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☆ ‘Winners and Losers’ as $20 Fast-Food Wage Nears in California
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-28 | by ( Kurtis Lee | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A decade ago, Jamie Bynum poured his life savings into a barbecue restaurant now tucked between a Thai eatery and a nutrition store in a Southern California strip mall. The staffing, he said, has become harder in recent years, as the state’s minimum wage has steadily increased since 2017, often rising by a dollar per year. Today, it’s $16 an hour. But on Monday, it will jump to $20 an hour for most fast-food workers in California, propelling them to the top of what minimum-wage earners make anywhere in the country. (Only Tukwila, Wash., a small city outside Seattle, sets the bar higher, with a minimum wage of $20.29 for many employees.)

Persons: Jamie Bynum, Bynum Locations: Thai, Southern California, California, Seattle

☆ Unemployment Casts a Shadow Over California’s Economy
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-01 | by ( Kurtis Lee | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

For decades, California’s behemoth economy has outpaced those of most nations, holding an outsize role in shaping global trends in tech, entertainment and agriculture. While that reputation remains, the state has a less enviable distinction: one of the nation’s highest unemployment rates. Nationwide, the rate is 3.7 percent, and in January, the country added 353,000 jobs. California’s job growth has been slower than the nationwide average over the last year, and the unemployment rate remains stubbornly high — 5.1 percent in the latest data, a percentage point higher than a year earlier and outpaced only by Nevada’s 5.4 percent. With layoffs in the tech-centered Bay Area, a slow rebound in Southern California from prolonged strikes in the entertainment industry and varying demand for agricultural workers, California is facing economic headwinds in the new year.

Organizations: Nationwide Locations: Southern California, California

☆ ‘My Everything — Gone in a Matter of Moments’
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-07 | by ( Kurtis Lee | Brendan George Ko | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Twisted and charred aluminum mixed with shards of glass still lines the floor of the industrial warehouse where Victoria Martocci once operated her scuba diving business. After a wildfire tore through West Maui, all that remained of her 36-foot boat, the Extended Horizons II, were a pair of engines. “What will this island look like?” Ms. Martocci asked. Rebuilding the town, according to some estimates, will cost more than $5 billion and take several years. And tense divisions still remain over whether Lahaina, whose economy long relied almost entirely on tourism, should consider a new way forward.

Persons: Victoria Martocci, Martocci, Erik Stein, “ Locations: Victoria, West Maui, Lahaina

☆ How the Memphis Sanitation Workers’ Strike Changed the Labor Movement
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-23 | by ( Kurtis Lee | More About Kurtis Lee | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Jack Walker is a union man. He drives a garbage truck in Memphis, where his route can take him barreling past shotgun-style houses along the Mississippi River and down the narrow alleyways near the Lorraine Motel, where the Rev. Robert Walker, Mr. Walker’s father, was also a sanitation worker. The tragedy was a culmination of slow-burning indignities for Black sanitation workers in Memphis. Roughly 1,300 sanitation workers began marching through the streets of Memphis.

Persons: Jack Walker, Martin Luther King Jr, King’s, Robert Walker, Walker’s, Echol Cole, Robert Walker’s, Jack, wouldn’t Organizations: The New York Times Locations: Memphis, Mississippi

☆ After Averting a Hotel Strike, Las Vegas Still Has a Lot of Work to Do
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-10 | by ( Kurtis Lee | More About Kurtis Lee | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The final agreement, with Wynn Resorts, came early on Friday, a few hours before the strike deadline. The deal, when ratified, would provide “outstanding benefits and overall compensation to our employees,” Wynn said in a statement. A strike loomed as a major disruption to a series of big events, starting with the Las Vegas Grand Prix, a Formula 1 auto race along The Strip that is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of visitors late next week. Along with the Formula 1 race, Las Vegas is the site of the National Finals Rodeo in December and the Super Bowl in February. Bill Hornbuckle, the chief executive of MGM, said in a Wednesday earnings call that his company had sold more than 10,000 tickets to the Grand Prix and expected to bring in $60 million in extra hotel revenue in the days ahead.

Persons: ” Wynn, Bill Hornbuckle Organizations: Wynn Resorts, Las Vegas, Vegas, —, Bowl, MGM, Prix Locations: Nevada, Vegas

☆ Las Vegas Unions and Caesars Reach Tentative Agreement as Strike Looms
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-08 | by ( Kurtis Lee | More About Kurtis Lee | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Unions representing hospitality workers in Las Vegas reached a tentative agreement on Wednesday with one of the city’s three major resort operators, two days before a strike deadline that loomed just as tourists arrive for a major international sporting event. The Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and Bartenders Union Local 165, which are affiliates of Unite Here, announced the tentative agreement on a five-year contract with Caesars Entertainment but did not provide details. The culinary union said the deal had been reached after 20 straight hours of negotiations and covered 10,000 workers. Caesars said in a statement that the accord would provide “meaningful wage increases that align with our past performance, along with continued opportunities for growth tied to our future plans to bring more union jobs to the Las Vegas Strip.”The two unions last week said that 35,000 members would walk off the job on Friday at 18 hotels along The Strip owned by Caesars, MGM Resorts International and Wynn Resorts, posing a major threat to the city’s economy.

Organizations: Culinary Workers Union Local, Bartenders Union, Caesars Entertainment, Caesars, Las, MGM Resorts International, Wynn Resorts Locations: Las Vegas

☆ West Coast Dockworkers Ratify Contract
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-01 | by ( Kurtis Lee | More About Kurtis Lee | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Dockworkers at ports along the West Coast have ratified a new contract, securing a sweeping agreement set to last six years and expected to ease tensions after cargo shipments were diverted to other regions. The contract between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association, which operates the terminals, covers 22,000 dockworkers at 29 ports from Los Angeles to Seattle. The contract was approved by 75 percent of members who voted, the union said late Thursday. The maritime association did not respond to a request for comment. The two sides announced in June that they had reached a tentative agreement after a year of negotiations that prompted intervention from the Biden administration and coincided with a decline in the volume of cargo at several major ports along the West Coast.

Persons: Biden Organizations: Warehouse Union, Pacific Maritime Association Locations: West, Los Angeles, Seattle, West Coast

☆ The Recovery Left Nevada Behind. Can the State Change Its Luck?
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-04 | by ( Kurtis Lee | More About Kurtis Lee | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Pedro Alvarez never imagined his high school job delivering filet mignon and sautéed lobster tail to rooms at the Tropicana Las Vegas would turn into a longtime career. “Movie stars and thousands of dollars in tips,” Mr. Alvarez, 53, said. “If it was up to me, I was never going to leave.”Yet when the Strip shut down for more than two months early in the coronavirus pandemic, Mr. Alvarez became one of tens of thousands of hospitality workers in Nevada to lose their jobs. After the hotel reopened, managers told him that they were discontinuing room service, at least for a while. Since then, he has bounced between jobs, working in concessions and banquets.

Persons: Pedro Alvarez, filet mignon, Mr, Alvarez Organizations: Tropicana Locations: Vegas, Nevada

☆ Los Angeles Hotel Workers Go on Strike
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-02 | by ( Jill Cowan | Kurtis Lee | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Dockworkers disrupted operations for weeks at the colossal ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach until they reached a tentative deal in June. “I think people are understanding those issues in a much more palpable way.”The hotel workers’ strike comes just as the summer tourism season ramps up, and labor leaders say they are hoping to capitalize on that momentum. Last year, tourism in the city reached its highest levels since the coronavirus pandemic, according to the Los Angeles Tourism and Convention Board. But for many workers like Diana Rios-Sanchez, who works as a housekeeping supervisor at the InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown, the pay has not helped to keep up with inflation. On Thursday, the Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites, a large hotel in downtown Los Angeles, announced that it had staved off a walkout of its workers with a contract deal.

Persons: Hugo Soto, Martinez, ”, “, Diana Rios, Sanchez, Ms, Rios, Grossman, Petersen, Anna Betts Organizations: Workers, Los Angeles City Council, Los Angeles Tourism, InterContinental, Downtown, housekeepers, Westin Bonaventure Hotel, Hotel Association of Los Locations: Southern California, Los Angeles, Long, Hollywood, InterContinental Los, El Sereno, California, Beverly Hills, Hotel Association of Los Angeles

At the behemoth ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, operations were disrupted for weeks until West Coast dockworkers reached a tentative contract deal in mid-June. Across the city, schools shut down for three days this spring when bus drivers, cafeteria workers and teachers walked out. Now, the union representing some 15,000 hotel workers in Los Angeles is threatening to strike this Fourth of July weekend, just as the summer tourism season ramps up. And more than 160,000 actors are poised to shut down Hollywood productions if they cannot reach a new contract deal later this month. “We’re calling it the ‘hot labor summer,’” said Lorena Gonzalez, the chief officer of the California Labor Federation, which represents more than 2.1 million union members statewide.

Persons: dockworkers, ’ ”, Lorena Gonzalez, we’re Organizations: West, Unions, California Labor Federation Locations: Southern California, America, Los Angeles, Long, California

☆ Oregon Town’s Marijuana Boom Yields Envy in Idaho
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-15 | by ( Kurtis Lee | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

For John Leeds, the hour-and-a-half commute to and from his job as assistant manager at Treasure Valley Cannabis Company is exhausting, but logistically unavoidable. Like nearly half of the other employees, Mr. Leeds, 39, lives in Idaho and travels along Interstate 84, past sprawling alfalfa and onion fields, to the marijuana shop just across the Oregon state line, where cannabis is legal. “It’s really two different worlds,” Mr. Leeds said. “A lot of whiplash on this issue just in a car ride up and down the highway.”Every day, hundreds of customers and workers like Mr. Leeds make the pilgrimage from Idaho to Ontario, Ore., a small city nestled along the Snake River that is home to 11 dispensaries — roughly one for every 1,000 residents. They can compare the aromas of various strains of marijuana and gather the staff’s insights on THC levels in edibles.

Persons: John Leeds, “ It’s, Mr, Leeds Organizations: Treasure Valley Cannabis, Leeds, — Locations: Treasure, Leeds, Idaho, Oregon, ”, Ontario, edibles

☆ West Coast Dockworkers Reach Contract Deal With Port Operators
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-14 | by ( Kurtis Lee | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

After a year of contract negotiations that resulted in numerous delays and a decline in the movement of cargo at ports along the West Coast, union dockworkers and port operators have reached a tentative deal set to last for six years. In a joint statement released late Wednesday, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association announced a tentative agreement on a new contract that covers 22,000 workers at 29 ports from San Diego to Seattle, some of the busiest in the world. Details about the agreement, which is expected to be formally ratified by both sides, were not immediately released. President Biden, who stepped in last year to urge a swift resolution, released a statement congratulating both parties for reaching an agreement “after a long and sometimes acrimonious negotiation.”

Persons: Biden, ” Organizations: Warehouse Union, Pacific Maritime Association Locations: West Coast, San Diego, Seattle

Al Sharpton was among those who helped put the issue of reparations on the Democratic political agenda during the party’s 2020 primary. “I think once we get the mainstream America to say — whether they said reluctantly, belatedly or whatever — ‘Yes, we owe,’ then you can have a better discussion on how we pay,” Mr. Sharpton said. The Supreme Court is expected to ban race-conscious college admissions in a decision this spring. The legal argument from conservative critics of reparations is that government payments based on race violate the equal protection clause of the Constitution. Some legal scholars have said that using direct lineage has a better chance of withstanding court challenges.

☆ Inside the Life of Influencer Barbers
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-20 | by ( Kurtis Lee | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

I slide into a cushy leather chair in this bustling shop next to a small flooring business. The hum of clippers echoes throughout the room. A framed photo of former President Barack Obama hangs on a wall, and the TV is tuned to highlights from a recent Golden State Warriors basketball game. But the volume is turned down low, and instead I hear snippets of conversations — quick descriptions of desired cuts, followed by comfortable banter about politics (Donald Trump running for president — again!) career scoring record) and life (a 20-something moving in with his girlfriend).

☆ California Panel Calls for Billions in Reparations for Black Residents
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-06 | by ( Kurtis Lee | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The task force’s final report, which is to be sent to lawmakers in Sacramento before a July 1 deadline, includes projected restitution estimates calculated by several economists working with the task force. One such estimate laid out in the report determined that to address the harms from redlining by banks, which disqualified people in Black neighborhoods from taking out mortgages and owning homes, eligible Black Californians should receive up to $148,099. To address the impact of overpolicing and mass incarceration, the report estimates, each eligible person would receive $115,260, or about $2,352 for each year of residency in California from 1971 to 2020, during the decades-long war on drugs. All of these estimates, the report notes, are preliminary and would require additional research from lawmakers to hash out specifics. The costs to the state were not outlined in the report, but totals from harms associated with housing and mass incarceration could exceed $500 billion, based on estimates from economists.

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