TITLE
Recommendation to request City Attorney to draft a resolution in support of HR 800 (Employee Free Choice Act).
DISCUSSION
The City of Long Beach 2010 Strategic Plan recognized the "Need for Economic Well Being" as one of the six Opportunities and Challenges for the City. The 2010 Plan states,
"While Long Beach suffered tremendous economic hits in the early part of the last decade, strong leadership and an aggressive economic development program have enabled us to rebound. Still, an above average poverty rate continues to affect our community. Partly, this is because the growth in employment has been disproportionately in lower paying jobs. In the future, economic growth needs to be measured not just in the number of new jobs, but also in the quality of those jobs. " (Page 5)
The growth in lower paying jobs, particularly in the service and hospitality sectors, is not strictly a Long Beach phenomenon.
· According the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation, the number of manufacturing jobs in Southern California has decreased from approximately 812,000 in 1990 to just over 462,000 in 2006.
· California's real median hourly wage fell by 2.7 percent between 2003 and 2006, and the share of the population under the age of 65 with employer provided health insurance fell from 60.1 percent in 1999-2000 to 55.4 percent in 2004-2005, while the number of people with employer-provided health insurance fell by 623,285.
· In 1983, 88 percent of workers in the nation with pension plans had a defined-benefit plan. By 2004, that share had dropped to 37 percent.
In response to these nationwide trends, the US House of Reps has passed HR 800 (Employee Free Choice Act). HR 800 is a bipartisan resolution that in part cites the need;
"To amend the National Labor Relations Act to establish an efficient system to enable employees to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to provide for mandatory injunctions for unfair labor practices during organizing effort...
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