By Jennifer Medina

Feburary 1, 2012 -- CLAREMONT, Calif. — The dining hall workers had been at Pomona College for years, some even decades. For a few, it was the only job they had held since moving to the United States.

Then late last year, administrators at the college delivered letters to dozens of the longtime employees asking them to show proof of legal residency, saying that an internal review had turned up problems in their files.

Seventeen workers could not produce documents showing that they were legally able to work in the United States. So on Dec. 2, they lost their jobs.

January 23, 2012 -- Housekeepers’ union UNITE HERE has asked the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board to consider a new proposal to prevent disabling injuries in hotel room cleaners and save hotels money on workers compensation claims.

The proposed safety standard complements Senate Bill 432, a two-year bill that when introduced last year stirred considerable debate over why hotels too often fail to provide housekeepers with mops to clean floors and fitted sheets to make beds – basic tools nearly all Americans use in their homes.

By Abby Sewell

January 4, 2011 - Workers at the exclusive California Club in downtown Los Angeles who walked off the job to protest a proposed wage freeze in December announced they won a contract with modest increases in pay and benefits.

About 150 workers at the private business club waged a one-day strike Dec. 15 in protest of a proposed six-month wage freeze.