Readers React: The right way for L.A. to settle labor disputes

To the editor: The Times states that AB 1881 “backs public employee unions” in how disputes between labor and management are adjudicated. To the contrary, the legislation is consistent with what was envisioned in the Los Angeles City Charter by calling for a return to the impartial process of appointing members to the administrative bodies that resolve these disputes. In L.A., it’s the Employee Relations Board. (“State should stay out of this L.A. fight,” Editorial, Sept. 4)

For 42 years, candidates to the board have jointly been agreed to by labor and management, thereby giving both sides confidence in the commissioners’ ability to adjudicate issues based on fact and law, not politics. Decisions are rarely appealed.

But this impartiality is under attack. In rescinding the law and granting himself sole authority over appointments to the board, Mayor Eric Garcetti is bringing political influence and bias to a process that requires neutrality.

It’s essential that the state step in to preserve the integrity of labor-management dispute resolution by returning to the appointment process that has served us well.

Erwin Chemerinsky, Irvine

The writer, dean of the UC Irvine School of Law, served as chairman of the Los Angeles Charter Reform Commission from 1997 to 1999.

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