Some local business leaders, saying they’ve become alarmed at how labor unions are controlling the agenda, have formed a group that’s aimed at becoming politically active and will confront labor on key issues.

The group is called the Los Angeles County Business Federation, or Biz Fed, and it is to announce its formation January 29th. So far, 44 business groups representing 70,000 businesses have signed on. The groups include chambers of commerce, industry trade associations and the like. Tracy Rafter, the former publisher of the Los Angeles Daily News, has been hired as Biz Fed’s executive director.

The driving force behind the group is David Fleming, who is also the outgoing chairman of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. He likened the situation in to a football game. “We can’t just sit on the bench and let labor run up and down the field with the ball. We’ve got to field a team,” he said.

One development that prompted formation of the group was the City Council’s long fight to force hotels near Los Angeles International Airport to pay their workers the so-called living wage, even though the hotels have no contracts with the city and otherwise would not be required to pay those higher wages.

Biz Fed is patterning itself after the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, which, under the late Miguel Contreras, became a political powerhouse.

The current chief of the Labor Federation, Maria Elena Durazo, said she was disappointed to learn that the federation was striving to be a counterweight to labor.

“What we should be talking about is how we work together to create good jobs for the community,” she said.