Bob,
This is great news! Its been dead in committee forever in
Chicago where they're afraid to bring it up to vote for fear of
embarresment as most Alderman supported it - but a Daley a.k.a. the
Dictator opposes it they will not let it out of committee.
I will pass this on.
In Solidarity,
Ron Baiman
Roosevelt U., Chicago
On Tue, 18 Mar 1997, Robert Pollin wrote:
> 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); [EMAIL PROTECTED] (e-mail)
>
