The irony is too sweet to let slip by unnoticed.
Our city officials who posture as the great defenders of working men and women and their unions are negotiating a deal with 
AEG to build a downtown football stadium emblazoned with giant letters promoting a company notorious for cheating its workers.
FARMERS FIELD the signs will proclaim in all directions in letters that will almost certainly make Staples Center’s branding seem discreet.
The naming rights deal announced six months ago calls for Farmers Insurance to pay AEG $700 million over 20 years — enough to pay off the city’s debt on borrowing for the white elephant Convention Center. Except AEG gets to keep all $700 million and public gets to keep paying on the loans.
On Wednesday, Farmers agreed to pay $1.5 million to 3,500 workers at call centers in Florida, Kansas, Michigan, Oklahoma, Oregon and Texas.after the U.S. Department of Labor found the insurance company had engaged in “systemic violations of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act’s overtime and record-keeping provisions.”
Interestingly, only City News Service and the Beverly Hills Courier seem to have picked up on it.
It is hardly the first time the Los Angeles company has run afoul of labor laws.
Back in 2007, Farmers lost a federal appellate court case involving a lawsuit it filed against an insurance company that sold it coverage for “employment wrongful acts” but refused to pay off a claim caused by Farmers failure to pay overtime to its claims adjusters in Illinois.
The company’s anti-labor practices go back at least 40 years to a National Labor Relations Board ruling that upheld the right of the association of Farmers agents to have collective bargaining rights and other protections of federal labor law.
In fact, there is a whole website devoted to lawsuits and labor violations involving the company called Farmers Insurance Group Sucks.
You do have to wonder about City Hall’s values when it requires Project Labor Agreements in all construction contracts having anything to do with the city, when it does cartwheels to appease city unions no matter how much harm is caused the public, when it does its best to make life miserable for non-union employers.
But then service to AEG might be even more important to our city officials than loyalty to labor. It certainly seems true of the IBEW which parades its members before the City Council continuously to urge unquestioning support for approving the Farmers Field deal.
Oh please. Farmers is notorious for cheating its CUSTOMERS, too.
Ask those involved in the class action suit against Farmers related to the Station Fire.
At what point and time does the DIRT stop comming? I guess this is what is referred to as Leadership that our children must aspire to in order to be sucessful. From A to Z.
Jan Perry trying to hustle past AD HOC Committees, The NFL DEAL, rather the AEG Deal, so she can Proclaim on her resume: she brought an NFL to to L.A. because that is MORE IMPORTANT that protecting the Public’s Interest.
Setting Standards
“When Nuch ran for office, he said he would be the attorney for the people. When he got into office, he changed his mind. . . a virtual ’180′. As such, he has turned into ‘Rocky-II’, giving the City Council cover to protect both the political interests of the Council members and (as in this case) the special interests (AEG – with its vast array of lawyers, consultants, campaign contributions, free tickets, and otherwise)” A quote from Noel Weiss.
The City Attorney SHOULD be independent. He is elected, not appointed.
Now he has become a cheerleader for the crooks at City Hall. He is now a criminal defense attorney protecting them.
Look how he handled the Brown Act interpretation and goes beyond the call of duty to protect the Mayor and City Council.
They in turn are protecting developers interests.
And who is the City Attorney going after?
The little people – The working and middle class taxpayers and their code violations. And now he is trying to make it easier to fine them out of their homes while AEG and other rich developers are given the keys to the City.
@Anonymous on July 8, 2011 11:09 AM
All the more to agree with this article.
Oppose ACE.
“L.A. City Councilman Tom LaBonge, whose district includes Hancock Park, was out early as well, checking on things in the neighborhood before heading to City Hall. Trash crews picked up trash a day earlier than usual, he said, and city crews made sure to remove a big tree branch that had fallen into the street on Wednesday.
LaBonge said the royal visit was a good opportunity to show off what Los Angeles has to offer.
“This is a great neighborhood and a great city — to have Will and Kate here, it’s a great honor,” he said.
“They show off our wonderful city and hopefully people will want to come visit,” he said”.
These are the idiots that run the city. Good luck in getting resolution on AEG. If they could, these fawning idiots would get monarchy back. Not a bad idea if these fools are what we get from democracy.
SEE, GOES TO SHOW YOU WHAT I’VE KNOW SINCE THE END OF THE FIRST WEEK OF JULY 2009—CARMEN TRUTANICH IS A ONE TERM POLITICIAN!
Farmers Insurance decided not to insure my grandma’s house last year and we had to look for another company to insure us. We found someone better, but it’s not like this was a high risk area or that the house was in a disrepair. Did it need work? Yes, but they didn’t even give us a chance to fix whatever they were critical of. Oh well, their loss is a better company’s gain.
My apologies Wayne of Encino, that I campaigned for “Nuch.”
La Bonge only shows good customer skills towards his big campaign donors.
And sure, La Bonge has trash pick-up a day early, which gives a false appearance of our city. And to the rest of us, he could care less that we have to put-up with illegal dumping, illegal posting of signs, illegal street vendors, and the disgusting graffiti that’s plastered through-out our city, each and everyday of our lives. Utterly, disgusting !
Yeah, council members; parade the Royal couple through parts of council districts managed by Ed Reyes, Tony Cardenas, the indicted Rick Alarcon, and Jose Huizar. Let them meet the residents of high crime areas, so they can hear first hand from these residents’ their plea for additional police to protect their gang-controlled neighborhoods.
Instead of sitting and complaining on here we need to all get the word out on this corruption. Many of us throughout the city who are active read and hear the stories over and over of how the morons on council are the most corrupt this city has seen. Send this story to all your email groups, send it to the newspapers and post it on the websites of tv news. We need to demand the media stop being bias and protecting the corrupt politicians in this city. They need to start reporting the NEWS or we start to boycott them as years ago and they lost a lot of subscriptions and viewers.
Nothing like solidarity among the workingmen.
And a shining example of the fourth estate – well done, Beverly Hills Courier and City News!
Ron is an alarmist. There’s no deal for the stadium yet and it’s a far ways away, if it happens at all.
AEG said they wouldn’t close the deal until they have a team and right now the NFL is having major labor troubles.
Tim Lie-weekly said he was giving it until end of the month, then he’s pulling the plug. I doubt these bunch of clowns can close a deal in three weeks. They can’t even figure out the Red Light Camera situation.
I hope you are right. If LA fumbles, then the city of Grand Crossing can proceed with its plan for a stadium there. Grand Crossing will have more parking, and is a better community than downtown LA. No ranchereeto music blasting out of old pick up trucks distracting from the game. A great place for family and a stadium deal approved with total transparency.
Re: David Barron:
NO NEED TO APOLOGIZE FOR SUPPORTING GAGA NUCH-TANICH—HE really suckered the Valley with his fake campaign and boy he sure as hell had some helpers! Cooley I think lost the A.G’s race over the failure that is Carmen Trutanich, as Cooley led his name and rep to the guy. L.A. County sure rebuked Cooley last year and that totally cost him that race.
Now we have Dennis Zine “firing” the Republican Party THEN announcing his run for Controller, showing once again how the “R” brand is so tattered! The voters, city wide however will rebuke poor dumb dumb Dennis as a “republican sellout” vs. a “republican.” They’ll see through this scam reregistration.
Janis “chicken” Hahn should run for Controller—she’d actually breeze through on that office.
Why? First she’ll lose to Huey come Tues, or after redistricting will face a certain loss in 2012 even if enough Stoners in Venice come to her rescue! Second, she can’t do math and can barely put together a coherent sentence, this for a meaningless office no one takes seriously.
Dennis will run on what qualification? TRAFFIC COP AND THEN WHAT? HA HA HA HA!!
PREDICTION: ZINE VS. HAHN FOR CONTROLLER 2013 RUNOFF!!!!!!! BATTLE OF THE TERMED OUT! Wonder who AEG would annoint, err, support?