Thread: A plan for civil disobedience. This is so unbelievable

Originally Posted by MW

Get rid of the Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa and the city can start to heal!! How did this guy ever get voted into office?

Because the city is now a majority hispanic and mucho illegilos.

Originally Posted by 2ndamendsis

Originally Posted by MW

Get rid of the Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa and the city can start to heal!! How did this guy ever get voted into office?

Because the city is now a majority hispanic and mucho illegilos.

And the city is by far Democratic but then so is much of the state. He may run for governor someday too I heard.

Hotel Workers Protest in LAX Area

Video:
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?secti ... id=4607250

LOS ANGELES (CNS), September 28, 2006 - Hundreds of protesters marched along Century Boulevard during rush hour Thursday, tying up traffic near LAX as part of a push for higher wages and improved benefits for airport-area hotel workers.


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The well-choreographed protest, which was planned months in advance and involved careful coordination with Los Angeles police, was scheduled for late afternoon to ensure maximum media coverage and impact on traffic.
The marchers shut down much of westbound Century Boulevard as they walked toward the LAX Hilton. As many as 400 of the protesters were expected to be arrested in an act of civil disobedience, planning to sit in the middle of the street, blocking traffic.

So well-organized was the protest that those who expected to be arrested had already "pre-registered" with police to make it easier for them to be processed. They even carried different-colored signs so police could pick them out.

About 90 minutes into the protest, Los Angeles police reported no problems with the crowd, beyond those that were previously planned.

The afternoon rush-hour demonstration in support of hotel workers, most of them Latino immigrants, was billed as one of the largest acts of civil disobedience in the city's history. It was also intended, by both union leaders and police, to be non-confrontational.

The Los Angeles Police Department has been involved at nearly every stage, advising organizers on how to proceed without endangering public safety.

March organizers obtained a city permit for 1,000 to 2,000 marchers. Those willing to be arrested took a mandatory class on how to remain calm. Arrests were expected to be made in front of the LAX Hilton and the Westin.

Organizers with Unite Here Local 11, which represents Southern California hotel workers, and the pro-immigrant We Are America Coalition hope the demonstration will lead to higher wages and benefits for workers at 13 hotels near the airport.

Fred Muir, a spokesman for the Westin LAX, said the protest had not generated any major complaints. He also said employees "have a pretty complete salary and benefits package, which includes health care, paid vacations, paid sick time and numerous paid holidays."

"Our average employee has a tenure here of 10 to 12 years, so people tend to stay here a lot and I think that says a lot about what kind of employer the hotel is," Muir said.

Another goal of the demonstration is to support a drive to organize nonunion workers at 13 airport-area hotels.

Officials at the LAX Hilton issued a statement saying the hotel had no problem with workers unionizing, but wanted the decision to be made by the workers in a secret-ballot election, something the union has balked at.

"We find it curious that Unite Here, which claims to be dedicated to the rights of our employees, would so strongly oppose holding an NLRB-supervised, democratic election that could resolve this situation quickly," the Hilton statement read. "We believe their opposition stems from the fact that when such elections are held, they win only half the time, not 85 percent of the time as in the case of neutrality agreements."

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