Mayor Won’t Block ‘Living Wage’ at LAX

After vetoing the city’s first “living wage” law, Mayor Richard Riordan now has decided to allow an expansion of it to go into effect, a move the measure’s champions say will increase pressure on the airlines at Los Angeles International Airport to grant raises to their security workers and others.

Critics, however, say the real effect of Riordan’s move will be to accelerate a legal showdown between the city and the air carriers.

Under the City Charter, there are two ways that Riordan could allow the extension to take effect, either by signing it or by doing nothing and simply letting it become law. Sources say they expect him to take the latter course, which might be less offensive to the business community but which nevertheless would have the same practical impact.

The living wage ordinance was designed to force companies with city contracts to pay service workers, such as janitors, about $7.50 an hour with benefits and $8.25 without them. The state minimum wage is $5.75 an hour. However, which workers the measure applies to has been in dispute. The new proposal specifically states that LAX workers are covered.

Not only would this mean a sizable pay boost for them, but it could foreshadow inclusion of the provision in the new City Charter, which would be a tremendous victory for labor.

Sources say the mayor is prepared to support--or at least not to fight--inclusion of the living wage provision in a revised charter, which would protect the ordinance from future city councils and mayors who might be tempted to weaken or reverse it.

Although Riordan officially is neutral on that idea, sources say he has offered to lend it his overt support, if the local unions, in turn, will back a reformed charter that allows the next mayor to fire department heads without City Council approval.

Fabian Nunez, political director of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, would not comment on that issue but said leaders of his organization met with Riordan last week and discussed drafting charter language that would guarantee living wages to city workers and employees of large companies with city contracts.

The mayor “said he wouldn’t fight it,” Nunez said. “He said he may even support it.”

Deputy Mayor Noelia Rodriguez said Riordan had not taken final action on either the extension of the living wage law or the proposal to include its guarantee in the charter. But she acknowledged that both topics are on the table.

“That’s one of the key elements being discussed” in the charter debate, she added.

The living wage law is full of both practical and political ramifications. For about 2,000 LAX employees, including security workers, it could be the first step toward receiving a sizable pay increase and lifting their families out of the ranks of the working poor.

At the same time, the issue reflects the pivotal role that organized labor may play in the growing public debate over charter reform. Mindful that the charter is unlikely to stir much broad public discussion, advocates on all sides are courting labor, with its proven ability to turn out campaign workers.

So far, the county federation has stayed clear of many of the hot-button issues and has yet to commit to either of a pair of charter reform proposals, one being drafted by an elected panel, the another by an appointed group of commissioners.

Riordan vetoed the city’s initial living wage ordinance in 1997, but his decision to choose a different course now reflects several developments: The City Council’s overwhelming support for the measure made a veto impossible to uphold, and sources say Riordan’s inability to convince the airlines to voluntarily comply has eroded his determination to resist the ordinance.

Moreover, the mayor has long harbored mixed feelings about the law. He pays the living wage to the workers at his downtown restaurant, but he opposed the ordinance last year because he felt it would send a bad signal to business.

Millions of Dollars at Stake

Allowing the new measure to become law could force the airlines to shell out millions of dollars to low-wage workers at the airport, as well as step up the pressure on city agencies, such as the Department of Water and Power, to boost the pay of workers employed by their subcontractors. It also would end a standoff between Riordan and the City Council over enforcement of the ordinance.

On Tuesday, several labor leaders said Riordan had personally informed them of his decision to allow the living wage extension to become law, and they hailed that decision.

“We welcome the change of heart and the change of mind,” said Madeline Janis-Aparicio, who heads the city’s Living Wage Coalition. “It’s going to make the message to the airlines really strong.”

For months, Riordan has lobbied leaders of the airline industry to force their subcontractors to give raises to some airport workers, including those who screen bags for weapons. The airlines have resisted, however, digging in their heels and in some cases dismissing Riordan’s pleadings as empty sanctimony.

The airlines already have retained a lawyer, and have intimated that they will sue Los Angeles if they are told that city law requires them to hike wages. The airlines’ position is that they are governed by federal rather than local law and, therefore, the council and mayor have no power to dictate salary requirements to them.

Robert Span, a lawyer representing the airlines, said he is researching the language of the amended living wage law. If it goes into effect, he said, the airlines will have to decide whether to sue.

Supporters of the living wage law, meanwhile, have persistently lobbied Riordan, urging him to choose his personal, religiously based support for low-wage workers over his business-minded resistance to government regulation.

On Tuesday, Deputy Mayor Rodriguez said Riordan has weighed that debate carefully in recent months.

“There’s no question that the mayor supports people having the right to earn a living wage,” she said. “There just has to be a balance.”