Skilled Workers

* I wish to take issue with Joel Kotkin’s characterization of the labor market situation in Los Angeles today (“A Shortage of Skilled Workers,” Opinion, Nov. 2).

The reason why many blue-collar jobs continue to go unfilled has less to do with Hollywood’s failure to glamorize such work, lack of a work ethic or with an unmotivated labor force, as Kotkin suggests, and more to do with the eroded wages and poor work conditions which are part and parcel for many blue-collar workers today.

Surely, training and education need to be at the top of the agenda in urban school districts, but education is only one among many factors that shape local labor markets. The interest to work a blue-collar job would increase among our youth if livable wages and benefits were part of the package.

RICARDO F. ICAZA

President, UFCW Local 770

President, Los Angeles County

Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO