Unions

The state may be going broke, jobs may be vanishing like the morning mist, and the nation may be enduring its worst economic stretch in decades. But Southern California's top labor leader says this is not the time for unions to beat a retreat. On the contrary. "It's more important for workers to have a voice in an economic crisis than it is when times are at their best," said Maria Elena Durazo, chief of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor.

Two days before the Los Angeles City Council is expected to vote on an early retirement package for thousands of workers, the city's largest business organization warned the proposal would contribute to a "massively unfunded and unsustainable" pension liability.

Workers at a hospital and two nursing homes in Hollister, Calif., have voted to remain in the Service Employees International Union rather than join a rival group launched by former officers of the giant labor organization. The election was the latest skirmish between the SEIU and the upstart National Union of Healthcare Workers, which has filed election petitions to represent nearly 100,000 employees in California.

The Supreme Court signaled Monday that it might be ready to give corporations a free-speech right to spend their money to elect or defeat favored candidates. In an unusual order, the justices said they were putting off until next term a decision over whether a politically charged film -- in this instance, "Hillary: The Movie" -- could be regulated as a type of campaign ad.

Faced with unrelenting union opposition, the Los Angeles Board of Education put on hold Tuesday a proposal that would have allowed charter operators and other outside groups to bid for control of 50 new schools scheduled to open over the next four years. The plan, led by board member Yolie Flores Aguilar, would have made available, through a competitive process, new schools that are part of the nation's largest school construction project.

A coalition of Los Angeles public employee unions announced Wednesday it has ratified a concession agreement that postpones cost-of-living increases for two years and offers an early retirement program, forestalling the need for widespread layoffs and furloughs. The concessions were a critical component of the effort by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the City Council to close a $530-million budget shortfall.

Pressured by intensive lobbying from groups that include Los Angeles County's most powerful labor unions, transportation officials are slated today to decide whether to give Italian rail-car maker AnsaldoBreda a second chance at a $300-million contract. For months, Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials have been locked in debate with the company over the quality of the 50 rail cars it has built under an existing contract that is three years behind schedule.

Union membership throughout California is rising despite the ongoing recession, according to a study released Monday by UCLA's Institute for Research on Labor and Employment Between July 2008 and June 2009, unions gained almost 25,000 new members in Southern California and more than 131,000 statewide, according to the institute's fifth annual report on the state of organized labor. Union workers still represent fewer than one in five employees in the state, but membership has grown steadily for two years.

The city's two top financial analysts advised Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Friday to reject an early retirement plan for employees and to instead lay off 926 city workers and force 22,000 others to take unpaid days off. City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana and Chief Legislative Analyst Gerry Miller said the plan to trim staff by allowing 2,400 employees to retire up to five years ahead of schedule would "devastate city operations"...

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Monday abandoned an early retirement plan his administration had negotiated with labor leaders as a rapidly worsening budget gap moved the city and some of its most powerful employee unions toward open conflict. City Council members offered to give union leaders until today to identify another $60 million in cuts that would be needed to salvage the early retirement plan. If the unions fail to do so, council members may be forced to back layoffs for as many as 926 custodians, recreation workers, building inspectors and other city employees.