Hard Lead:
LOS ANGELES — More than 500 carwashes here employ thousands of workers to soap and scrub millions of vehicles. On Tuesday, the city attorney accused the industry of systemic labor violations and charged three men with 176 counts of worker abuse at four family-owned carwashes.
“A group of unscrupulous owners and a managers have created a work environment that borders on indentured servitude,” the city attorney, Rocky Delgadillo, said. “That is unacceptable and will not be tolerated in Los Angeles.”
The complaint, filed in Superior Court, charges two brothers, Benny and Nissan Pirian, who own the four carwashes in the city and two others in Los Angeles County, with failing to pay $450,000 in wages over five years. They could face more than 80 years in jail and $136,000 in fines.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/11/us/11carwash.html?ref=usI like this lead for hitting the main points of the story right off. It says who, what, when, where, why, and how. It is also attention grabbing for me, the quote does a good job at that.
The most important part of this story is that some Los Angeles carwash owners are being accused of labor violations.
Anecdotal Lead:
NEW FRANKLIN, Ohio — It has been 10 months since most of the workers walked out of the plain, low-slung factory here for the final time. The building, which had been home to the Manchester Tool Company since just after World War II, sits dormant now, a “for sale or lease” sign in front, buried recently in a fresh snowfall.
But the fallout of the plant’s closure last year by Kennametal, a global conglomerate based in Latrobe, Pa., just a few months into the recession, continues to weigh heavily on the lives of the roughly 100 employees who lost their livelihoods.
Starting out this lead makes me wonder why the factory was abandoned by the workers and then it goes on to answer. It is attention grabbing. I like story-like details i.e. about the snow. Also, this lead is informative.
The focus of the story is on Manchester Tool Company closing and the employees who lost their jobs.
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