Labor

Bad news, apparently, for mayoral candidate Wendy Greuel: She has broad support from public employee unions in her race against Eric Garcetti. Let's run through that again. Greuel has the direct backing of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor and the largest city civilian employee organization, the Service Employees International Union, Local 721, both of which can and do spend millions of dollars and mobilize thousands of members to support their candidates. She also has the backing of the union representing Department of Water and Power workers and of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, which represents most city police officers.

For more than half of my 38 years in the news business, I've been a member of a union, though I'm not currently. And my late father was a proud Teamster for decades. So I appreciate the goods that unions deliver to nearly 15 million members in the United States: living wages and good benefits. Workplace safety. A measure of job security. And protection against management abuse. In other words, don't count me among those who vilify organized labor, which in many parts of the country offers the best hope for hanging on to a place in the middle class.

WASHINGTON - President Obama's pick for Labor secretary, Thomas E. Perez, emerged unscathed Thursday from a Senate confirmation hearing that was more perfunctory than contentious. Conservatives have been critical of Perez, the administration's top civil rights enforcer, portraying him as a dangerous liberal who would be an overly assertive regulator at the Labor Department. But despite predictions that his confirmation could be acrimonious, there was very little of the tough questioning that Republican adversaries said he deserved.

For Jose Cruz, a 33-year-old day laborer from Guatemala, getting all the benefits of citizenship is not as important as being able to live, work and drive in the U.S. without the fear of deportation. "My main concern today, is having a job. That's the pan de cada dia (our daily bread)," said Cruz, who spent Tuesday at a Southland Home Depot hoping to find work. "I can wait for everything else. " His friend, Javier Gonzalez, a fellow day laborer who plans to return to his wife and four kids in Acapulco soon, chimed in to remind Cruz of the prospective timetable: "You want to wait 13 years?"

Los Angeles Fire Chief Brian Cummings said Tuesday that he will reassign dozens of firefighters from engines to rescue ambulances beginning next month to handle an increase in medical emergencies. The sudden action, coming after months of criticism over the agency's 911 response times and Cummings' leadership, drew immediate opposition from labor groups representing firefighters and department commanders, who warned the change would put firefighters at greater risk. City fire commissioners and a key City Council member also questioned the plan, which calls for adding 11 new ambulances.

WASHINGTON - Senators writing a landmark immigration bill broke a logjam between farmworker unions and growers Thursday, reaching a tentative agreement on the number of future agricultural visas and pay scales for foreign farmworkers. Labor unions and agricultural industry leaders had been stuck for three weeks on how to legally bring foreign labor into the United States to pick crops and tend livestock at competitive wages. The issue, which is important to California and other farming states, became a major stumbling block in bipartisan efforts to craft a comprehensive immigration bill.

LONDON -- It perhaps goes without saying that the death of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher did not prompt universal mourning. She could be a polarizing figure, nowhere more than in working-class communities of northern England, Scotland and Wales, where residents bitterly recall the fierce fights against her closure of Britain's mines in the 1980s, actions that caused thousands to lose their livelihoods. The National Union of Miners posted a few words of condolence to the Thatcher family, but followed it with a reminder: “The legacy of what the Conservative government did to British industry under Thatcher is not one to be proud of if you really did want the best for the people.” The working class had suffered “decimation” in the name of the free market, the message said, adding that “Thatcher lived long enough to see her beliefs demolished when the 'free market' collapsed and came running to the state for support.

Organized labor's lopsided support for Wendy Greuel in the Los Angeles mayor's race has started shifting as unions begin pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into an independent campaign backing her rival, Eric Garcetti. The $300,000 in new labor donations for Garcetti - the first installment of what union leaders say will be more than $1 million - still leaves the city councilman far behind Greuel in the contest for union money. But it highlights a dramatic split within labor, often the driving force in Los Angeles elections.

Job growth slowed markedly in March from the prior month, the government said Friday in a report that was certain to disappoint analysts and increase concerns that the economy could be heading for another springtime slump.  Employers added just 88,000 net new jobs last month, the lowest since June and down from an upwardly revised 268,000 in February. The nation's unemployment rate last month dipped a notch to a new four-year low of 7.6%, but for the wrong reason. It dropped because the labor force, those working and looking for jobs, fell by nearly a half-million people.

The U.S. needs guest workers because Americans won't work on farms -- at least, that's the argument made by many in agriculture as they negotiate over the controversial H-2A program , which allows farmers to bring in predominantly Mexican laborers to pick cotton and trim trees. But labor advocates say there's a group of Americans who have been trying to work on farms, only to be displaced by H-2A workers, who are less likely to complain about poor working conditions because their visas are dependent on their employers.