Labor

The Sept. 12 column by Steve Lopez, "She Wants a Fair Policy on Migrants," is one of the best he's done -- less about just defending an absurd policy and more about some of that policy's implications. However, I would like to suggest that the immigration problem, especially illegal immigration, is much bigger than it appears. More broadly, illegal immigration and the outsourcing of jobs from this country to India and elsewhere should be viewed as opposite sides of the same coin. In both cases U.S. policies are geared to allowing employers in this nation to hire cheap labor.

For most of us, work anchors the routine of life. Out of bed, maybe grab breakfast, get the kids to school and head to the job to spend 8 hours or so helping make the Southern California economy hum along. Sometimes we hardly even notice all the other people--other workers--whose labor supports and intersects with our own. As the nation holds its annual barbecue today to honor labor, we pause to explore the rippling effects of one person's work.

In publishing "The 'Labor Boss' as the Ultimate Bogyman" (Opinion, Nov. 23) The Times has greatly helped correct a one-sided view of organized labor as the subversive villain of workplace peace and harmony. What is truly subversive nowadays is not the revitalized labor movement but an agreement among corporate and government decision-makers to ignore the reality of a second economy in this country. Their "global economy" counts on the unwilling compliance of that second, "throwaway economy," consisting of hundreds of thousands of low-wage workers in the L.A. Basin who have no health insurance, who are at constant risk of layoffs, the contracting out of their jobs, company moves to Mexico or other countries, increased industrial accidents and being harassed or fired just for wanting to join a union.

When word of Miguel Contreras' death spread Friday night, top members of California's labor and political world flocked to Daniel Freeman Hospital in Inglewood in a show of respect. Presidents of unions representing truck drivers, homecare workers, city employees, janitors and supermarket checkers made their way to console relatives of the longtime Los Angeles County labor leader.

Delegates from five continents will hear a report on the global growth of the so-called informal economic sector at an International Labor Organization conference in Geneva on Wednesday. From First World sweatshops to phantom industries throughout the Third World, the report cites the spread of unregulated economic activities which employ low-income workers in substandard conditions, usually without the protection of social legislation.

Robert L. Borosage makes a compelling case that the government of Myanmar treats its own citizens abysmally ("Myanmar Is an Easy Case to Make for Sanctions," Commentary, Jan. 11). Where he wanders from reality is in his characterization of the U.S. business community's response. Borosage's claim that "the business lobby has fought against any action" to sanction Myanmar's leaders is simply not the case. The U.S. has already imposed a wide variety of sanctions against Myanmar. What industry groups such as the National Assn.

The threatened split in organized labor that erupted last week is all about politics. I'm not talking about the internal squabbling of union leaders. I mean real politics -- elections and legislation. That's what's really driving the five unions that formed a potential breakaway group, called Change to Win, within the AFL-CIO. They fear -- quite rightly -- that they're losing political clout as their membership numbers decline. They're in a fight-for-survival mood.

In the latest salvo in a political battle over Los Angeles' lucrative commercial trash collection business, City Hall's top budget guru Friday urged lawmakers to reject a controversial, labor-backed plan to award exclusive hauling privileges in a series of new franchise territories. For months, union-affiliated groups have argued that the current system of private trash haulers vying to collect waste from apartments, factories, hospitals and strip malls should give way to a franchise system that would divide the 468-square-mile city into 11 zones.

Re "All Work and No Play Is the U.S. Way," Commentary, Aug. 30: Joan Williams and Ariane Hegewisch cut right to the heart of what should be a major campaign issue, our culture of overwork. It always fascinated me that our largely Republican captains of industry, while supporting "family values" candidates, generally do not offer family-friendly places of employment. Of course, the Democrats do not seem to have much to say on this issue, either. I suggest that Williams and Hegewisch consider that the business school at their university is one of the sources of this problem.

It's a fight between millionaires and billionaires, so it's not something that's going to elicit much sympathy from everyday Americans. But the dispute between NFL players and team owners could result in a lockout in 2011 — the first labor meltdown since the 1987 strike — and that would certainly grab the attention of football fans. As the NFL Players Assn. conducts its annual meetings in Hawaii this weekend, and owners prepare to convene later this month in Orlando, Fla., the two are on opposite sides of the actual and philosophical map. By asking and answering his own questions, Times NFL writer Sam Farmer looks at what both sides want, and what's keeping them apart.