Labor Unions

[Updated:] Deal Reached in Grocery Store Labor Feud

L.A. County Federation of Labor​ Update:9/26, 10 a.m. On Sunday night, workers voted and approved a new contract, ending an eight-month dispute with Ralphs, Vons, Pavilions and Albertsons. According to insiders, workers will pay $7 a week for health insurance, or $15 per week for a family. The ... More >>

Police Identify Suspect In Pot-Shop Shooting Death Of Matthew Butcher

LAPDRaymond Lemone Easter.​Updated throughout. Originally posted at 6:02 a.m. Los Angeles police on Thursday identified a suspect in the shooting death of Matthew Butcher, gunned down during the robbery of an Angeleno Heights pot shop in June. Butcher, who worked at the Higher Path Holistic d ... More >>

Munchies And Marijuana Join Political Forces: Food Union Supports California Pot Legalization

​Food and pot -- natural allies? Who would have thought? A major labor union this week threw its support behind the November ballot initiative that would decriminalize and tax marijuana. The 200,000-member United Food and Commercial Workers endorsed Prop. 19 on the floor of the California Labo ... More >>

Villaraigosa Pulls Rug From Unions?

If L.A.'s unions feel they have a champion in the form of a single politician, that person is Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Under the Mutual Gains process established by the mayor and organized labor, representatives for nearly 22,000 unionized city employees have been ironing out a plan with the mayo ... More >>

Rubber Soul: CVS Accused of Locking Up Condoms in Its Eastside Stores

CVS pharmacies are being accused of keeping their Eastside stores' condoms locked up at the same time its Westside outlets have the rubbers on open display. A press released issued by the labor federation Change to Win stated today that this practice "stigmatizes condoms and condom users," while not ... More >>

SEIU: Force for Change or Purple People Eater?

At a time when organized labor should be poised to charge into a new activist era with the President they helped elect last November, service-sector unions appear instead to be headed into civil war. After the garment and hotel workers unions merged in 2005 to create UNITE HERE, the two factions a ... More >>

Two Local Strikes on the Horizon

A pair of labor disputes that could have far-reaching effects on the L.A. economy are edging into the spotlight. Tomorrow morning Local 675 of the United Steelworkers of America will seek a strike sanction from the L.A. County Federation of Labor. The union, whose local and national negotiating comm ... More >>

SEIU's Brush With Blagogate & Other Sorrows

It seems like only yesterday that Andy Stern, who heads the giant Service Employees International Union (nearly two-million members), shocked the labor movement when, in July, 2004, he told the Washington Post's David Broder that both organized labor and the Democratic Party might be better off with ... More >>

Obama Buddy Is Union Buster

Tyler Perry is on the outs with everyone — except Oprah and Barack

Double-Cross at the WGA

If you write for TV or film in Hollywood, your check might never be in the mail

An A-Plus in Fund-Raising

Teacher unions-backed candidate rolling in the dough

Trouble in the Big Purple Trucks

How SEIU's mobile phone bank and L.A. politicians may have landed on the wrong side of campaign law.

Making Those Red States Blue

Unions look to battleground states — and the South

Union of Scofflaws

L.A.’s big unions fail to open their books

Second Banana

Does Antonio have anything to fear from Robert Aquino’s white-collar union?

Element of Suspense

Unions are shaken — and that may affect the vote

The Cavalry to the Rescue

America’s new labor federation means to travel light while rebuilding unions

Terms of the Divorce

California unions try to maintain cohesion even as their movement comes unstuck

Breaking Free

Now or never for American labor

End of Solidarity

The breakup of the union movement takes on a life of its own

Laboring to Stay Together

The odds on the AFL-CIO’s dissolution

In Miguel’s Shoes

Ludlow leaves the council to run L.A. labor

Antonio’s New Pals

Labor unions worry he’s giving up on security guards’ organizing fight

Stiffed and Miffed

L.A.’s lowest-paid call time-out

Losing Labor’s Power

What happens to the L.A. labor movement (and local politics) if it splits in two?

Making Those Red States Blue

Unions look to battleground states — and the South

The Tsunami

Can the Democratic ground game elect John Kerry — and create an enduring progressive movement?

Tense Times at the Inn

L.A. hotel workers get no vacation from labor strife

Long Arm of SEIU

Surrender at the Supermarket

The national failure of the grocery workers’ union

Pilgrims’ Progress

Blue and clerical collars team up

More Than a Food Fight

The deeper meaning of the grocery strike

Now, That’s a Real Strike

Teamsters idle their grocery-laden trucks

Dean’s November

The outsider now has the inside track in the race for the White House

The Wal-Mart Equation

It all adds up to a supermarket strike

Union Triage

The fight for hospital workers involves two unions against each other – and a health-care giant

Friend of the Workingman

They don’t like him and think he’s a loser, but labor’s leaders are down with Gray

New Dock City

Can the ILWU stay out of the bite?

A More Anxious Weekly

Unwelcome Workers

It's Only a Paper Right

Having the law on your side helps little in Mexico's factories

On the Edge

In times of war, living-wage backers fight for the jobless

Tinsel-Town Rebellion

Writers, moguls and Hollywood’s day of reckoning

Inn Trouble

Unions shape new immigrant strategy

The Movement’s Mayor

The new-model unions pick a new-model candidate

Beating Home a Message

A violent setback for worker rights in Mexico

Amnesty!

Labor leads the battle to grant legal status to millions of America’s — and L.A.’s — undocumented immigrants

Clinton's Wedge

China cracks the Democrats

Street vs. Suite

Why L.A.’s janitors will win their strike

Broke on Pay Day

The life of a $6.80 janitor with two kids