Another failed search for the remains of Jimmy Hoffa

The FBI closed the book on yet another chapter of the posthumous search for the former Teamsters head Hoffa Wednesday, ending its excavation efforts in a rural field near Detroit.

Hoffa has been missing since July 30, 1975, and according to the FBI, spent his last recorded day meeting with organized crime members during lunch. He was said to be mulling a return to the Teamsters, the union that he had turned into a prominent labor force only to be ousted in 1964 for jury tampering.

This isn’t the first time authorities have recently thought the longstanding mystery had been solved. Earlier excavations included digging up a Detroit driveway, a backyard swimming pool and a horse farm.

Read more over at Nation Now.

Photos: Jeff Kowalsky /EPA, Associated Press

Los Angeles circa 1946: Scenes from strikes past

A U.S. Motors plant on E. Slauson Ave. played host to a clash between strikers and police way back in January 1946.

From the Times’ front-page story on the strikes:

In a wild melee of trailing fists, the boom of exploding tear-gas and the clang of steel helmets, police yesterday broke up a riot by 500 striking C.I.O. electrical workers at the U.S. Motors plant, 200 E. Slauson Ave., and arrested 25 persons on charges of rioting.

The strike, which lasted for 124 days, was eventually quelled when workers were given an 18-cent-per-hour raise.

Read more on the strikes over at Framework.

Photos: Paul Calvert / Los Angeles Times

Global May Day demonstrations

Today’s May 1, a date traditionally assigned for workers-rights groups and proponents to gather and march for their cause. Whether it be improved working conditions and wages in Asia or protesting austerity measures in Europe, demonstrators are making their grievances heard today across the world.

And that, of course, includes Los Angeles.

Photos: Mario Tama, Aris Messinis, Jalin Jalin, Josep Lago, Martin Bernett / AFP/Getty Images, Sebastiao Moreira / EPA, Luis Hidalgo / Associated Press

Artist pays homage to L.A.’s unseen workers: Ramiro Gomez’s cardboard cutouts of nannies, gardeners, valets and housekeepers have appeared, in silent tribute, around the wealthy districts of the city.

Most pieces last a day or two if Gomez is lucky. Once, a valet parker he planted outside a lot near the Sunset Strip made it four days.

Gomez writes his contact information on the back of each piece so people can tell him where the art ended up. So far, no one has reached out.

At first it was tough to let go. He’d stand by for a while to see people’s reactions, then take the cutout down and lug it back home.

But then Gomez realized it was not his place to keep public art out of view.

So he learned to walk away.

Photo: Ramiro Gomez attaches his painting of a nanny against a cyclone fence in West Hollywood Park. Credit: Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times

Pomona College protest’s party atmosphere belies strife: Campus quarrels over a unionization effort and firing of 17 workers over incomplete documents prompted the protest/celebration. But the issues remain unresolved.

Photo: Juan Gonzalez, who was fired from his job at Pomona College, joins a protest march on campus in advance of a Cesar Chavez commemoration. Credit: Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times

Op-Ed: Public unions: What’s the big deal? For decades, collective bargaining for government workers wasn’t controversial.

Photo: Jorge Cabrera, a graduate student at UC Santa Barbara and vice president of Uniting Academic Workers, rallies students and union members at UCLA to show support for government workers in Wisconsin trying to retain their collective. Credit: Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times

Carwash workers celebrate union contract: Employees of the Santa Monica business get a 2% raise and other guarantees, concluding a two-year battle that included labor organizers and support by local clergy.

The agreement comes as labor groups and law enforcement have tried to crack down on carwashes, which authorities allege violate basic labor and immigration laws with little risk of penalty because their workforce is largely undocumented and afraid to speak out.

Photo: Workers soap up a car at Bonus Car Wash in Santa Monica. Oliverio Gomez said, “What I hope is that future generations who come to work here aren’t treated as badly as we were; that they’re no longer humiliated, but respected.” Credit: Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times

Michigan town shows promise and pitfalls of job retraining: After Greenville’s refrigerator factory closed, hundreds of workers went back to school, many pinning hopes on a new solar panel plant. About 55% found jobs.

Photo: Debbie Campbell, who worked at the now-closed Electrolux factory in Greenville, Mich., went back to school and now works in the town’s new solar panel plant. Credit: Craig Watson / For The Chicago Tribune

Every working American should be dismayed by — and afraid of — what BMW is doing.

These employees exemplified the best qualities of the American worker. They devoted their working lives to BMW, at a time when it was building and solidifying its U.S. beachhead. Their wages, with benefits, paid for a reasonable middle-class lifestyle if they managed it carefully. Throw in the job security they were encouraged to expect, and they had the confidence to make sacrifices and investments that contributed to the economy for the long term, like college education for the kids, an addition on the house, a new baby. Then one day they were handed a mass pink slip, effective in a matter of weeks.

reblogged via washingtonpoststyle:

“It’s ironic that Ikea looks on the U.S. and Danville the way that most people in the U.S. look at Mexico.”

— In Sweden, IKEA factory workers start at $19 an hour with five weeks of paid vacation. At the company’s only American plant, workers get $8 an hour and 12 vacation days — eight of which are chosen by the corporation. via the L.A. Times.

test reblogged from washingtonpoststyle

In Wisconsin and other states, labor movements are on the defensive. In Los Angeles, unions have gone on the offensive to help create jobs at decent pay, says Harold Meyerson, editor at large of the American Prospect and a columnist for the Washington Post.