Los Angeles Living Wage Coalition
Los Angeles, California
Background: The Changing Economy of Los Angeles
Driving from the north along the meandering road of Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles ' trademark street, one can be overwhelmed by the glitz and glamour of Hollywood -prohibitively expensive retail shops, restaurants and high-rise hotels. But keep driving southeastward on Sunset Boulevard, past Vermont Avenue and you'll find a different economically depressed Los Angeles.
During the last forty years, Los Angeles has witnessed a great change in its economic and social base. In 1960's, middle- and working-class incomes were rising quickly, and the city appeared to be an "egalitarian boomtown." Los Angeles was home to large numbers of unionized aircraft and auto factories. The combination of high-end manufacturing jobs and unions created a working class that could afford to buy their own homes.
Few traces of the 1960s' middle-class paradise exist in the Los Angeles of the new century. With a population of almost ten million residents, Los Angeles County has the largest county population in the nation, and is exceeded by only eight states. In the 1990s its white population increased 11.5 percent, the percentage of residents living in poverty increased by 64.5 percent, to 2.15 million people.
The recession in the 1980's and early 1990's led to the closing of all but one of LA's tire and auto plants. With the end of the Cold War, the local aerospace and defense industries lost more than half of their jobs. Higher skilled workers packed their bags and left the region. They were replaced by an in-migration, predominately from Mexico , Central America , and Asia . With few high-wage manufacturing jobs available, the new immigrants depended on low-skill manufacturing jobs, such as garment and toys; tourism jobs in restaurants and hotels; and domestic work, as housekeepers and landscapers.
Poverty conditions in these low-wage service sectors have led to a revival of the labor movement in Los Angeles . Currently, more than 18.6 percent of workers in LA County are unionized-well above the 13.9%, national average.
The living wage campaign in Los Angeles has helped redress the downward income trends while emphasizing the role of unions in providing stabled, decent paying jobs.
Developing a Living wage Provision
Los Angeles ' living wage movement has been spearheaded by the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE). Created in 1993, LAANE has helped win numerous victories that have improved the lives of workers.
In 1996, understanding that community support was paramount in attaining quality jobs, LAANE joined forces with workers and with other neighborhood groups, including Communities for a Better Environment and AGENDA, while helping form Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE), a group of religious leaders and congregations who have played an important role in delivering living wage reforms. Together, they created the Living Wage Coalition (LWC).
The LWC began a legislative campaign to pass a living wage ordinance in Los Angeles . The coalition chose the legislative process to build their coalition and gather strategic political support. The LWC had a champion in their City Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg. Armed with sound research conducted with university partners on the potential fiscal and economic impacts of a living wage, LAANE and the LWC crafted an ordinance. Goldberg first presented it to the Los Angeles City Council in July 1996. On March 18, 1997 , eighteen months after beginning the campaign, the City Council unanimously passed the ordinance.
The living wage ordinance did not come easily. The intense, two-year multilevel campaign included coalition building, research, policy development, worker education and advocacy.
LAANE, along with other organizations and coalitions, continues to expand living wage strategies in ways that will bolster union organizing for low-wage workers-
Respect at LAX- Expanding Coverage
Launched in 1998, Respect at LAX works to secure living wages and union protection for thousands of low-wage airport workers-mostly security guards food, and retail employees-whose jobs were threatened following a decision by the Airport Commission to allow subcontracting at the airport. The campaign:
Fought for, and won, a worker retention provision that defended unionized jobs at the airport
Pushed for the City Council to amend the original provision, making it clear that the living wage provision also covers airport workers.
Los Angeles County- Expanding Jurisdiction
LAANE and Service Employees International Union (SEIU) led a successful campaign in 1999 to win passage of a living wage law covering Los Angeles County . The ordinance requires firms contracting with the County (and their subcontractors) for over $25,000 worth of services, to pay a living wage of $8.32 an hour with health insurance, or $9.46 without. The ordinance applies to full-time workers, and prohibits the use of part-time employees on county contracts, unless there is justifiable cause.
Santa Monica Business Zones
LAANE moved from the county to the service sector hamlet of Santa Monica , an idyllic seaside town that borders Los Angeles . The city houses exclusive hotels that pay their staff an average salary of $14,000 per year.
The city was not always home to affluent visitors. Beginning in 1980, the city government made a series of land use, zoning and investment choices, investing more than $170 million dollars in public money to concentrated visitor-oriented development, services and infrastructure. Since that time, the tourist industry in Santa Monica now generates over $700 million worth of business every year.
LAANE worked with community activists to create an organization called Santa Monicans Allied for Responsible Tourism (SMART) and together with HERE Local 814, devised a living wage strategy that would cover all Coastal Zone businesses with more than 50 employees. In July 2001, the coalition got passed the first living wage in the nation targeting businesses not in contracts with a city or on city land. The ordinance requires businesses grossing $5 million or more in the city's beachfront and downtown area to pay their employees at least $10.50 an hour with benefits, $12.25 without. The provision will cover some 2,000 workers in the area.
Linking Living Wages to Development Subsidies
Los Angeles' living wage coalition is also focusing on linking wages and benefits to businesses that wish to develop in the Los Angeles area with the help of redevelopment subsidies. LAANE conducted a study on redevelopment projects in Los Angeles and found that more than 70 percent of the 1,900 retail jobs created in the Community Redevelopment Agency subsidized developments paid an average of $6.50 an hour.
LAANE and Councilwoman Goldberg, worked to successfully negotiate with TrizecHahn, the developers of a massive retail entertainment complex in the heart of Hollywood , which will include the future home of the Academy Awards. As a condition for the $90 million in public subsidies, TrizecHahn has agreed to unionize the 700 to 800 positions created to staff the hotel and theater, and lease shops within the complex to franchises that practice local hiring and provide a living wage.
Financing
The living wage campaign in Los Angeles cost the coalition approximately $300,000, supported mostly by grants from progressive foundations. In addition to foundation money, the living wage campaign received help from local universities, who provided interns for the campaign research.
Madeline Janis-Aparicio, LAANE's executive director, recognizes the immense power that unions provide for successful campaign, "If we're going to have any success in making a dent in the daunting problem of low-wage poverty," she said, "unions have to have an integral part."
Accomplishments and Challenges
Accomplishments:
Overall, the living wage campaigns in Los Angeles and the surrounding areas directly affect more than 14,000 workers.
The living wage coalitions have gained enough stature that developers in Los Angeles now need the support of labor and community coalitions in order to obtain government approval for new development subsidies.
The living wage movement is evolving to address ohter issues affecting the working poor, including affordable housing, childcare, and transportation. For instance, living wage groups joined the Figueroa Corridor Coalition for Economic Justice (a coalition of 29 community groups), to win an agreement with developers for downtown Los Angeles' billion-dollar Sports and Entertainment District that includes a 45-story hotel, a 7,000-seat theater, restaurants, nightclubs, and retail stores. The agreement includes:
Provision of a living wage
Local hiring and job training for those living within a three-mile area
Building of 2000 units of affordable housing and new parks
Provide residential parking permits for low-income residents
The living wage campaigns in Los Angeles have been successful because of the strong alliance between community, faith, and labor organizations. The coalition has had their differences, but, as Janis-Aparicio put it, "The choice was to be divided and conquered, or have a united front and win."
Challenges:
LA living wage provisions encountered fierce opposition from business groups at every point along the way.
When owners of seven major waterfront hotels attempted to derail the ability of organizations to adopt a living wage by placing Measure KK on the November 2000 city ballot.
A broad coalition mounted a campaign to educate voters about the real intent of Measure KK to undermine living wage. Their counter-campaign included running phone banks, walking precincts, and an Election Day get-out-the-vote drive. Despite spending nearly $1,000,000, 79% of Santa Monicans voted in opposition of the measure.
LAANE has played an important role in enforcement of the provisions, which includes:
Visiting sites in order to obtain information from workers on health benefits received
Tracking new contracts that will likely be performed by low wage workers
Checking Request for Proposal contracts for living wage language
Informing the CAO if non-compliance is found.
Because LAANE is part of a broad coalition, they are able to report work-place violations and help ensure proper implementation and enforcement of the ordinance.
Future plans
LAANE is currently working on a number of campaigns that seek to improve the lives of workers:
Health Care Project
LAANE has been on the forefront of encouraging and educating both employers and employees about the importance of health coverage, with their Living Wage Health Project. Together with the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, LAANE brokered an agreement with Kaiser Permanente to offer health plans to workers who are covered by LA's living wage provision. LAANE also established a Health Care Task Force, which is considering different ways to increase the number of workers with health coverage, including a health trust fund and a purchasing pool.
Valley Jobs Coalition LAANE has assembled a coalition to represent the interests of workers and community members in a North Hollywood redevelopment project. The Valley Jobs Coalition will ensure that the project, which will receive as much as $20 million in public subsidies, provides living wage jobs, childcare, job training and local hiring. LAANE has conducted intensive research and a strong organizing and advocacy campaign, through which the Valley Jobs Coalition secured a preliminary agreement from the project developer.
Boston Area and Harvard University
Massachusetts
Background
Founded on the Shawmut Peninsula in 1635, Boston is the twentieth largest city in the United States with over half a million residents. It stands at the center of the seventh largest Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Area (CMSA) in the nation with over 5.5 million. Known for world-renowned universities, Cambridge and Boston alone house more than 50 colleges and universities, including Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
The Boston area has grown increasingly expensive over the last decade. Average rents for a one-bedroom apartment went from $650 in 1990 to over $1,300 by the year 2000. The National Low-Income Housing Commission estimates that workers now need a wage of over $15 per hour to afford a two-bedroom apartment in the area. Wider Opportunities for Women estimates that most families need between $11 and $18 per hour to subsist.
In 1998, the 40-member Boston Jobs and Living Wage Coalition -whose members include ACORN, Greater Boston Labor Council, and the Massachusetts AFL-CIO-led a campaign to assess rising costs in the region. Their work resulted in the Boston City Council unanimously approving a revised version of its 1997 living wage ordinance. The revisions required companies with city service contracts over $100,000, to pay living wages of $8.23 an hour, indexed annually to the poverty level for a family of four or 110% of the state minimum wage.
The Boston City Council also created a Living Wage Advisory Committee, which has since negotiated to lower the living wage eligibility threshold for companies to $25,000 and to make the ordinance applicable to companies that have 25 or more employees, rather than the original 100.
Across the river, another campaign in Cambridge resulted in a 1999 living wage ordinance that requires all city workers of companies holding contracts worth $10,000 or more to be paid at least $10 an hour. That same year, the Board of Aldermen of Somerville (a city immediately north of Cambridge ) passed a living wage provision setting a floor of $8.23 an hour.
The successful campaign in Boston sparked Harvard students to form the Progressive Student Labor Movement (PSLM) in 1998. At the time, the Cambridge living wage ordinance was pending approval by the City Council, and the students wanted the provision to extend to Harvard University , the city's largest employer.
Harvard's Living Wage Campaign
Harvard University , as the most endowed university in the world, is the world's second richest nonprofit institution, second only to the Vatican . In 1998, some 2,000 full-time, casual, and subcontracted employees were earning less than $10 an hour. With an endowment of $13 billion and an annual budget of $1.52 billion, Harvard students believed the university could dedicate the 0.4% of its annual budget to provide those workers a living wage.
From the beginning, the coalition organized public events in partnership with SEIU 254, the union representing Harvard's janitors. They received support from academics, politicians, and other student movements around the nation. Harvard administration was receiving pressure from many outside groups and the Cambridge City Council passed two resolutions urging Harvard to implement a living wage. Administrators refused to budge.
The coalition kept its demands as simple as possible while focusing on action that drew attention to the campaign. It stayed a "Workers First" concert and rally that drew more than 1,000 people and featured historian Howard Zinn and actors/screen-writers Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.
In February of 2001, the Living Wage Campaign delivered "love your workers" valentines to Harvard President Neil Rudenstein. The campaign also engaged in a series of public actions that escalated living wage awareness to action. The strategies included:
Presenting President Rudenstein the "Worst Employer of Boston Award"
Sending a delegation of twelve campaign members to address 300 parents at Junior Parents Weekends about the need for a living wage at Harvard.
Hiring a plane to fly over a graduation ceremony with a banner reading, "Harvard Needs a Living Wage."
Encouraging alumni to withhold donations to Harvard until living wages are ensured; and finally
Staging a 21-day sit in of nearly 50 students, workers, unions, faculty, alumni, parents, community groups and political figures.
The sit-in ended when Harvard University announced steps to address living wages and benefits. A committee was established to:
Examine the university's wage system,
Establish a wage floor;
Develop guidelines for subcontracting;
Establish package of benefits;
Explore retroactive wage increases for custodians; and
Freeze new subcontract hires for all security, dining service and janitorial jobs
Administration and Enforcement
Harvard's Payroll Department will enforce that workers receive a living wage. Fines will double the difference in wages for the period during which an employee is inadequately compensated. If a contractor commits the violation three times, all contracts between the University and the contractor will be terminated.
Challenges
The toughest challenges that the Living Wage Coalition faced was, first, lack of response from Harvard administrators, and later, the setting terms for the agreement. From the beginning, the coalition refused to negotiate wages with the administration because they did not feel qualified to bargain for employees.
Future Plans
A next step in the Harvard campaign is to ensure the implementation of living wages for Harvard workers, and further developing student representatives on the committee to have strong relationships with workers. The committee currently is gathering data, talking to members of the Harvard community and preparing for a series of intensive meetings.
