Labor Demonstration/Picketing - at LAX
Sunday, November 27, 2005 from 4:00pm to 7:00pm at LAX - arrival leval
of Terminal 1 - the first terminal on the lower loop at LAX.
COME ON DOWN AND SUPPORT THE PICKETING UNION MEMBERS!
And think about what a large anti-war + labor demonstration at the same
location (and other locations in and around LAX) would look like and the
results it would have. I suggest assembling at 96th and Sepulveda and then
marching (legally and peacefully on the sidewalk) around LAX.
Why doesn't the anti-war movement UNITE with the worker and labor
movements?
Why doesn't the anti-war movement have anti-war demonstrations at LAX
and at the L.A. Harbor? Is the anti-war movement afraid that those
demonstrations would cost the American capitalists too much money? is the
anti-war movement afraid that having demonstrations at those locations would
make it impossible for the American capitalists to continue to conduct the
War on Iraq? Better to just march around in circles holding up signs and
listen to speeches and not get involved in holding demonstrations at places
that could close down the U.S. economy?
Why doesn't the anti-war movement UNITE with the worker and labor
movements?
Jim D.
----------------------------------
[from the L.A. times]
City Set for LAX Labor Protesters
a.. In contract dispute with L.A., union is ready to picket on Sunday at the
end of the Thanksgiving crush. Extra police officers will be on hand.
By Patrick McGreevy, Times Staff Writer
Bracing for a labor protest scheduled for Sunday at Los Angeles
International Airport, the city plans to deploy additional police officers
to monitor the demonstration and ensure airport operations are not
disrupted, officials said Friday.
As many as 400 members of the Engineers and Architects Assn. are expected to
join the protest, timed to coincide with the end of the busy Thanksgiving
holiday weekend.
"It's a traffic battleground without protesters," said Geoffrey Garfield, a
spokesman for the union, which represents 8,000 city workers. "You can
imagine how it will be with all the looky-loos slowing their cars to see
what's happening."
The protest is scheduled from 4 to 7 p.m. on the arrival level of Terminal
1, the first terminal on the often backed-up lower loop at LAX. In talks
with the Los Angeles Police Department, the union agreed to confine its
demonstration to a sidewalk area that would not block doorways into Terminal
1, but the union rejected a police request to move the protest to a more
remote area near Terminal 2.
The union, whose members include 700 employees and administrators at the Los
Angeles airports department, saw its contract expire in June 2004 and is
demanding the same contract given in September to the International
Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 18.
That union, which represents Department of Water and Power workers, was
given pay raises of 3.25% each year for five years, with the possibility of
as much as 6% each year, if inflation rises.
The city offered the Engineers and Architects Assn. a contract that provided
for no raise last year, a 2% increase retroactive to July 1 of this year and
2.25% on Jan. 1 of 2006 and 2007. The union represents many workers who do
jobs that are similar to those electrical workers do at DWP.
Garfield said the pickets would march in a circle carrying signs that read:
"Equal Pay for Equal Work."
Despite assurances that the protesters would obey the law, the Los Angeles
airports department has developed a contingency plan to ensure things do not
get out of hand, according to a memo from Lydia Kennard, the department
executive director, made public Friday.
"Our Airport Police Division has assembled a detail to monitor the
demonstration and ensure that traffic flow and passenger services are not
disrupted," Kennard wrote to the Board of Airport Commissioners.
She said that the airport officers, who work for the separate LAX police
force, would turn to the LAPD for backup "in the unlikely event the
demonstration does not remain orderly."
Although the union has not announced any planned job actions, its members
did vote Sunday to authorize such actions, including a strike.
"We are reviewing our strike plan to ensure that we are fully prepared to
respond effectively to any concerted job action and continue to provide the
critical services needed to operate our airports," Kennard wrote.
City employees represented by the engineers and architects group who are
expected to participate Sunday include LAX communications and computer
technicians and runway supervisors.
Also planning to attend are LAPD criminalists, crime lab technicians and
polygraph examiners, as well as engineers, administrators and accountants at
other city departments.
An airport spokesman declined to say whether LAX police would arrest
protesters who break the law. "We hope everybody's behavior doesn't get to
that point," Thomas Winfrey said.
As of late Friday, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa had not approached the union
to try to head off the demonstration. The protest is the first direct labor
challenge to the new mayor, a former union organizer.
Villaraigosa has said the city cannot afford to award the DWP contract to
other employees. He backed the City Council's approval of the DWP contract
but has noted that its lucrative terms were negotiated by the previous
administration.
Meanwhile, the union and its executive director, Robert G. Aquino, stepped
up efforts Friday to enlist the help of the county Federation of Labor, the
local association of labor unions.
In a letter, Aquino called on Martin Ludlow, the federation's executive
secretary-treasurer and a close ally of Villaraigosa's, to support the
union's cause. "I know you supported IBEW 18 in their effort, as I did, and
now hope I can also count on your support for our effort," Aquino wrote.
"I would like to schedule a press conference within the next 10 days for the
purpose of you and me jointly notifying all parties of our solidarity on
this union issue and the backing of the L.A. County Federation of Labor's
support for our just cause," he added.
Ludlow did not respond Friday to the letter.
He said Wednesday that he cannot intervene in the contract dispute because
city ethics laws prohibit him as a former city councilman from lobbying City
Hall for one year after leaving office.
Union officials said other federation leaders could be enlisted to put
pressure on City Hall, while Ludlow could simply exercise his 1st Amendment
right to speak out.
"We're not looking for a lobbyist," Aquino said. "We're looking for a labor
leader."
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