Results tagged “union”

     

Social security numbers, evidence, witness information and more are stored in a parking structure accessible by civilian employees and some visitors at the LAPD's Southwest Division. Over at the Northeast Division, more of the same near the employee main entrance.

In a direct and to-the-point opinion in the Daily News yesterday, Councilman Greig Smith further shamed the firefighters' union for a mailer sent out last week depicting the Chatsworth metrolink crash, which left 25 dead and 135 injured, juxtaposed with information about budget cuts to the LAFD. Smith, who represents Chatsworth and is the incoming chairman for the city's Public Safety Committee, lambasted union president Pat McOsker in his writing:

First there were signs in front of fire stations (see above) and now a mailer using images from the Chatsworth train crash (see below) that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is calling "tasteless, offensive and misleading."

Although no strike is reportedly on the immediate horizon, the Service Employees International Union "announced that 74 percent of its membership approved [a] strike authorization in votes counted Saturday," according to abc7.com, and "union leaders will meet in the coming week to decide what steps to take."

As part of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's "shared sacrifice" plan to save the city budget, cuts proposed to fire department ladder and ambulance companies, nicknamed "brownouts," would short-staff stations on a rotating basis by 87 firefighters.

Unionized employees of the University of California will rally today at UCLA in Westwood in protest against proposed cost-cutting measures that will see the, losing work hours and funds for operating costs, according to the Daily News.

During yesterday's California State University system's special Board of Trustees meeting, Chancellor Charles B. Reed said he will seek approval for "an additional student fee hike of 15% to 20% for this fall, and enrollment reductions of 32,000 students in the year to follow," reports the LA Times.

The LAPD didn't get hit as hard as other departments in the City Council approved city budget, but the current plan does slow down hiring new officers. Now the Los Angeles Police Protective League has submitted their ideas to save the city money in order to get back on track of getting more officers on the streets. There are 16 in all, but some are not very specific to the department like installing wind and solar energy on government buildings. However, there are a few ideas that seem to have potential:

David Zahniser at the LA Times puts a man who once would have preferred to be out of the spotlight into it with a nice profile of LADWP union boss Brian D'Arcy. He was behind Measure B, the failed solar power initiative on the March 3rd ballot, but he's still pushing the issue, trying to get the same plan--obtaining 400 megawatts of energy through solar panels placed all over the city--approved by the DWP commission while criticizing the department's other controversial plan to get solar power in the Mojave Desert and geothermal energy in the Salton Sea. He also thinks Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's plan to reach 20% of renewable energy by 2010 is vert unrealistic. "'Environmental leadership' isn't meeting some artificial deadline by any means necessary," he said. "Environmental leadership is actually creating economic development while cleaning the air where you live, putting people to work and linking the environment to it. That's not really what's going on, if you ask me."

The Los Angeles Unified School District reached a tentative agreement yesterday with the union representing its teachers which gives them a new contract that will last until 2011, according to abc7.com.

Crisis averted (for some) in Hollywood: "A union that represents more than 35,000 film and television workers has approved a three-year contract with Hollywood producers," according to cbs2.com. The new contract goes into effect on the 1st of August, and was unanimously endorsed by all 15 Hollywood local groups of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE). Reflected in the new contract are "some modest pay hikes but also cuts in health and pension benefits." Although some members of the longstanding union felt their leaders were negotiating outside their best interests, the majority were eager to get the contract settled, particularly in light of "the industry's recent struggles."

       

Several International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts (IATSE) members and Teamsters picketed outside the Screen Actors Guild's Wilshire Boulevard offices this afternoon, hoping to urge the actors union to quit stalling on contract talks and get back to work. But some of SAG's own got out their own posterboard and sharpies and protested right back, telling them to "Butt out" and let SAG fight for their rights and settle their own battle with studios and producers.

Watch out, downtown traffic. The United Teacher of Los Angeles will be holding an afternoon protest and march over education budget cuts.

The United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) is calling for a boycott of periodic assessment tests mandated by the LAUSD, and have "directed teachers to refuse to give them to students on the grounds that the tests are costly and counterproductive," according to the LA Times.

San Gabriel Valley Congresswoman Hilda Solis is President Barack Obama's choice for Labor secretary. But a republican senator is using a secret hold--more formally known as a senatorial hold--to delay a vote on her confirmation. It's apparently because of her "support for 'card check' legislation aimed at facilitating union organization and another bill regarding pay-discrimination, and for non-responsive answers during her confirmation hearing," the Pasadena Star News reported via the Washington Post. If she's ultimately rejected, a group of hopefuls eyeing her seat are going to be disappointed.

Figuring union members would vote down any authorization to strike, Screen Actors Guild officials have suspended plans to protest contract offers from movie studios and producers. "The declaration represents an about-face and follows months of preparations for a strike vote that would have given the guild the power to shut down production of major studio movies and prime-time TV shows," reported the Associated Press. SAG's contract with AMPTP expired last June.

The Screen Actors Guild announced last night that they will put off having their members vote on a possible strike. Rather than send the ballots out on January 2nd, they have opted to wait until January 14th to mail them, cbs2.com is reporting. Many people in and out of the entertainment industry believe this is the wrong time for SAG to strike because of the obvious and immediate impact it will have on the many people who are employed in connection to television and film production. Further, the New York branch of SAG recently voiced their objection to the strike--a move SAG has been talking openly about for some time now, and particularly after negotiations with Hollywood studios failed.

The United Teachers Los Angeles, the powerful school teachers union, is out in force this afternoon throughout the city protesting LAUSD budget cuts this afternoon. They say school bureaucrats are looking to cut healthcare benefits, raise class sizes and impose a three-year salary freeze. Therefore, they will chant in the streets:

The movie studios, represented by the Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), published an ad this weekend accusing the actors of demanding more than all the other unions that have come to agreements with the group. In a statement, they said actors are "demanding that the entire industry literally throw out all its hard work because it believes it deserves more than the 230,000 other working people in the industry."

It didn't take long for the LA County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk to take action yesterday evening. A notice from their office was sent shortly after 6:00 p.m:

A few weeks ago, a 17-year-old agricultural laborer named Maria died of heatstroke after working for 8 hours non-stop in 100 degree heat in a Stockton-area vineyard. According to the United Farm Workers, worker charges filed with Cal OSHA claim that "the land owner where Maria suffered heat stroke continues to utilize labor contractors that don't abide by the law," such as not offering the workers shade or have water within easy access. In fact, just last week "another charge was filed for lack of water and shade at one of the company's locations."

In what amounts to the dumbest reason to oppose a measure, the city's Engineers and Architects Association that represents 10,000 employees has come out against Measure R, the half-cent sales tax ballot initiative to raise $40 billion for transportation projects: "Much of the reason has to do with the fact that we don't trust this mayor," Union head Bob Aquino is quoted saying the Daily News' political blog. "We've seen him increase every fee that Angelenos pay in this city and then misuse the money. In all candor, our board feels that when we're talking about $40 billion, that we aren't sure the money will be used as they say."

The California Teachers Union, the largest union of its kind in the state, made a second donation to the No on Prop 8 campaign this week. After their initial $250,00 donation in August, their $1 million gift comes as the campaign has been struggling against the large amount of funds raised by proponents of the measure that seeks to eliminate gay marriage.

Since their 2005 contract takes inflation into account when are up for their annual raise, this year's expected 3.25% pay hike for LA Department of Water and Power employees shot up to 5.9% because food and fuel costs have gone up this past year. One problem, that equals out to $16.4 million not written into the budget. Even without the raise, DWP workers are some of the higest paid employees in the city.

Early yesterday afternoon, members of SEIU Local 1877 who work at LAX in a variety of capacities in jobs as janitors, skycaps, and wheelchair attendants, went on strike. They have been seeking "higher wages and affordable health care," explaining that they wish to have more pay and security in order to ensure the quality of their lives and their work. The workers opted to strike only when talks between their union and the 9 contractors who broker their employment with LAX hit a stalemate. Although the walk-out was not expected to derail operations at the city's very busy airport, it did affect travel times for customers of United, Southwest, and American.

There's no guarantee that employees in the Service Employees International Union Local 1871 will strike, but they've overwhelmingly authorized the action if leaders choose to do so. What's going on? In short, employees like janitors, cabin cleaners, and cargo crew who are hired by subcontractors and the airlines (note, not the airport itself), say they have inadequate training, lack of proper equipment, lack of health care and low pay, according to the Associated Press.

An event this past weekend was put together by the local lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community to honor California's Speaker of the California State Assembly, Karen Bass. The job of Speaker, which Bass recently got, is pretty much the second most powerful political job in the state with her current top duty is to balance the budget, which is no easy task.

The votes came in and were counted: members of AFTRA--the nation’s second largest performers’ union--overwhelmingly voted to ratify a contract with the AMPTP, who represents movie studios and producers, by a 62.4% margin.

Now that the contract between the largest actors guild and the movie studios has expired, with talks to resume Wednesday, the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers is using a tactic on their website to show the economic pain the actors will supposedly cause if they authorize a strike. Two flash animation boxes on their homepage give out these statistics based on an Milken Institute study (for the writers strike) and Screen Actors Guild's reported earnings.

Day 42 into the negotiations between the Screen Actors Guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and no result. The contract expires Tuesday at 12:01 a.m. and the next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday.