Edwards, Obama Call on TESCO to Sign a Community Benefits Agreement

Alliance for Healthy and Responsible Grocery Stores at a Fresh & Easy store opening.

Democratic presidential candidates John Edwards and Barack Obama joined with an alliance of community, faith, labor and political leaders in calling on British grocery giant TESCO, the parent company of Fresh & Easy, to negotiate a community benefits agreement as it enters the U.S. market. Five of the company’s first six stores in this country opened on November 8.

In separate letters sent to Fresh & Easy CEO Timothy Mason, Edwards and Obama urged TESCO to create a partnership with the Alliance for Healthy and Responsible Grocery Stores, a citywide coalition of more than 25 community, environmental, faith and labor organizations in Los Angeles. Through a community benefits agreement, the Alliance is seeking to make real the company’s promises to create quality jobs, operate in an environmentally sound manner and open stores in underserved areas.

“As an advocate for responsible business growth forged in strong labor, consumer and environmental practices, I believe that this partnership process will create the strongest launch for your entry into those markets,” Edwards said in his letter.

“It is because your expansion is critical to the area that it is vital that it be done right and in cooperation with community leaders,” Obama wrote.

TESCO, the world’s third-largest food retailer, is expanding into the U.S. by opening over 50 “Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets” in Southern California by the end of 2008. TESCO has launched an aggressive public relations campaign touting its plans to be a green and community-friendly employer.

At a November 7 press conference outside Fresh & Easy’s VIP grand opening party in the Glassell Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, community members called on the company to negotiate a Community Benefits Agreement.

But TESCO, which seems to be following the pattern set by the major grocery chains, has for the most part sidestepped South Los Angeles and other areas with a longstanding need for quality grocery stores. News reports have said that the company plans to employ most U.S. workers for up to 20 hours a week in $10 per hour jobs, and the company’s record on consumer, labor and environmental issues in the U.K. and internationally is extremely mixed.

Fight for Responsible Hospital Development in N.E. Valley May Turn to the Courts

A broad coalition fighting for responsible hospital development in the Northeast San Fernando Valley may turn to the courts after the L.A. City Council in November failed by a two-vote margin to overturn the decision of the city’s planning commission to let the expansion of Holy Cross Medical Center proceed without an environmental study.

A new LAANE report on the impact of the proposed expansion of Holy Cross Medical Center on the surrounding minority, working-class community.

Northeast Valley City Council member Richard Alarcon took the side of the coalition, Community Advocates for Responsible Expansion at Providence Holy Cross (CARE) — a coalition of 20 environmental, civil rights, community and labor organizations, including LAANE — when the City Council voted on the Environmental Impact Report (EIR).
“This decision stands in sharp contrast with the precedent that has been established for higher-income communities across the region that have faced hospital expansion,” said Maria Loya, Director of Public Policy for LAANE.

CARE supports the expansion, but has insisted that it be accompanied by an EIR, as well as a development agreement that would provide community benefits to the area such as good jobs. Prior to the vote, LAANE released Growing Responsibly, a white paper that highlighted the potential impact the expansion plan would have on neighborhoods already suffering from high rates of asthma and poor employment opportunities.

The hospital’s owner, Seattle-based Providence Health & Services, is planning to spend $143 million to build a 97-foot-high patient tower on a site zoned for a maximum of 45 feet and without the required 25-foot setback from the street.

L.A., Long Beach Mayors Pledge Support for Comprehensive Solution to Port Truck Pollution

Even as the plan to clean up trucks at the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles faces growing opposition from trucking companies and shippers, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster reiterated their support for a comprehensive solution for the region’s short-haul trucking system.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa greets children who turned out in support of the Clean and Safe Ports campaign.

The mayors held a press conference in response to votes by Port commissioners in early November to approve only part of the plan to clean up the more than 16,000 trucks that service the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Commissioners voted to create a timeline to increase restrictions on pollution-spewing trucks, but delayed consideration of the remainder of a plan to fix what is widely believed to be a dysfunctional system.

Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster standing with the Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports.

The vast majority of the more than 16,000 truckers are independent contractors, an arrangement that allows trucking companies to avoid responsibility for Social Security, unemployment and workers’ compensation insurance, as well as the performance of the trucks. Drivers who face low rates of pay, inadequate health benefits and poor working conditions are unable to adequately maintain their rigs. “The mayors of both cities have now publicly signaled their support for moving forward with a full and comprehensive plan,” said Patricia Castellanos, Co-Director of the Ports Campaign at LAANE. “Now we need to move forward with our plan to ensure clean air, good jobs, healthy communities and ports that can grow in the 21st century.”

LAANE is a member of the Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports, a group of more than 30 labor, health and environmental organizations, which has been fighting to clean up the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and improve working conditions for drivers for over a year.

Vote Nears on Standards for Airline Contractors

City officials are moving forward on a policy that would address inadequate standards among the private firms that hire janitors, security workers and other airline passenger service workers at LAX. A vote could come as early as January, according to the executive director of the agency that runs LAX.

Airline service workers and disability rights activists at a press conference at LAX.

The airlines contract out critical services, like wheelchair attendants, baggage handling, aircraft cleaning and passenger security, to the lowest bidder. A LAANE report, released in July, found that the system produced an undertrained, understaffed and poorly compensated workforce and compromised safety, security, sanitation, and services for passengers with disabilities.

Airport Commissioner Fernando Torres-Gil, a polio survivor who uses crutches and a wheelchair, told the press that he would support the plan. “The Commission is especially sensitive and appreciative of the wheelchair attendants," Torres-Gil said. "Without them, many people, including myself, could not use the airport."

The proposed policy would allow airport staff to create a pre-approved list of firms which meet performance standards for employee training, service quality, security and quality jobs.