Unions give big to phone tax effort

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s campaign for a $243-million telephone utility users tax on the Feb. 5 ballot received $1.4 million during 2007, more than half of it from unions doing business with city government, according to contribution reports.

The Proposition S committee received $500,000 from Change to Win, a labor coalition pressing the mayor’s appointees on the Harbor Commission to unionize truck drivers who transport containers in and out of the Port of Los Angeles.

An additional $250,000 came from the Service Employees International Union, whose members received a five-year package of salary increases last month from Villaraigosa and the City Council. And $100,000 came from UNITE HERE, the union that successfully pushed for hotels near Los Angeles International Airport to pay employees a “living wage” -- a rate higher than the state’s minimum wage.

Proposition S seeks to retain the vast majority of a tax on cellphones and land-line usage. The tax is threatened by a series of court decisions and could be struck down later this year.