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Coalition
Wins Landmark $500 Million Community Benefits Agreement for
LAX Modernization
A
coalition formed and led by LAANE has won a landmark community
benefits agreement that provides major environmental and
economic improvements to communities affected by the planned
modernization of Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).
The
legally binding agreement - the result of months of discussions
between the City and more than 20 community groups, environmental
organizations, school districts and labor unions - establishes
a national precedent for community improvements around large-scale
public works projects. At $500 million, it represents the
largest and most comprehensive community benefits agreement
ever negotiated, and the first negotiated with a government
entity.
The agreement offers a wide array of economic opportunities
and quality-of-life improvements to residents east of the
airport, who historically have suffered the worst consequences
of airport development and had little voice in the decision-making
process. It now goes to the Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA), along with Los Angeles Mayor Jim Hahn's $11 billion
plan to renovate and modernize LAX.
"This
agreement is a milestone for the growing community benefits
movement," said Rev. William Smart, senior community
organizer at the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy
and the coalition's chief negotiator. "We have demonstrated
that when communities have a place at the table, economic
development works better for everyone. This agreement will
serve as a national model for ensuring that development
addresses the real needs of communities."
LAANE
began forming the LAX Coalition for Economic, Environmental
& Educational Justice in the fall of 2003. One of the
major achievements was bringing together labor and environmental
organizations, which have often been on opposite sides of
development issues. LAANE also brought the Inglewood and
Lennox school districts into the coalition, and helped win
nearly $250 million to dramatically improve classroom conditions
for thousands of students.
The
key improvements that will result from the community benefits
agreement include:
- Sound
proofing all affected schools.
- Increasing
funding for the sound proofing of homes.
- Retrofitting
diesel construction vehicles and diesel vehicles operating
on the tarmac to curb dangerous air pollutants by up to
90%.
- Electrifying
airplane gates to eliminate pollution from jet engine
idling.
- Studying
the health impacts of airport operations on surrounding
communities and making those studies public on the LAWA
web site.
- Providing
$15 million in job training funds for airport and aviation-related
jobs.
- Creating
a local hiring program to give priority to local residents,
low-income and special needs individuals for new LAX jobs.
- Enhancing
opportunities for local, minority and women-owned businesses
in the modernization of LAX.
- Monitoring
LAX, enforcing the agreement's provisions and holding
LAX accountable to the community.
"The
community benefits agreement has given disparate groups an
opportunity to come together and work out differing opinions
about how the development should be done," said Daniel
K. Tabor, an Inglewood resident and community activist who
helped lead the negotiations. "As a result, LAWA and
the City have avoided costly and lengthy litigation and the
community will get health and jobs protection up front."
Read
press coverage of this campaign:
Residents
Have Their Say on LAX Expansion Plans
Wall Street Journal - 12/15/04
Los
Angeles Groups Agree to Airport Growth, for a Price
New York Times - 12/17/04
LAX-Area
Residents to Benefit from Airport Impact Plan
Daily Breeze - 12/14/04
For more information, go to www.laane.org/lax/cba.html
_________________________________________________________________
LAANE
City of Justice Awards Dinner Honors National Leaders, Debuts
Video on Defeat of Wal-Mart
 On
December 1, LAANE held its annual City of Justice Awards
Dinner. This year's honorees included three nationally prominent
leaders, as well as leaders from three major economic justice
campaigns in Los Angeles.
John
Wilhelm, one of the country's top labor leaders and president
of UNITE HERE's Hospitality Division, was honored for his
visionary efforts to transform the hotel workers into one
of the nation's most effective organizing unions, and for
devising new strategies to counter corporate power in the
age of consolidation and globalization.
California
Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez was honored for his leadership
on a range of issues affecting working families, including
health care, workplace conditions and education.
Rev.
James M. Lawson, Jr. - a close colleague of Martin Luther
King Jr. and the most eminent American teacher of nonviolent
civil disobedience - received the City of Justice Lifetime
Achievement Award for his remarkable accomplishments as one
of the nation's most respected social justice activists.
Leaders
from the grocery workers, security guards and hotel workers
campaigns also received awards for their efforts to improve
conditions in three of Los Angeles' largest service sector
industries.
A
highlight of this year's dinner was the debut of LAANE's
new video, "David Beats Goliath: How Inglewood Defeated
Wal-Mart," which tells the amazing story of how a community-based
coalition led by LAANE stopped a ballot initiative sponsored
by Wal-Mart. The initiative would have allowed Wal-Mart
to build a supercenter without any public oversight or review,
creating a dangerous national precedent.
Hosted
by Los Angeles City Councilmember Wendy Greuel and UCLA
Labor Center Director Kent Wong, the dinner drew nearly
400 guests, including many elected officials, religious
leaders and philanthropists.
_________________________________________________________________
 LAANE
Joins Hotel Boycott Campaign
The
eight-month-old labor dispute between nine luxury hotels
and 2,900 hotel workers in Los Angeles entered a new phase
last month, as the union representing these workers declared
a boycott.
The
workers are demanding better wages, benefits and working
conditions, as well as a national voice that will enable
them to move from poverty into the middle class. Responding
to the rapid consolidation of the hospitality industry,
they are seeking to align their contract expirations with
tens of thousands of hotel workers in cities across the
U.S. and Canada.
LAANE
has played a key role in supporting the hotel workers, providing
research, policy and communications assistance. One of LAANE's
primary contributions has been to organize a citywide coalition
of community organizations. This coalition includes dozens
of groups across Los Angeles, and is now mobilizing support
for the boycott.
The
coalition has convinced many organizations to cancel events
at the nine hotels (LAANE moved its annual City of Justice
Awards Dinner from the Biltmore Hotel). It has also organized
a number of actions and press conferences highlighting the
strong support for hotel workers in ethnic and religious
communities around the city.
Read
press coverage of this campaign:
Boycott
Already Costly to Los Angeles Luxury Hotels
The Los Angeles Independent - December 8, 2004
Workers
Call for Boycott of L.A.-Area Hotels
Associated Press - November 12, 2004
Ground
Zero L.A.
City Beat & Valley Beat - September 23, 2004
For more information, go to www.SupportLAHotelworkers.com
________________________________________________________________
We
wish all of our supporters a joyous holiday season and a healthy
and happy new year.
- From all of us at the Los Angeles
Alliance for a New Economy
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