September 2009 Issue

Justice on the March

Workers and Community Leaders Declare Boycott of Long Beach Hilton

After more than a year of appeals and little progress, hotel workers are asking for clients and community members to boycott the Long Beach Hilton, owned and operated by HEI Hotels & Resorts. The boycott comes in the wake of efforts to improve wages, secure affordable health benefits and ensure a fair process for workers to decide whether to form a union.

Long Beach Hilton workers and a number of faith leaders held a press conference on September 3 calling on the community to boycott the hotel. Several clients of the Long Beach Hilton have already pledged to pull their business from the hotel if the boycott remains in place leading up to their events.

“If a labor dispute is in effect as we come closer to [our event date], it is most likely that we would…be unable to use the Long Beach Hilton as a General Synod hotel,” said Edith Guffey of the United Church for Christ, a future client of the hotel.

The Long Beach Hilton is the first hotel in Long Beach to face a boycott, and the second HEI hotel that is currently under boycott. Conditions at the hotel have become a rallying point for a diverse alliance of community leaders concerned about the link between low-wage jobs and poverty in their city.

“I stand by the workers in calling a boycott of the Long Beach Hilton,” said James Thing, a member of the Long Beach Coalition for Good Jobs & a Healthy Community and a professor of sociology at Cal State Long Beach. “Many of the parents and guardians of our students work in the hotel industry and need fair working conditions and adequate health care for themselves and their families.”

Workers currently do not have access to affordable health care—family plans can cost several hundred dollars a month—forcing some to rely on government assistance to pay for medical care for themselves and their families.

“For over a year, we have struggled to address our concerns with the managers at the hotel,” said Elizabeth Martinez, a waitress at the hotel. “Calling for a boycott is not an easy decision for us to make, but we have tried all other options and this is the only one left.”

The Long Beach Hilton has been at the center of much controversy over the last year. In July 2008, more than 600 Long Beach hotel workers, community supporters and elected officials marched in front of the Long Beach Hilton, raising awareness about poverty wages and difficult working conditions in the city’s growing hotel industry. A few months later, community members held a toy drive to support the families of Long Beach hotel workers, including many families from the Hilton. In February 2009, nearly 300 college and university students from United Students Against Sweatshops demonstrated in front of the Hilton demanding that the hotel adhere to higher labor standards.

Coalition and community leaders have held numerous delegations to hotel management and actions in front of the hotel. Assemblymembers Warren Furutani and Bonnie Lowenthal, City Councilwoman Tonia Reyes Uranga and representatives from Councilmembers Patrick O’Donnell and Gerrie Schipske’s offices are among those who have participated in delegations and actions.

“When we see injustice in our communities, it is our responsibility to stand up and be counted,” said Steve Neal, 9^th District City Council candidate and Executive Director of the Labor Community Services Food and Emergency Program. "I will not eat, sleep or meet at the Long Beach Hilton, and will urge others to respect this boycott until the workers are treated with respect and dignity.”

LAANE Releases New Report on Jobs, Income and Poverty in L.A. County

On September 29, LAANE is releasing a report analyzing new data released that day by the federal government on jobs, income and poverty in L.A. County.

The report paints a picture of how the local economy has fared during the initial phase of one of the nation’s worst recessions. Accompanying the report is a series of podcast interviews with leading experts on the environment, health care, job quality and the social safety net.

Profiles of workers from different industries – some struggling, others doing better as a result of successful organizing efforts – are also featured, along with an essay by LAANE executive director Madeline Janis.

“Our goal is to provide readers with essential information on our local economy, compelling human stories and a set of bold ideas to create a new economy for all,” said Jessica Goodheart, LAANE Research Director and author of the report. “It’s time for us to come together to create good jobs, thriving communities and a healthy environment.”

A Lifelong Passion for Justice

LAANE Advisory Boardmember Tracy Gray’s Activist Roots Go Back to Childhood

LAANE Advisory Boardmember Tracy Gray credits conversations with her father, a Vietnam veteran, for opening her eyes to economic justice issues. “I remember back in the 70s he talked about race, opportunity and the economic implications of race.” He saw the armed forces as the only pathway to economic self-sufficiency for many Americans, Tracy remembers. “Even though I was a child, this planted a seed and eventually inspired me to work toward what I call ‘creating equitable wealth’—bringing access to wealth to women and minorities.”

Decades later, Tracy heads Collaborative Equity Partners, a venture catalyst consulting firm focused on the emerging domestic market, and is serving in L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s administration as Special Advisor for Capital Formation. Formerly LAANE’s Director of Retail Policy, she joined the Advisory Board in 2008 after completing her M.B.A. program.

Before joining LAANE, Tracy worked for a venture capital fund, as a business development consultant in the music and digital media industries and as a systems engineer with the Space Shuttle program.

How did you first get involved with LAANE?

I saw an ad for a research position at LAANE and immediately applied as I wanted to learn more about economic development policy. Prior to LAANE, I worked at a venture capital firm and did some research around economic development incentives for our portfolio companies. The more I got into economic development, the more I wanted to learn. I felt the perfect place to do that was through a policy organization whose aim was to create an equitable playing field.

There isn’t another organization that is as strategic as LAANE. The work LAANE does impacts people across the country—across the world, actually, as I’ve met people overseas who knew about LAANE. Our reach is further than Los Angeles so I always want to stay involved with LAANE. The respect people have for LAANE travels with you, and I want to give back because LAANE has helped me with my career. Plus, it’s home.

What did you do once you left LAANE?

I wanted to start my own fund because when I was at the venture capital firm, I very rarely saw women and minority entrepreneurs pitching their companies. When I would hang out with venture capitalists, no one looked like me. I only knew of a handful of other people of color and none were focused on technology where the “big money” was being made. All the wealth was being created in a shrinking market, which is against every sound business model out there. It seemed like a lack of knowledge more than anything else—on the part of the VCs and minority entrepreneurs. So I saw an opportunity in the growing market of women and people of color. I wanted to be the catalyst that changed this.

I thought my digital media and technology background, along with my knowledge of economic development policy, would give me an advantage. But I needed to go to business school. With an eclectic professional background and the fact that I’m a woman of color, I felt I couldn’t just go to any school. Having a degree from a Top 10 business school is very important in venture capital circles, so I decided to get two! The Columbia/U.C. Berkeley program was the perfect fit. The Berkeley side focused on entrepreneurship and social issues, while Columbia focused on finance. We had an international seminar class where I traveled to India to study the entertainment industry and microfinance, and to Argentina to study macro and microeconomics in the different industries in Latin America.

How did your experience of business school compare with your time at a nonprofit such as LAANE?

When I first worked at LAANE, business was often our opponent, but I felt there were ways to work with business and there were best practices in business that nonprofits could also benefit from (and vice versa). Business is about making money, and, right or wrong, in this country money is power. LAANE is about empowering communities—organizing is about power. In business school, I kind of did the opposite by trying to show my classmates the importance and economic value of adding a social screen to business decisions. I think I was somewhat successful at doing both.

What other organizations are you involved with?

I’m on the board of Create:Fixate, an arts organization aimed at increasing access to the arts and to emerging artists. I’m also a board member of the Lin Cole Foundation, an environmental organization, and I’m joining the board of Global Girl Media, a nonprofit that helps young girls around the world express themselves and their ideas through digital media.

Was there an activist who inspired you while growing up, and who is the most inspiring to you today?

Growing up, I’d say Martin Luther King, Jr. and JFK. The whole civil rights movement was an inspiration and so those leaders stand out. Today, it’s Bishop Desmond Tutu because he combines activism and a sense of humor. I remember seeing him as an undergrad at U.C. Santa Barbara. The anti-apartheid movement inspired me during college to become an activist—and of course, Mandela was important to me, too. But there was Bishop Tutu making me laugh in the middle of all that horror. He’s incredible.

What can you tell us about yourself that people might not know?

I’ve traveled to 30 countries. I spoke Japanese as a child. I do a new thing every week. With my MBA program, I’d had this amazing year and I was afraid I’d have nothing to look forward to, and I wanted to keep that energy alive and have something to be excited about. So I decided to do something new every week—I’ve fire-danced, taken an improv class, learned to use power tools and walked across the L.A. River bridges. It’s been an amazing experience and it’s made me much more present in how I relate to everything and everyone. If you’re truly present, you find you’re doing new things all the time and you see all the wonder that’s out there.

LAANE Launches New Website

Expanded Content, Interactive Features Offer a Rich Resource on the Local Economy

LAANE has launched a new website with expanded content and a host of interactive features. The site not only includes information on LAANE’s work, but news and opinion on the critical issues facing our region.

These are some of the elements of the new site:

• Resource centers on health care, green jobs and working America

• A guide to workers’ rights, community health and environmental policies locally and around the country

• Video and audio profiles of workers, community activists, faith and business leaders and elected officials

• Take Action opportunities

• Multimedia page with videos, podcasts, slide movies and other features

• RSS feed with the latest news on all of LAANE’s projects

“Our hope is to make this site a valuable resource for lawmakers, journalists, researchers, activists and anyone interested in the great economic and social challenges of our time,” says LAANE Executive Director Madeline Janis. “Los Angeles needs a place where we can discuss these issues, work toward solutions and ultimately move toward a new economy for all.”