Friends,

The last three years have thrown us into crisis after crisis, forcing us to fight for safety at our workplaces, for the right to stay in our homes, and in the most dire cases, for our lives. While the Covid-19 crisis isn’t over yet, it is imperative that we refocus on our long-term vision for a new economy in Los Angeles. It’s with both eyes toward that vision that we celebrate the amazing results won this year by LAANE, our partners, and our movement.

This year, our multiracial, worker-led coalitions won a Fair Workweek ordinance for Los Angeles retail workers, kept LADWP from shutting off utilities to those already hit hard by rising costs, and helped develop UTLA’s Beyond Recovery Platform, which offers one of the most comprehensive visions in the country for how to transform public education. 

LAANE’s grassroots, community, environment, and labor-focused agenda is popular, strong, and necessary. We will continue to push our allies and ourselves to be ever more ambitious—to help realize the hopes and dreams of every Angeleno. 

When we fight, we win.

In Solidarity,

Roxana Tynan

LAANE Executive Director

On the week of Thanksgiving, just days before Black Friday, the Los Angeles City Council unanimously passed the Fair Workweek ordinance, a hard-fought, historic victory that will impact 70,000 retail and grocery workers citywide. This hard-fought, historic victory will impact 70,000 retail and grocery workers citywide. The ordinance, which was introduced in 2019 by Councilmember Curren D. Price Jr., guarantees that workers will be able to see their schedules at least two weeks in advance, be compensated for canceled or on-call shifts, and have the right to decline extra hours added on short notice, among other protections. It will take effect in April 2023. 

The RePower LA Coalition passed a motion to stop utility shut-offs for low-income ratepayers enrolled in low-income programs at LADWP. This policy will protect Black and brown communities from getting their power and water cut off. RePower LA’s outreach specialist also visited 2,235 residential homes and businesses to enroll LADWP customers into Shared Solar and other LADWP programs. The impact of our efforts to date translates to 1,836,818 kWh of savings, which is equivalent to removing one year's worth of greenhouse gas emissions from 171 gasoline-powered passenger vehicles. We’ve also made progress toward making sure new and existing buildings emit fewer greenhouse gasses by advocating for a decarbonized Los Angeles. RePower LA will continue to work alongside the Water Justice LA coalition to make our buildings greener and more equitable for all.

LAANE’s Water Justice LA team worked with their coalition partners to win more money for utility debt relief and drought resilience. We helped win close to $2 billion statewide for drought resilience and clean drinking water projects, as well as another $1.2 billion to continue the fight against utility debt. We also supported the adoption of a construction careers project labor agreement that protects thousands of construction jobs with labor standards at the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the largest water entity in the state.

Reclaim Our Schools L.A., a coalition led by ACCE, Students Deserve, LAANE, and UTLA, organized trainings, town halls, rallies, and direct actions that built power and leadership among parents, students, educators, and community leaders. After winning a commitment last year from LAUSD to expand the number of community schools from 30 to 70, we helped LAUSD win $44 million in community schools funding from the state. With the leadership of Students Deserve, Reclaim Our Schools L.A. played a key role in winning the establishment of the Black Student Achievement Program, the implementation of the previously enacted $25 million cut to school police. Finally, in partnership with UTLA, we developed the Beyond Recovery Platform, which offers one of the most comprehensive visions in the country for how to transform public education.

LAANE’s Long Beach Coalition, in partnership with the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, passed permanent Worker Retention and Recall ordinances for hospitality and janitorial workers. Long Beach was the first city in the nation to make these ordinances permanent and ensure protections and stability for frontline workers. Alongside labor and community partner LBIRC, we pushed the Long Beach City Council to allocate $1.1 million towards the expansion of the Long Beach Justice Fund to provide free, comprehensive immigration support to residents facing deportation and other judgements, regardless background. We also increased our civic engagement efforts, by conducting our first in-person Long Beach Rising Leadership Training since 2019 cultivating a strong resident voter engagement program for this year’s Long Beach elections, and mobilize 226 community leaders into collective action during policy hearings, community briefings and power-building events. We also completed our Digital Infrastructure and Capacity project, a year-long pilot program that provided training for partner organizations to scale up their digital organizing and base-building  capacity.

LAANE continued to support port drivers in winning back their employee rights. In a huge milestone, drivers at a major trucking company–STG/XPO Logistics–won their right to a union election despite their employers’ claims they were independent contractors who didn’t have the right to unionize. Drivers at another major hauler, ULH, won a historic settlement, reclassifying drivers at one of the largest trucking operations at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, while workers who were terminated after unionizing in 2019 finally won their jobs back and won a union contract with Teamsters Local 848.  

LAANE also worked alongside our partners to advocate for a strong Advanced Clean Fleet (ACF) rule that will ensure that misclassified drivers don't bear the cost of transitioning California’s trucks to zero emissions.

A coalition of West Covina residents, environmental justice groups, LAANE, and the Teamsters settled a lawsuit regarding the proposed Amazon last-mile parcel delivery operation that the West Covina City Council approved in opposition to community demands. After surveying and engaging over 400 residents, the coalition was able to reach an agreement with the developer to undertake additional measures to address the coalition's zoning and environmental concerns. Instead of undergoing an environmental impacts analysis, Amazon backed away from the project. Fights like this one hold cities and developers accountable to working with impacted residents and community organizations to build a sustainable and resilient supply chain in California.

This month’s City of Justice Awards highlighted the leadership of local and national progressive leaders including SEIU 2015 President and SEIU Secretary-Treasurer April Verrett, Bad Robot’s President of Television Rachel Rusch Rich, civil rights champions Hadsell Stormer Renick & Dai, and UFCW 770’s Immediate Past President John Grant. At May’s Women for a New Los Angeles Luncheon, honorees UTLA and Cynthia McClain-Hill, President of the Board of Water and Power Commissioners, both underscored the importance of collective action and women leaders in building a city that works for all. Thanks to their support, and the generous support of our Advisory Board and donors, we raised over $1 million in private funds in 2022 to directly fund our work! 

If you would like to make a year-end tax-deductible donation to LAANE, you can support us here.

LAANE is a leading advocacy organization dedicated to building a new economy for all. Combining dynamic research, innovative public policy and organizing of broad alliances, LAANE promotes a new economic approach based on good jobs, thriving communities, and a healthy environment.

LAANE
464 Lucas Ave Suite 202
Los Angeles, CA 90017
United States

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