Labor Relations

NBA Commissioner David Stern and NBA Players Assn. head Billy Hunter disclosed Saturday that in light of the nation's economic plight, they're in talks that could reopen the current bargaining agreement. "I can't tell you that we are close to reaching a deal, but we have been talking," said Hunter, appearing at Stern's All-Star news conference. " . . . We all understand that we live and benefit from the success of the NBA. The last thing we want to do is see it lose its vitality.

The ousted leaders of Oakland-based United Healthcare Workers West on Wednesday announced that they have formed a new union and intend to begin recruiting their former members, a continuation of brinkmanship between UHW and the Service Employees International Union. The new group is called the National Union of Healthcare Workers, and organizers are busily collecting union cards from UHW members, the first step toward recognition in workplaces.

The Screen Actors Guild board of directors has appointed David P. White as the national executive director and chief negotiator for Hollywood's largest union. The appointment of White, who had been serving as interim executive director, was widely anticipated after a group of moderate actors that orchestrated the firing of his predecessor, Doug Allen, installed White in January. The moderates recently solidified their position on the national board when their candidate, veteran character actor Ken Howard, soundly defeated Anne-Marie Johnson, who was backed by the faction that had supported Allen and swept outgoing SAG President Alan Rosenberg into office four years ago. Johnson and Rosenberg filed an unsuccessful lawsuit to block the board's firing of Allen, who led the union during a yearlong contract standoff with the studios.

"Tonight Show" host Jay Leno's on-air declaration that he wrote his own jokes for his program triggered a thorny dispute Thursday about what the late-night hosts can and can't do during the continuing writers strike. Leno's statement that he penned his monologue put the popular comedian at odds with his own union despite his vocal support for its cause.

It's "unsafe" at busy airports throughout the country. There's a "staffing emergency" in air traffic control facilities serving Southern California. A "dangerous situation" in the skies and on the ground is about to "get worse." National Air Traffic Controllers Assn. President Patrick Forrey made those allegations last week in news releases and during a teleconference with reporters in the latest salvo in a long-standing labor dispute between the union and the Federal Aviation Administration.

The case started with a phone call to a Spanish-speaking volunteer at a small office in San Bernardino. A Los Angeles domestic worker said her boss owed her a few hundred dollars. The U.S. Department of Labor opened an investigation and, with the help of the Mexican Consulate, discovered hundreds of workers who hadn't been paid the minimum wage or overtime for their work cleaning homes and carpets.

The tentative settlement reached this week between the Directors Guild and producers bolstered hopes that talks would resume in the writers strike, but it wasn't enough to relieve the queasy reality settling on Hollywood that the Academy Awards may go the way of the celebrity-free ratings downer that was Sunday's Golden Globes. However, Gilbert Cates, producer of the award telecast, remains adamant that on Feb.

Facing a possible strike that could have stranded hundreds of thousands of commuters, Amtrak reached a preliminary deal Friday that apparently heavily favored the railroad's nine unions, which have worked for years without a contract.

Spurred by the day-old employment contract signed by the Directors Guild of America, Hollywood's writers and the major studios agreed Friday to resume talks, hoping to reach an agreement that would end the nearly 11-week-old strike, according to several people close to the matter. Writers Guild of America leaders plan to meet as early as Tuesday with News Corp. President Peter Chernin and possibly other top executives, reviving talks that studios broke off early last month, the people said.

Union officials representing thousands of private security guards in Los Angeles have struck a landmark deal with several property management companies that provide security to 80% of the commercial real estate in Los Angeles County. The deal results in a 40% increase in overall salary and benefits, according to Faith Culbreath, local head of the security officers' branch of the Service Employees International Union. "We're very excited," Culbreath said. "We've achieved all our core objectives."