BUSINESS
May 16, 2013 | By Alana Semuels, Los Angeles Times
NEW YORK - The next wave of union protesters isn't blue collar. It's lawyers, paralegals, secretaries, helicopter pilots, judges, insurance agents and podiatrists. These white-collar workers are not exactly the picture of the labor movement, but they are becoming a more essential part of it as they turn to unions for help in a tough economy as bosses try to squeeze out more profits. "Employers have been downsizing, asking employees to take on larger roles, making them work more hours," said Nicole Korkolis, spokeswoman for the Office and Professional Employees International Union.
BUSINESS
May 15, 2013 | By Walter Hamilton, Los Angeles Times
About 300 labor union members and other activists staged a demonstration to protest the potential sale of the Los Angeles Times to the politically conservative Koch brothers. Demonstrators marched outside the downtown L.A. headquarters of Oaktree Capital Management, an investment firm that holds a roughly 20% stake in Tribune Co., which owns The Times. Protesters alleged that Charles and David Koch, billionaire siblings who fund conservative causes, want to buy The Times in order to skew the paper's coverage to favor anti-union objectives.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
May 12, 2013 | James Rainey, Maeve Reston and David Zahniser
The pickup truck tooled around Highland Park on Saturday morning, loudspeakers in back crooning in Spanish: "Wendy, la Wendy. We're gonna vote. $15 an hour we'll make. Wendy, la Wendy, we're gonna dance. Eric Garcetti, start crying. " A political mailer prepared by the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor -- and duly posted on the city's Ethics Commission website -- offers a strikingly similar promise. "On May 21, our votes can raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour," says the brochure from the Coalition for Better Schools and Communities, the organization's "super-PAC.
OPINION
May 10, 2013 | By The Times editorial board
Massing the heavy legal artillery of 1st Amendment principles, a federal appeals court has ruled that the federal government can't order businesses to post signs informing employees that they have a right to join a union and to bargain for better wages. It's a troubling ruling. The case stems from a 2011 decision by the National Labor Relations Board that employers must "post notices to employees, in conspicuous places," informing them of their rights under the National Labor Relations Act, and include the information in electronic mailings.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
May 10, 2013 | By Seema Mehta and Maeve Reston, Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles mayoral candidate Wendy Greuel, after spending heavily on a TV advertising blitz that coincided with the start of early voting, entered the final stretch of the runoff campaign with roughly one-tenth the war chest of rival Eric Garcetti, according to new campaign finance reports. Greuel, the city's controller, also lagged behind Garcetti in fundraising. She reported raising nearly $937,000 in the four weeks ending Saturday and loaning her campaign $100,000, pushing her just past the $1-million mark in documents her campaign filed with the City Ethics Commission late Thursday.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
May 8, 2013 | By Patrick McGreevy and Chris Megerian, Los Angeles Times
SACRAMENTO - California legislative leaders and 10 public employee unions announced opposition Wednesday to any sale of the Los Angeles Times and other Tribune Co. newspapers to a pair of wealthy brothers who fund conservative causes. In a letter dated Tuesday to Bruce Karsh, president of Oaktree Capital Management, the largest shareholder in Tribune Co., and chairman of its board of directors, the unions said David and Charles Koch are "anti-labor, anti-environment, anti-public education and anti-immigrant.