Building Trades News

A Superior Court judge struck down a 2005 law passed by the Los Angeles City Council that barred large supermarkets from taking over a store and immediately firing all its workers.

The ordinance was backed by the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE), a pro-labor nonprofit organization, which focuses heavily on bringing higher wages and greater benefits to low-income workers.

LAANE has served as a major player in the Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports, which has been lobbying for passage of the $2-billion port truck plan. And it intervened on behalf of the city of Los Angeles in the grocery lawsuit, which was passed in the wake of the protracted 2003 supermarket dispute between grocery chains and unions that opposed cuts in their workers' benefits.

Roxana Tynan, deputy director of the Alliance for a New Economy, said she was "99% positive" that the city would appeal the grocery ruling. Similar laws that apply to private janitors and public workers at Los Angeles International Airport already have withstood a challenge, she said.

"We're really hopeful that it's going to be upheld," Tynan added. "And the bottom line is what possible damage exists in protecting those workers?"

Although the grocery industry prevailed in its legal fight, 11 hotels around LAX have been less successful. A court recently upheld the council's decision to impose a higher minimum wage on the hotels.

Last month, the hotels asked the state Supreme Court to review the case, which focuses on the process used by Los Angeles to approve the living wage law. If the court refuses, there could still be a lawsuit challenging the living wage law itself.