Los Angeles County Federation of Labor

Unions Rally to Block Koch Brothers' L.A. Times Purchase

By Nanette Gonzalez and Sarah Fenske In just two short months, Charles and David Koch's dreams of purchasing the L.A. Times have gone from a well-sourced rumor, first reported on this blog, to the catalyst for outraged essays in newspapers across the country to a protest song by none less than Ry C ... More >>

Koch Brothers' Interest in Los Angeles Times Met With DTLA Rally

People are starving on Skid Row, children go without parents in South L.A., and immigrants will work for practically nothing in this town. But a couple of rich conservatives threaten to buy the Los Angeles Times and -- whoa! -- opponents will hit the streets like anarchists in Seattle:

Most Hilarious Tweets from L.A. Council District 13 Candidate John Choi's 'Parody' Twitter Account

At least someone's having fun with this year's L.A. municipal elections, even though it's at the expense of City Council District 13 candidate John Choi. Choi moved into CD 13 in 2012 and has the major backing of Los Angeles County Federation of Labor boss and political kingmaker Maria Elena Durazo ... More >>

Rita Walters to Curren Price: Stop Inciting 'Racial Animosity' in Los Angeles Council District 9 Contest

Former Los Angeles City Councilwoman Rita Walters has accused Council District 9 candidate Curren Price of trying to "incite racial animosity among African-American voters." In a strongly worded "open letter," Walters, who backs Council District 9 candidate Ana Cubas, says Price, an African America ... More >>

Will Los Angeles City Council District 13 Candidates Fully Address Hollywood's Affordable Housing Crisis?

Will candidates for the highly competitive Los Angeles City Council District 13 race ever seriously talk about and offer solutions for the affordable housing crisis in Hollywood and other parts of the city? That's what Coalition for Economic Survival was wondering when it attended a candidates' foru ... More >>

Marijuana Dispensary Supporters Turn in Signatures to Stop L.A. Pot Shop Ban

Updated at the bottom with signatures headed for City Hall tomorrow morning. Also, one councilman says pot shops aren't safe regardless of the petition drive. First posted at 7:08 a.m. Organizers of a referendum that aims to overturn L.A.'s ban on marijuana dispensaries planned to turn in their sig ... More >>

Prop. 28 Passes With Flying Colors: How California Legislators Tricked Voters Into Extending Their Term Limits

Update: Philip Blumel with the group U.S. Term Limits tells us Prop. 28 was "the most deceptive referendum that I've ever seen." More at the bottom. Like Big Oil-backed Prop. 26 in the 2010 election, another disastrous Trojan Horse made its way past California voters last night.

Marijuana Dispensary Workers Taken in by Powerful Labor Union UFCW

It's going to be a lot tougher for L.A. politicians to wage their war on pot shops when dispensary workers belong to the same unions that City Hall is in bed with. United Food and Commercial Workers -- and UFCW Local 770, in particular -- has decided to take medical-marijuana dispensary workers und ... More >>

City Council Unanimously Passes Occupy L.A. Resolution -- Protesters Struggle to Distance Themselves From Democrats, Unions

Los Angeles TimesCity Council President Eric Garcetti shows his support.​Just now, the L.A. City Council unanimously approved a joint resolution to officially "support" the Occupy L.A. demonstration and "demand accountability and results from the banks we invest taxpayer dollars in." (Full tex ... More >>

Powerful Unions Back Occupy L.A.'s Class Warfare Downtown

Those rabble-rousers that have been stirring things up downtown L.A. in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement just got some powerful backers. The Los Angeles County Federation of Labor (AFL-CIO) said hell yes to Occupy L.A. in a statement released last night. Lest you forget the federatio ... More >>

Downtown Stadium Deal Moves a Few Yards Forward in L.A. Just as NFL, Players Come to Terms

Coming to downtown?​Even before the NFL and its players agreed on a new labor deal today the mayor of Los Angeles called a press conference to reveal a proposed pact between City Hall and the billionaire-controlled company that wants to build an NFL stadium on land owned by you, the taxpayer. ... More >>

Bernard Parks Was Targeted as Union Object Lesson

$1.2 million buys a lot of fear at L.A. City Hall if that's your aim

Big, Fat Tuesday for Little City of Bell: Residents Get to Elect Whole New Slate of Leaders

New tenants desired.​Big day for the small Southeast L.A. County town of Bell: It gets to replace its entire City Council if voters so wish. And while there are two distinct factions of candidates running for office -- a police-union-backed slate versus one that wants to disband the Bell P.D. ... More >>

Measure L: For Sheryn Morris and Other Librarians, Adults, Students and Immigrants Need Libraries Now More Than Ever

Jason Jones​Sheryn Morris has been a librarian for 32 years. Eighteen of them at the Los Angeles Public Library system. She currently works at the reference desk at the literature and fiction section of the Richard J. Riordan Central Library in downtown. "We really love our jobs," says Morri ... More >>

Measure L: Benjamin Franklin Librarian Alicia Moguel Says Young Students and Unemployed Impacted By Budget Cuts to L.A.'s Libraries

L.A. Librarian Alicia Moguel​The Benjamin Franklin Branch Library in Boyle Heights serves 16 local elementary schools -- from public to private -- but young students can't go to the busy library after school on Mondays due to deep budget cuts to the Los Angeles Public Library system. "We no ... More >>

Measure L: Mar Vista Branch Librarian Carole M. Kealoha Says Patrons Hurt and Confused by Library Budget Cuts

L.A. Librarian Carole M. Kealoha​At the Mar Vista Branch Library on the west side, senior librarian Carole M. Kealoha says patrons are not happy about the steep budget cuts to the Los Angeles Public Library, where they rely on its services and resources. "Not everyone has a computer at home, ... More >>

Measure L: Exposition Park Branch Librarian Maddy Kerr Says Veterans and Students Deeply Impacted by Library Budget Cuts

L.A. Librarian Maddy Kerr​At L.A.'s Exposition Park Branch Library near the University of Southern California, children's librarian Maddy Kerr has seen firsthand the troubling after-effects of severely reduced operating hours at the Los Angeles Public Library system. "People tell me that if ... More >>

Measure L: Parent Thelma Hernandez Says Working Parents Need Libraries Open Six Days a Week

Thelma Hernandez​Thelma Hernandez says the L.A. public library system has been an essential resource for her family, all of whom regularly visit the Robertson Branch Library on L.A.'s westside. Not only do Hernandez and her two kids take out books, DVDs, and CDs, but the young mother is impr ... More >>

Measure L: Chinatown Branch Manager Shan Liang Says Immigrants Hurt by Severe Budget Cuts to L.A.'s Public Libraries

Chinatown Branch Library in downtown L.A.​Read the most recent L.A. Weekly news story on public library budget cuts: L.A.'s Library Measure L. At the Chinatown Branch Library in downtown Los Angeles, manager Shan Liang says Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese immigrants who know little, if any, ... More >>

Measure L: Robertson Branch Librarian Henry Gambill Says Budget Cuts Hurt Students Who Need Hard-to-Find Books

L.A. Librarian Henry Gambill​Read the most recent L.A. Weekly news story on the public library budget cuts: L.A.'s Library Measure L. Aside from the dying city of Detroit, Los Angeles is the only significant U.S. municipality to close down its entire public library system two days a week due ... More >>

Measure L: Porter Ranch Librarian Jane Dobija Says Slashed Funding For Libraries Limits Public's Access to Needed Information

L.A. Librarian Jane Dobija​When it comes to the harsh budget cuts that have shuttered L.A.'s public libraries two days a week, and reduced operating hours on other days, Jane Dobija thinks back to her time as a radio journalist covering the Polish revolution in the late 1980s. "When people l ... More >>

Measure L: Cypress Park Librarian Patrick Xavier Says Harsh Budget Cuts Hamper Top-Notch Customer Service

Cypress Park Branch Library​In northeast Los Angeles at the Cypress Park Branch Library, acting senior librarian Patrick Xavier has been dealing with the daily fall out of severe budget cuts to the Los Angeles Public Library system, which has reduced his staff. "It's a struggle to maintain a ... More >>

Measure L: Studio City Librarian Karen Pickard-Four Says Teens and Seniors Feel the Pain of Budget Cuts at L.A. Libraries

Ted SoquiRichard J. Riordan Central Library in downtown L.A.​At the Studio City Branch Library in the San Fernando Valley, acting senior librarian Karen Pickard-Four says teens and senior citizens feel the pain of severe budget cuts at the Los Angeles Public Library system. "For those kids w ... More >>

Measure L: Due To Severe Budget Cuts, L.A. Librarians Struggle to Help Students and Families

Richard J. Riordan Central Library in downtown L.A.​Update, 2:50 p.m.: The Library Foundation of Los Angeles gave a major boost to the Measure L campaign, contributing $200,000 to get the ballot measure passed. Read more after jump. Last summer, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the ... More >>

Several Thousand Union Members Rally in Downtown L.A. To Bring Jobs Back To California

Steve La​At least 1,000 people gathered at Los Angeles City Hall Friday to rally for job growth in California. Among the masses were members of several labor unions from L.A. and from across the country. "We're here because presence has power," said Steven Pasillas, 31 of the International B ... More >>

Hollywood Joins Union Bill Drive -- Too Late?

A new online ad promoting the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) has been posted by a coalition of Hollywood labor guilds and the reviews (all right, my reviews) are mixed -- both as to the spot and the chances that Congress will pass the legislation this year in anything but a watered-down form. EFCA, ... More >>

Obama insider, IBEW, SEIU, fire back at L.A. bloggers in solar war

By Daniel HeimpelWhat do you get when the top chieftains at City Hall, plus Barack Obama's wildly successful California campaign director, plus one of L.A.'s most politically-connected government unions all pit themselves against a few gadflies whose power is their ability to blog and dissent?Those ... More >>

Prop. S: The Revolution May Be Taxed

L.A. City Hall wants to tax your air. After all, it's an emergency

Fabian Núñez's Big Break

Shamelessly coddling the megarich tribes, the Assembly speaker splits his own coalition

Critical Condition

Will the NLRB deny nurses union cards?

Unequal Division of Labor

Did the County Fed pour it on for Kevin de León at the expense of three who lost?

Pocket of Trouble

Martin Ludlow’s blatant acts made it easy for prosecutors

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.

Damn, Not Another Election

Sitting this one out could be bad news

Antonio Is In!

New mayor’s inauguration gets Fourth of July weekend party rolling

Laboring to Stay Together

The odds on the AFL-CIO’s dissolution

The Architect

Miguel Contreras, 1952 – 2005

Start Making Sense

An open letter to Miguel Contreras

Riding the Storm Out

Democrats huddle with only hope to get them through the night

Rooms of Dissent

Police pull welcome mat on hotel workers’ protest

8 who left Mayor James K. Hahn in 2003

All A-Bored

The MTA’s mechanics aren’t the striking janitors of 2000

CitySweep

Labor Is Back

Ludlow’s victory revives dreams of L.A. movement

Who Crowned George?

On the centrality of cows to W.’s plurality and the GOP’s prospects

The Part-Time Machine

Sometimes it’s enough to save full-time jobs

What Reactionaries

Don’t assume the D2K will be another Seattle

Battling for the Big Ones

Reformers get mixed results in targeting major projects