ABSTRACT
The Los Angeles City and County governments are among the largest public jurisdictions in the United States. Established in 1850, the County has within its boundaries 78 incorporated cities, including the City of Los Angeles, and more than 7,000,000 residents. The nation’s third largest municipality with roughly 2.8 million residents, the City of Los Angeles was founded in 1781 and operates under a mayor-council form of government. The statutory framework for labor relations in California public jurisdictions principally is contained in the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act passed in late 1968 by the state legislature as an amendment to the 1961 Brown Act. Between 1950 and 1966, informal systems of labor relations existed in both the City and County of Los Angeles. No local statutes guided these relationships and none was required under state or federal law. In both governments, employees were free to join or form labor organizations that were recognized by managers and officials.
