South Bay Pushing Back Against Big Labor

El Segundo, CA

From El Segundo to LA Harbor, Big Labor is taking bigger steps to keep power throughout the South Bay. Strangely, Big Labor does not want to play by the very rules which it pressed for, including the widespread push to force the minimum wage to $15 an hour. South Bay cities should welcome LA businesses now fleeing the higher costs and heavier regulations weighing on them. City councilmembers in Torrance have told me that their city will be bracing for more businesses to establish themselves in the Balanced City, as El Segundo has already enjoyed.

Private-sector unions are losing their grip on key industries, which have offered better wages and benefits to employees who do not organize. The public sector unions still pose a greater threat, as readers have seen in El Segundo, where peace officers associations are demanding that the city council pay over the city’s surplus to the employees.

One statement from the local press was particularly galling: “The . . .unions shelled out millions to keep the city afloat.” Excuse me? The money was never theirs to begin with, but belonged to the taxpayers. Still, this hegemony of forced membership and dues may be coming to an end, not just because of local activists pushing necessary reforms, like COIN ordinances, but also from local leaders like El Segundo Mayor Suzanne Fuentes, who are telling labor unions that they cannot keep taking in more money for pensions and benefits from hard-working yet heavily stressed taxpayers, homeowners, and small businesses.