[PEN-L:9017] Re: LA Living Wage Passes!

[Marshall Feldman <MARSH@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Bob,

Can you give us more information about this.  What does the ordinance do?
What is in the report you refer to?

Thanks.

>Posted on 18 Mar 1997 at 20:15:49 by TELEC List Distributor (011802)
>
>[PEN-L:9004] LA Living Wage Passes!
>
>Date: Tue, 18 Mar 1997 17:14:23 -0800 (PST)
>Reply-To: pen-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>From: Robert Pollin <pollin@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
>To: Multiple recipients of list <pen-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
>        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
>
>********************************************
>
>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); Pollin@xxxxxxxxxxxx (e-mail)

Marsh Feldman                               Phone: 401/874-5953
Community Planning, 204 Rodman Hall           FAX: 401/874-5511
The University of Rhode Island           Internet: marsh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Kingston, RI 02881-0815