Business and labor bond over bonds

Labor and business leaders in Los Angeles have found something big to agree on: They are promoting several major public works bonds on Tuesday’s state ballot.

The alliance between the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor and the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce seeks, on one hand, more jobs in the construction of roads, housing and schools, and, on the other, more opportunities for companies that stand to reap a bonanza from the building boom.

Beyond these obvious upsides, however, lie deeper and more lasting opportunities for these frequent adversaries.

On Wednesday, business executives and labor organizers who more often represent divergent interests appeared together at a downtown news conference to underscore their unified support for the bond measures, Propositions 1A through 1E.

“If you’re looking at the long-term future of your community, you have to find ways to encourage business investment,” said Gary Toebben, the chamber’s president and chief executive. “These days you have to do everything that you can.”

Toebben stood with county labor chief Maria Elena Durazo at the construction site of L.A. Live, a $2.5-billion sports and entertainment hub being built by union workers next to Staples Center and slated to have apartments and condos, a hotel and condo tower, a live performance theater, broadcast facilities, a multi-screen movie theater, restaurants and clubs.

Durazo said the bonds would help create “good middle-class jobs, and that’s what we need in Los Angeles.”

There is another reason the bonds are favored by business and labor: They tackle quality-of-life issues, such as reducing gridlock and building schools, that translate into a better business climate and a higher standard of living for workers.

Such labor-business solidarity occurs from time to time, particularly around public works projects that can benefit both sides. But the partnerships are often short-lived as the drive for profit collides with wages and working conditions.

In fact, even as local leaders voice unity over the state bonds, they are fighting -- or preparing to do so -- in other spheres. Durazo, for example, supports a contentious effort to raise wages for workers at hotels along Century Boulevard near Los Angeles International Airport.

Later this month, the Los Angeles City Council is scheduled to consider extending the city’s living-wage law to the hotel workers -- a step opposed by business leaders, who believe that the higher-pay requirement should apply only to contractors who do business directly with City Hall.

“Labor and business have the same understanding that there are no permanent friends and no permanent enemies,” said Peter Dreier, director of the Urban and Environmental Policy Program at Occidental College. “There are times when both sides can collaborate to improve the overall economy. It’s a marriage of convenience.”

In this case, the marriage has been sweetened by a propitious feature in the state bonds: no new taxes -- the death-knell of many public works projects in the eyes of the business community. Instead, the state would borrow the money by selling general obligation bonds. In turn, bond investors would be repaid over time out of the state’s general fund, which is backed by taxpayers.

“Everyone would clean the air if it didn’t cost money,” said Stephen Levy, director of the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy. “If the financing seems fair or nonexistent, that can carry the day. It takes a normal stumbling block out of the picture.”

The public works bonds are opposed by a variety of groups, including some elected officials and taxpayer advocates. They argue that paying off the bonds in the future would reduce the flexibility of the Legislature to manage the state budget.

Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg (D-Los Angeles), for example, opposes Proposition 1A, which would direct gas tax money solely toward transportation projects, because she believes that it could soak up money that might otherwise be available for social programs during tight budget years.

Labor-business partnerships, of course, are not unheard of in Los Angeles or California.

The Service Employees International Union and downtown L.A.’s largest commercial property owner, Robert F. Maguire, for example, settled a long-running dispute earlier this year when they reached an agreement that would allow several hundred security officers to unionize.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was instrumental in brokering that deal, which put city government at the center of what some believe to be an emerging coalition of labor and business.

Villaraigosa has deep roots in organized labor, a fact that has been a source of concern to business leaders. As a result, the mayor has devoted considerable energy courting the Chamber of Commerce and other groups during his first year on the job to gain their support for his progressive agenda.

City officials point to a raft of civic projects -- including Staples Center and new hotels, theaters and shopping areas in Hollywood, as well as the creation of an affordable housing trust fund -- that they say were made possible by labor and business working together.

“We have a pro-growth coalition of business and labor that is beginning to reshape the physical and political landscape of the city,” said City Council President Eric Garcetti. “Angelenos are very good at finding what divides us. What labor and business are realizing is that they have more to gain from finding what unites them than allowing divisions to shut down collaboration.”

Other city officials share the optimism but are more guarded in their forecast.

“People are really looking deeply into the matter of our infrastructure -- and the chamber and the unions are realizing that we better come together or we’ll all go down together,” said City Councilman Tony Cardenas. “It’s good to see them come together on an important issue, but there is no question they’ll be on opposite sides of an issue next week.”

duke.helfand@latimes.com

steve.hymon@latimes.com