@lindseymastis

View from the ghetto.

While the Tom Bradley Terminal at LAX undergoes a much-Tweeted-about $1.7 billion supermakeover, a sort of slum is forming in the employee parking lots, says a group of pilots from United Airlines.

The pilots claim that their plummeting salaries and benefits have forced them to camp out for weeks at a time in mobile homes that they keep parked in the lot -- an effort "to save time and money so we can get to our jobs."

And Google Maps can attest:

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We told you this wouldn't be easy. Even though Walmart appears to have slipped into a Chinatown space that doesn't need the kind of extraordinary City Hall approvals that could have kept it out of other parts of L.A., the labor community is still fighting it.

Unions don't like Walmart because of the stores' relatively low wages and union-busting ways. (Part of the retailer's lore includes allegedly encouraging employees to seek free, taxpayer-subsidized healthcare and hiring undocumented workers).

Anyway, today ...

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Walmart

Updated at the bottom with Walmart telling us work will begin on the store in summer. Opponents of Walmart vow a "major fight" over the planned market. First posted at 5:44 p.m. Friday.

Los Angeles, a big labor town when it comes to grocery store workers, has been notoriously hostile to Walmart, the big-box store with non-union employees.

But a report indicates that the Arkansas retailer is trying to sneak in under the radar by opening a small grocery store on the edge of Chinatown.

The blog Frying Pan News says:

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Good Jobs LA

Mendoza

Would you cut off medical benefits for an employee who was already depending on them because she's 6-months pregnant?

Maybe it's a little too late to call Grinch on this particular employer, but the organization Good Jobs LA is bringing attention to the plight of mom-to-be Jennifer Mendoza and fellow employees of passenger services company Aviation Safeguards, which it says will dump the employment contracts -- and health-care benefits -- of its LAX workers Feb. 1.

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NBC

Let's hope these video dancers don't show up.

The L.A. hipster is in a bad place right now. Does she join Occupy L.A. and get dirty on the lawn of City Hall or continue to base her activism on the fact that she only wears American Apparel underwear?

It's only going to get tougher, because now the L.A. hipster will have to decide whether to cross the picket line at the boulevard hot-spot known as the W Hotel Hollywood, home of the party douche who's somewhere between 1 percent and 80 proof.

Workers under UNITE HERE Local 11 say they can't take their proper breaks, and now they're ...

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Picketers outside the Hotel Bel Air

​Several hundred union demonstrators picketed outside the Hotel Bel-Air this evening, calling on managers to rehire workers who were laid off when the hotel closed for renovations.

"They say go away! We say no way!" the protesters chanted. After a march down to Sunset Boulevard, they temporarily blocked Stone Canyon Road, which leads to the hotel.

The union was joined by about 60 protesters from Occupy L.A., the group that has been camped outside L.A. City Hall for the last two weeks.
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vallartasupermarket.com

Updated: It's ova. A settlement has been reached, city Councilman Eric Garcetti tweeted. First posted at 7 a.m. Friday

Looks like you're going to be shopping at Trader Joe's, the dollar store, and maybe Vallarta.

That's because the workers at Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons took one giant step toward a strike. You don't want to cross the picket line just for milk, do you?

The United Food and Commercial Workers are pissed that the stores aren't paying more toward their health-care premiums. Workers would have to fork out a little more than $90 a month for family plans under the stores' contract proposal, and even then they claim the combined contributions won't fully fund medical needs in the year or so ahead.

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​More than a year after suing his boss, Nghia Tran, the manager of a local manufacturing plant, is now a rich man.

A jury in federal court recently awarded him more than $5.4 million in a case where Tran reported that a woman was being sexually harassed at work.

That's right, $5.4 million, and no one ever laid a finger on him.

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Don Knabe

​Supervisor Don Knabe is resisting union efforts to require a labor agreement for a broad range of construction projects at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

The brewing MTA labor battle has yet to spill into public view. But behind the scenes, Knabe has refused to take action on a proposed "project labor agreement" for the duration of his term as chair of the MTA board, which ends in July.

Such an agreement would compel MTA contractors to use union labor. Construction unions have been pushing for PLAs at several local agencies, including the Port of L.A., L.A. County and the Expo Metro Line Construction Authority.
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​

The good news for Hispanic workers is that over the past two months there's been solid job growth in industries where Hispanics have a significant presence.

But with the good, there's always a bit of the bad.

Latinos are more worried about job security than any other workers.

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Unite Here

Workers warn of unsanitary conditions at LAX facilities

As if we need another reason to avoid airport food...

Now, LAX workers warn that poor conditions at local food prep facilities may pose safety hazards to travelers.

Workers responsible for in-flight food at 12 airlines held a protest near the airport on Friday to highlight hazardous work conditions at LGS Sky Chefs and to negotiate a labor contract.

"We want Sky Chefs to address the serious kitchen understaffing that has led to problems for the workers and for the clients who receive the food," said Sky Chefs employee, Clara Meza.

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Koi had nothing to do with alleged worker exploitation at car washes.

Bad week for Jerry Brown? First one of his associates called Republican rival Meg Whitman a "whore," an utterance caught on-tape. Now the owners of celeb-centric Koi restaurants say they had nothing to do with a group of car washes fingered by the Attorney General for allegedly underpaying workers.

Koi issued a press release Monday stating, " ... The Attorney General's website that incorrectly stated that the owners of Koi Restaurant in Los Angeles have ownership interests in various car washes identified as defendants in a lawsuit filed by the Attorney General."

Brown's office seems to concur: It has wiped all references to Koi from its news release on the car-wash crackdown.

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Steve La

Those striking workers opposed to the Hyatt company's local "staff cuts, reduced hours, and excessive injury rates" have moved from the chain's West Hollywood Andaz Thursday to the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Century City Friday.

About 500 hotel workers from Unite Here Local 11 were expected to demonstrate outside the hotel at 2025 Avenue of the Stars, a union leader said. Union workers have been employed under an expired contract and claim that the hotel is trying to low-ball pay.

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Updated with reporting and photos from Weekly reporter Steve La, at the Andaz.
Workers of Unite Here Local 11 hotel workers union began picketing the trendy and tony Andaz at 4 this morning, as a work stoppage starts there over "staff cuts, reduced hours, and excessive injury rates," according to a union release. Hyatt workers have been without a contract since November 2009, as have 4,000 other L.A. area hotel workers. The hotel is continuing to operate.

The union charges that Hyatt, which is controlled by the wealthy Chicagoan Pritzker family, who are close to President Obama, is trying to lock in "recession contracts" to lower labor costs even as hotel revenue begins to return to pre-recession levels.

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Unite Here Local 11, a union representing hotel workers at two Hyatt hotels on L.A.'s Westside, voted Thursday to authorize a strike, according to a statement from the group.

The vote affected employees at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Century City and the Hyatt Andaz in West Hollywood. Last month, hundreds of union members and allies protested against Hyatt Andaz over a contract dispute with the hotel.

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Updated, with response from Disney.

Disneyland has found itself in a bit of a PR nightmare the past week as they've allegedly not allowed a Muslim restaurant hostess to wear a hijab, a traditional head covering. The woman, Imane Boudlal, has filed a claim with the U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission, saying the prohibition amounts to religious discrimination. Disneyland has said they've been working to accommodate her. Boudlal's union, Unite Here Local 11, says Disney has allowed Boudlal to wear the hijab, but only in the absence of customers. (Wait: Apparently we can have a Muslim as President of the United States but not as Disneyland restaurant hostess? What gives?)

Now, according to the union, the geniuses at Disney have come up with their own alternative head covering, proving again that human beings can be both well-meaning, and incredibly stupid. Local 11 sent over a photo of the hilarious bonnet and hat contraption they've given the woman to wear. Take a look, after the jump.

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Great labor union mustache on Richard Trumka

The economy sucks. Let's have a rally.

Labor unions and Democratic politicians will gather at noon on the south lawn of City Hall. Organizers say they'll draw 2,000 with the help of 50 buses, so unless you want to help the economy by listening to bromides, stay away from North Spring Street.

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fotoparceiros via Flickr

Boeing announced Monday that they will cut 800 jobs at their Long Beach location, according to KTAL News.

550 workers will be offered positions in Oklahoma where the company is moving two of its defense projects. The C-130 Avionics Modernization program is scheduled to move in 2011 while the B-1 program will follow in 2012. The remaining 250 positions would be eliminated.

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Steve La

The tony Andaz boutique hotel on Sunset in West Hollywood was the site of chanting, marching and peaceful arrests tonight, as hundreds of workers in tough negotiations with Hyatt, which owns Andaz, demonstrated against the hotel chain.

Adding to the entertainment, as Sheriff's deputies moved in to disperse the crowd, rich hipsters and bros could be seen in the windows of the Andaz taking photos and calling their friends back in Brooklyn, or whatever.

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The Andaz picket will look a bit different than this one, but you get the idea.

Unionized workers at Hyatt-owned Andaz in West Hollywood and the Hyatt in Century City have been without a contract since December, and next week they'll take to the streets at the Andaz in what is sure to be an entertaining labor demonstration.

The chief sticking points in the negotiations are health care and hours cut during the recession but not restored despite the recovery in business and leisure travel, said Leigh Shelton, spokeswoman for Unite Here Local 11, the hotel union. The union represents a bit more than 700 Hyatt workers, about 600 of them at the Century City Hyatt, though no doubt West Hollywood is a better venue for protest.

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