LA City attorney to CMs: Stop favoring union workers
Who would've thought that councilmembers' brassy lopsided advocacy for unionized labor workers might be a major city liability? The LA Times analyzes a recent memo from the City of Los Angeles' attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto, which implores CMs to stay out of union strikes. Perhaps concern over these legal entanglements explain SJ CMs Ortiz' and Torres' bizarre July 25 presser, in which they squawked at the idea that conflating their personal politics with the City's was false, misleading, and unethical.
In recent months, an array of federal, state and local politicians — including several members of the City Council — have walked picket lines or offered support not just to Unite Here Local 11, the hotel workers union, but also TV and film writers marching outside studios and school workers demonstrating outside Los Angeles Unified campuses.
Yet in recent weeks, lawyers with Los Angeles City Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto’s office have begun quietly advising the city’s elected officials to refrain from getting involved in labor disputes, saying such activities could result in legal action against the city.
In a confidential July 3 memo, a copy of which was reviewed by The Times, Feldstein Soto’s team warned elected leaders that if they show up on picket lines or rally with demonstrators, they might have to recuse themselves from voting on a related issue in the future....
In the memo, the city attorney’s legal team said it provided its advice in response to inquiries from elected officials about picketing in support of Unite Here. The lawyers acknowledged that those officials, in their capacity as individuals, still retain their “constitutional rights of speech and assembly and are free to exercise those rights in peaceful union protests.”
The lawyers suggested that council members who appear at protests over contract disputes make clear that they are speaking in their own capacity, not as elected officials, to avoid raising concerns about “bias and impartiality.” They also suggested that city elected officials who appear on picket lines do so as a legal observer, not a participant, and avoid wearing clothing with the city seal.
Lawyers for Feldstein Soto said much of their concern is based on a federal law barring the city from using “economic pressure or regulatory powers” to interfere in union disputes. They cite Golden State Transit Corp. vs. City of Los Angeles, a sprawling case that twice reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which stemmed from actions taken by the council during a labor dispute more than 40 years ago.
The saga began in 1981, when the council intervened on behalf of a Teamsters chapter on strike against Yellow Cab Co., then the city’s largest taxi company. At the behest of the Teamsters, the city voted to block the renewal of Yellow Cab’s franchise because of the dispute.
The taxi company subsequently went out of business, and Golden State Transit Corp., Yellow Cab’s parent company, sued the city.
The Supreme Court found in the company’s favor twice, concluding that the city had improperly interfered in a labor dispute, and later ruling that the city was liable for damages.
This article originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times. Read the whole thing here.
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