An effort to reduce discrimination in the workplace draws a group of African-American, Latino and Asian workers to the State Capitol.
The bill from Democratic State Senator, Steven Bradford of Gardena, would direct the State Department of Fair Employment and Housing to study a possible plan to allow local governments to enforce anti-discrimination laws and then put that plan to work if it's feasible.
Photo by Ryan Harris, KFBK
Trina Traylor is a community organizer for the Los Angeles Black Worker Center, and she said she thought after earning a UCLA degree, disclosing a pair of minor criminal charges from two decades ago ahead of a background check and then taking a drug test meant she had landed a social worker job. "A few weeks went by and I got a letter in the mail saying I was unfit," claims Traylor. "My problem is the mistakes I made over 25 years ago shouldn't define me for the rest of my life."
A recent UCLA study shows that despite improvements in education in the black community in Los Angeles, black workers are in a job crisis with fewer higher-wage jobs available, higher unemployment rates and lower wages than white workers in similar jobs.