract/8DC00FDF184D44F6PQ/1?sourcetype=Newspapers 

View more photos from the Living Wage Campaign: https://www.flickr.com/photos/uclairle/albums/72177720320809410/ 

View more photos from the Linda A. Lotz Photo Collection: https://www.flickr.com/photos/uclairle/albums/72177720320845755/

In 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 council member. On the day of the hearing, the Living Wage Coalition planned a theatrical action on the steps outside where staffers dressed as elves and community members carried handmade signs with holiday-themed messages. As Tom Hayden, then a candidate for Mayor of Los Angeles, addressed the crowd, coalition-member Dave Clennon approached dressed head-to-toe in costume as the ghost of Jacob Marley from the Christmas Carol. He continued his slow march into the chamber, first addressing the press, and then the council, in character, warning them not to go the way of Scrooge by opposing the ordinance. The coalition’s efforts were ultimately successful: the ordinance passed a committee vote that day and was eventually voted into law in March 1997. 

Pictured here: Clennon reads his address to the press outside of the City Council chambers with a group of workers and community members including (right to left): Reverend Joseph William Frazier, Rev. James Lawson Jr., Tom Hayden (then a candidate for Mayor of Los Angeles), and Epsicopal Bishop Chester Talton. The photo was one of 10 photographs by Linda A. Lotz featured in an exhibition called “Faith at Work” which was shown at several congregations and community spaces in Southern California in 1999.   

JEAN MERL, “L.A. Council OKs ‘Living Wage’ Law for City Contracts: Labor: With Enough Votes to Override Promised Riordan Veto, Panel Approves Minimum Pay for Lowest-Level Workers.” Los Angeles Times (1996-Current); Los Angeles, Calif, March 19, 1997, sec. Orange County. https://search.proquest.com/hnplatimes/docview/2109359639/abstract/17BA1ABB1F7142F2PQ/101.

Watch footage of Dan Clennon as Jacob Marley: https://vimeo.com/236469814

View more photos from the Living Wage Campaign: https://www.flickr.com/photos/uclairle/albums/72177720320809410/

View more photos from the Linda A. Lotz Photo Collection: https://www.flickr.com/photos/uclairle/albums/72177720320845755/

The 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 passage, they engaged local religious leaders inspiring the creation of CLUE, Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice. Many of CLUE’s founding members had been intimately involved in community organizing before—including civil rights activism, supporting central American refugees, opposition to nuclear arms, and Middle East peace—and wanted to build a new movement for economic justice rooted in theological values.  

While CLUE’s members came from a variety of faith traditions, its model was based on the Quaker principle of accompaniment, a process of deep relationship building in which religious leaders spent time with workers to learn about their communities’ needs and brainstormed actions and strategies together and then accompanied those workers in supportive roles that would help move their campaigns forward. This photograph, taken by Lotz in 1996, provides an example of that accompaniment in practice. It depicts Rev. Richard Gillett (center back) and Rev. James Lawson Jr. (to his right), both founding members of CLUE standing with a group of workers outside of Los Angeles City Hall as they prepare to visit various City Council offices to encourage members to vote yes on the Living Wage Ordinance. The photo was one of 10 of Lotz’ photographs featured in an exhibition called “Faith at Work,” which was shown at several congregations and community spaces in Southern California before Lotz left Los Angeles to join the staff of the American Friends Service Committee International Programs in 1999.   

Borsch, Frederick H, Beerman, Leonard, and Sano Roy, “Yes: It Makes Ethical and Economic Sense,” Los Angeles Times 30 Dec 1996: VCB11. https://www.proquest.com/hnplatimes1/historical-newspapers/yes-makes-ethical-economic-sense/docview/2047937342/sem-2?accountid=14512

View more photos from the Living Wage Campaign: https://www.flickr.com/photos/uclairle/albums/72177720320809410/

View more photos from the Linda A. Lotz Photo Collection: https://www.flickr.com/photos/uclairle/albums/72177720320845755/