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LAANE Study Reports Port of Los Angeles to Create 13,700 Jobs, Calls for Jobs to Be Good Middle-Class Career Paths

On Friday, June 19th, the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy released a report which estimated that 13,700 jobs would be created over the next several years at the Port of Los Angeles. In a period of economic struggle for thousands of working families in Los Angeles, LAANE’s report details the recovery that could result from ensuring that these jobs provide pathways into the middle class. LAANE is calling for the passage of the Construction Careers Policy, which would ensure that local residents will be eligible for these construction jobs at the Port. The policy will also guarantee high job standards so that these jobs would move local families into the middle class.

In 2008, LAANE worked closely with labor, community, religious and business advocates to pass a Construction Careers Policy at the Community Redevelopment Agency. That policy is reshaping the way developers who receive funding from the CRA interact with their local communities. The policy ensures that local residents are hired for construction jobs and that these jobs have health benefits, pension plans, and wages that allow families to share in the benefits of nearby developments and move into the middle class.

To read the full report, click here

To read the executive summary, click here

Workers and Gay Rights Groups to Band together to Fight for Marriage Equality and expose ‘Hyatt Hypocrisy’

LGBT rights activists, workers and community leaders joined forces outside the Long Beach Hyatt hotel in support the ongoing fight for marriage equality and fair and equal treatment of all individuals, including Hyatt workers. LGBT activist pledged to support Hyatt Long Beach workers and called on the hotel to honor its workers’ rights to organize. The event was co-sponsored by the Long Beach Coalition for Good Jobs & a Healthy Community, San Diego Equality Campaign, Courage Campaign, Equality California, Equal Roots, and Pride at Work.

The Hyatt Hotel is owned and operated by the Hyatt Corporation, which also operates the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego, owned by Doug Manchester. Manchester donated $125,000 to help put California’s Proposition 8 on the ballot last November. The Manchester Grand Hyatt has been at the forefront of the battle over same-sex marriage since leaders of San Diego's LGBT community called a boycott of the hotel in July. This press conference is an expansion of the Hyatt Hypocrisy campaign, which is in full swing in San Diego, to Hyatt’s Long Beach Hotel.

City Council Unanimous in Support of Family Healthcare for Airport Workers

On Wednesday, May 13th, the Los Angeles City Council took the first step toward securing healthcare for low-wage workers at LAX by voting unanimously to draft an amendment to the Los Angeles Living Wage Ordinance. The amendment would raise the living wage’s healthcare allotment in an effort to ensure airport workers have family healthcare coverage. This would be the first change to the healthcare allotment since the passage of the ordinance in 1997.

In advance of the Council vote, Councilmembers Janice Hahn and Bill Rosendahl joined the Reaching Higher for Healthcare Coalition at a press conference calling on City Council to vote in favor of the healthcare amendment. The Reaching Higher for Healthcare Coalition, a diverse group of healthcare advocates and community, political, labor and faith-based organizations, announced the release of a Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy report detailing the benefits that amending the ordinance will have for Los Angeles and the cost to workers and the public when LAX workers lack employer-provided healthcare.

www.reachinghigherforhealthcare.org

Business and Hotel Workers Announce Victories on Century Blvd.

On Monday April 13th the Radisson LAX become the fourth hotel on the LAX corridor to sign a union contract. Of the five hotels that were part of UNITE HERE's Local 11 Hotel Worker Rising campaign, only the LAX Hilton remains non-union. Three other hotels have signed union contracts covering nearly 1000 workers and their families, providing living wages, guaranteed significant wage increases, and free or affordable health insurance. The LAX Hilton remains under boycott.

The Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy estimates that over the life of the contract the economic benefit of the four union contracts on Century Blvd will mean that hotel workers will earn an extra $12.3 million in wages through 2012. This extra income will directly benefit local communities and the LAX area where these workers live and work. Of that $12.3 million, workers will reinvest over two-thirds, or an estimated $8.4 million, back into the local community.

"In this recession, the best economic stimulus is a union contract," says Councilman Bill Rosendhal.