Living Wage Lawsuit Coming

Within 72 hours of Mayor Villaraigosa signing the living wage bill, we should see a law suit filed by business interests seeking to repeal it. Despite clear public support for the initiative and after having received millions in governmental assistance, the hotels are determined fight paying their workers a living wage.

Councilwoman Janice Hahn, the driving force behind the effort, said she believes the council acted fairly on behalf of the 3,500 workers in the Century Corridor.

"We rescinded the earlier ordinance to comply with what the business community wanted," Hahn said. "We made significant changes in the ordinance to accommodate that.

"To be honest, I feel like (the business community) betrayed us by threatening us with legal action."

The measure also calls for studies into a possible conference center and business-tax reductions for the area, as well as various studies on the impact of the living wage.

The City Council negotiated in good faith with the business community, only to have them back out and then threaten this law suit. Their reasoning is interesting and by interesting I mean full of crap.

"I think within 72 hours of the mayor signing it, you will see a legal challenge," said Harvey Englander, spokesman for the Century Corridor hotels affected by the measure.

"I think everyone realizes that litigation is the next step. It's unfortunate that it has come to this, but the council is basically ignoring what 103,000 residents said they didn't want to see."

The 103,000 residents remark is a reference to the people who the got to sign their petition. They paid petition gatherers to collect enough signatures to try and get on the ballot, which brought about the negotiations.

If the business community really wanted to see what Angelenos think of a living wage for the LAX hotel workers, they would bring it to the ballot. But their polling and ours shows overwhelming support for the ordinance the City Council just sent to the Mayor's desk. A lawsuit is not the way to gage public support. It is an attempt to continue paying poverty wages.