LA: It’s a Union town!

Once upon a time, Los Angeles was said to have one of the weakest organized labor movements of any major city. They don’t say that now! Just the opposite: LA is regarded as the US city with the most active and vital labor movement.

On Sept. 2, several reps and I joined other county labor activists in a “human billboard” on Century Blvd. at the entrance to LAX. The event was sponsored by the LA County Federation of Labor to celebrate and bring attention to the victories of LA labor in the past year and to publicize ongoing organizing drives. It was good to be in that energetic cr

owd committed to the ongoing mission of organized labor: Dignity and justice for working people. It was LA’s labor spirit, more than its perpetual sunshine, that drew the AFL-CIO to select us for their 1999 Annual Convention set for the week of October 11, starting with a special event for Union families. I am honored to have been selected by our IBEW International President to be a delegate. If you would like to participate, please call the Hall and ask for details and passes.

JURISDICTIONAL DISPUTE: I spent a gruelling week in Washington, D.C. at hearings before an AFL-CIO-sponsored umpire. At issue is jurisdiction over building, construction and maintenance work at DWP facilities. Local 18 has had jurisdiction since 1975, when the public sector unions were established. Now our jurisdiction is being challenged by seven affiliates of the Building Trades Council, who even claim that they should be doing our maintenance work! Our position is aggravated by the Department’s failure in recent years to maintain adequate training and apprenticeship programs as they are required to do.

This is a jurisdictional battle with national implications, which is why the IBEW International leadership has been actively supporting our position.

OUR UNFAIR LABOR PRACTICE claims over CIGNA Health Plan and the Temporary Worker Dispatch were heard in August. Briefs from both sides are to be filed by Oct. 15, and decisions should be handed down a month or two after that.

SAFETY TRUST INSTITUTE: Last month we spoke of the need to establish an independent, department-funded Trust Institute to manage the Department’s safety and training programs. As with our proposals to strengthen the Department’s healthcare portfolio by eliminating CIGNA and to run a Temporary Worker Dispatch out of the Hall, management is receptive to our idea and essentially in agreement. But we still have to go before the Board of Commissioners. Let’s hope that they can put politics aside and break their pattern of nonproductive obstruction to our proposals, worked out with management, that could significantly improve the safety record of the DWP.

In Unity,

BRIAN D’ARCY, Business Manager

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