Foundation Awards $70,000 to Local Pro-Union Groups

By Jorge Casuso

August 24 -- Two groups at the center of Santa Monica's pro-labor movement have received a total of $70,000 from a liberal Los Angeles philanthropic organization to champion the rights of workers and to help pass the City's unprecedented Living Wage law on the November ballot.

The Liberty Hill Foundation announced Friday that it has given $35,000 each to Santa Monicans Allied for Responsible Tourism (SMART) and Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE).

The grant to SMART will be used "to organize for defense and implementation of the new living wage law and to create a climate in the city friendly to those who clean its hotel rooms and bus its restaurant tables."

CLUE was given the grant "to help low-wage workers improve their work conditions, assist other faith-based organizations in developing programs, expand the active membership base, and educate people of faith about how to become involved in the community."

SMART has been at the center of a three-year local effort to pass the nation's first municipal wage law that covers businesses with no direct financial ties to the city. The group recently garnered local headlines when it endorsed Councilman Kevin McKeown and Abby Arnold for City Council but failed to give the nod to incumbent Pam O'Connor.

Its successful effort to win Arnold the endorsement of Santa Monicans for Renters' Rights earlier this month drove a wedge through the leadership of the powerful tenants group, with several SMRR council members calling SMART disrespectful and accusing the group of mounting a "hostile takeover."

SMART is expected to mount a formidable door-to-door campaign to elect its slate and pass the living wage referendum, which requires businesses in the Coastal Zone that gross more than $5 million a year to pay workers $10.50 an hour if benefits are included.

According the Liberty Hill, SMART "organizes community members and low-wage workers in the tourist-rich City of Santa Monica to increase living wages and benefits for tourism workers. They have successfully combated a local hotel's 'union busting' strategy and have won a groundbreaking living wage law in the city."

CLUE has staged several recent demonstrations in support of a unionizing campaign at the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel. Earlier this month the group held a vigil in front of the oceanfront hotel to protest alleged disciplinary actions against workers who support a union and the Living Wage. The group's written demand that Loews general manager John Thacker show up went unheeded and the hotel has denied the allegations.

According to Liberty Hill, CLUE "brings together clergy and laity from all faiths to increase support for services for homeless people, amnesty for undocumented immigrants and the extension of health care benefits to the uninsured."

SMART and CLUE are among the 17 grassroots groups working on problems faced by the county's working poor families that received a total of $578,000 from Liberty Hill, which is considered L.A.'s leading social change foundation.

Since 1976, Liberty Hill has given away more than $14 million to grassroots community organizations in Los Angeles County.