Gerrie Schipske

Gerrie Schipske vaulted from the delivery room at Long Beach Naval Hospital in 1950 to a degree in history from UC Irvine in 1973 to successful careers as a registered nurse, attorney and teacher of women's studies, political science and public administration at Cal State Long Beach to her election to the Long Beach Community College Board of Trustees in 1992 to razor-thin losses as the Democratic nominee to Republican Assemblyman Steve Kuykendall in 1996 and Congressman Steve Horn in 2000 to an under-funded campaign against Dana Rohrabacher in 2002 to, finally, election to the Fifth District seat on the Long Beach City Council in 2006.

With her new book, Schipske is aims higher--much, much higher. 

Early Aviation in Long Beach (Arcadia Publishing, $21.99) is a pictorial history of manned air flight in the LBC. Sure, you know about Long Beach Airport, the old Douglas Aircraft plant and Howard Hughes' Spruce Goose winding up there. Schipske takes readers back further.

The Unite HERE Local 11 union's call for a boycott of the Hilton Long Beach hotel has already paid dividends.

Maybe . . . in four years.

The United Church for Christ has announced it will honor the boycott and move an event to another hotel.

"If a labor dispute is in effect as we come closer to our event date, it is most likely that we would . . . be unable to use the Long Beach Hilton as a General Synod hotel," United Church for Christ representative Edith Guffey tells Los Angeles Business Journal.

Score one for Unite HERE Local 11?

Uh, not yet, Norma Rae.

The church event is not scheduled until 2013, according to Hilton officials.

A battle to unionize the at the the 397-room hotel has been going on for more than a year--with charges and counter charges. Unite HERE claims hotel management has harassed workers who showed interest in joining the union. The hotel counters that in pushing for card-check voting, the union is denying workers the right to a secret-ballot election.