The State; A Plan for Very Civil Disobedience; Police and union will follow a script, which even specifies who will be arrested, in a march near LAX to organize hotel workers.: [HOME EDITION]

Four hundred people will be arrested early this evening for blocking Century Boulevard near Los Angeles International Airport, in what could prove to be one of the largest acts of civil disobedience in the city's history.

At least that's how the script reads.

For much of this year, the national hotel workers union, labor leaders and immigrant groups have been planning today's protest. Marchers are supporting a drive to organize the mostly immigrant, nonunion workers employed at 13 hotels near the airport.

If the event goes as envisioned, organizers say, it will be a highly choreographed episode of street theater, timed for news broadcasts and peaceful enough to persuade but not enrage the public.

The Los Angeles Police Department has been involved at nearly every stage, advising organizers on how to proceed without endangering public safety. Experts say the close cooperation with law enforcement reflects a more powerful and mature labor movement, and a city government that is far friendlier to labor than its predecessors.

Organizers obtained a permit this week for 1,000 to 2,000 marchers. About 400 of them have signed forms pledging to be arrested and have taken a mandatory class that taught them how to remain calm even when screamed at or insulted.

The driver's license numbers and other personal information of those volunteer arrestees have already been passed on to the LAPD to expedite processing. (Police sent word that six of the volunteers should rethink their participation; though no official reason was given, the six may have outstanding warrants, union officials said).

For its part, Unite Here Local 11, which represents hotel workers in Southern California, has arranged for parking, storage of the arrestees' car keys, lawyers to defend them, crews to clean up after the event and vans to pick up the protesters from jail.

Upon release from jail, expected within 24 hours, each protester will receive a meal (burritos and bottles of water) and a souvenir (their protest sign reading "I Am A Human Being").

"We don't want any surprises," said Paulina Gonzalez, a Unite Here staffer who is handling communications for the event. "We want nobody to get hurt. We want the most peaceful event possible."

Such cooperation would have been almost inconceivable less than a generation...