Times change

According to it's Labor Day op-ed, The Times admits it "has not been organized labor's best friend, nor has labor always been kind to The Times." But in recent years, animosity between labor and the paper has abated. Today, the Los Angeles Times regards organized labor respectfully.

And so, on this Labor Day, we revisit a tradition of excerpting editorials from these pages in order to reflect on this newspaper's long and sometimes troubled relationship with labor. We do so with acknowledgment that the past often has been heated, but with the hope that the future continues our cooling trend.

The Chandler era is gone now – and with it the Chandler's vitrolic anti-union bias that was for years reflected in The Times pages and LA civic life. Otis Chandler's hatred for unions fueled the anger of local labor activists who retaliated in 1910 with the tragic Times building blast that killed 20 Times employees.

A new era for The Times is taking shape and while there are many opportunities and challenges facing the new Tribune Company and the soon-to-be employee-owners, we hope the respect with which The Times regards organized labor will be extended to its own workforce should more Tribune employees exercise their rights and decide that being part of a union would be a good thing for them too. (end of post)