Finally, some very good news for the left and labor movement. After
a long, bitter struggle, the LA Living Wage ordinance passed 12 - 0, with
three abstensions. Mayor Richard Riordan had promised to veto the
ordinance, but with a 12-vote majority, the ordinance is now veto proof!
Though the coverage is still very small--directly probably about
5,000 workers--it should help unions to fight for new wage norms throughout
the city.
This victory was the result of an extremely well organized and
effective labor/progressive coalition. Several people at UC-Riverside,
including me, worked with the coalition in producing research, including a
full scale study, "The Economics of the Los Angeles Living Wage Ordinance."
There are great lessons here about what it takes to win something
worthwhile. One thing is that well-supported appeals to social justice
really can be effective at the local level, where the dominance of big money
corporate politics is far less pervasive--even in a big city like LA.
-- Bob Pollin
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Robert Pollin
Department of Economics
Univesity of California-Riverside
Riverside, CA 92521-0427
(909) 787-5037, ext 1579 (office); (909) 788-8106 (home)
(909) 787-5685 (fax); [EMAIL PROTECTED] (e-mail)
