Prosper LA Launch

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The Prosper LA Launch has raised the hopes of many union workers across the city.

8 groups ranging from LA airport workers, to home healthcare workers, to the port trucking industry banded together to form this coalition to show they can change LA's economy and the environment.

Los Angeles Airports Representative Alejandra Valles says the workers, not the employers, are the people that can make a difference.

"A lot of these employers are fighting workers, trying to make them feel like they are lucky to have a job and therefore they should tolerate unsafe working conditions and that's not what's happening here. We're in this problem in our economy because of the top 1 percent, not because of the 99 percent."

Members of Prosper LA contend many of their jobs also have unsafe working conditions.

According to the Don't Waste LA Campaign, In 2008 waste and recycling haulers had a higher on-the-job fatality rate than firefighters and police officers.

It's the mission of Prosper LA to raise the pay of the workers it thinks deserve it.

By doing so, the coalition asserts workers will be more efficient, leading to higher levels of productivity.

As Roxan Tynan, Director of the LA Alliance for a New Economy says...

"Money is like manure, you've got to spread it around to make things grow."

Prosper LA plans to continue raising awareness of their economic plan and strive to make Los Angeles a more sustainable city.