Labor Gains Strength as It Flexes Political Muscle

After the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor formally endorsed Victor Griego for the Eastside City Council seat Tuesday, officials knew exactly who to call for help to turn their stamp of approval into a real political campaign: Mike Garcia.

Garcia, the president of the Service Employees International Union-Local 1877, already has earned a reputation as one of the most aggressive union organizers in the city. But recently he has proven he can muster scores of workers to enthusiastically volunteer in political campaigns.

“Local 1877, in particular, has done a phenomenal job in mobilizing people,” said Fabian Nunez, the AFL-CIO’s political director in Los Angeles. “They can call for a meeting and mobilize hundreds of their members. . . . They are one of the most effective in terms of turning members out.”

Garcia credits Miguel Contreras, the executive secretary-treasurer of the county labor federation, for changing the culture of the languishing labor movement in Los Angeles. Garcia said Contreras has encouraged organizing as much as political action.

In that regard, the county federation endorsed Griego in the June runoff election over challenger Nick Pacheco for the council seat being vacated by retiring Councilman Richard Alatorre. Labor remained uncommitted in the primary, allowing local unions to back different candidates.

The labor federation endorsed Alex Padilla in the northeast San Fernando Valley primary and showed that union members can make a difference. Padilla far outdistanced second-place finisher Corinne Sanchez and goes into the runoff a heavy favorite; the county labor federation pumped $57,000 into his campaign.

It is that effort that probably will be replicated on the Eastside. And, to some in labor like Garcia, it is not the candidate who is as important as the process.

“Obviously, we don’t have a strong labor candidate,” Garcia says bluntly. “We need to opt for strong labor consensus to get that person elected. But it’s not about Victor anymore. It’s about lining up behind one candidate and making that the winning side.”

Garcia, 47, says his methods are rooted in the militant “Justice for Janitors” campaign he helped launch in Denver in 1987. He subsequently moved the in-your-face effort to the Silicon Valley, where he succeeded in unionizing many of the big computer companies. He then returned to his hometown, Los Angeles, to continue winning union contracts for low-wage, predominately Latino workers.

Hand-in-hand with that organizing, he said, comes politics.

“Our union now understands we have to do both: We need to organize workers, and we need to be organized politically,” Garcia said this week between meetings at Los Angeles International Airport, where he’s attempting to unionize security workers. “We realize we can generate and mobilize the Latino vote.”

A Defining Moment

Personally, Garcia says he was motivated more toward politics by what he perceived as the anti-immigrant policies of then-Gov. Pete Wilson.

“I felt like we’d hit rock bottom--both labor and the Latino community,” Garcia said. “We were powerless. But I also thought it could be used as an organizing tool, especially after I saw 175,000 people marching through East L.A. [in an anti-Proposition 187 rally]. The animo [spirit] was being generated.”

Garcia proudly points out that his union worked in record numbers for Gray Davis’ gubernatorial campaign in November, as well as in the Assembly races of Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa, Gilbert Cedillo and Gloria Romero. In each race, Garcia and others said, Local 1877, along with members of the hotel and restaurant workers union, fanned out into neighborhoods, knocking on doors, stuffing envelopes, telephoning voters. In Davis’ successful campaign, Local 1877 turned out nearly 1,500 shifts of volunteers, with many of those in Los Angeles County.

“They’re trying to put the word ‘movement’ back into the labor movement,” said Peter Dreier, politics professor and director of the public policy program at Occidental College. “Unions are recognizing that there’s been this widening disparity of incomes, a decline in the standard of living, and they can’t use the old methods to gain political influence and change legislation. . . . This is a sign that the sleeping giant of organized labor is waking up.”

In many ways, Garcia’s efforts--along with the county federation’s--mirror organized labor’s national effort, led by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, another ex-janitor organizer. Sweeney has encouraged local unions to act politically, not just by writing checks and making endorsements, but by turning out volunteers and voters. He also has pushed for stronger organizing efforts.

Garcia has had numerous successes unionizing workers here, nearly always avoiding National Labor Relations Board elections by pressuring employers who ultimately voluntarily agree to recognize their employees’ union.

“We’re all very jealous,” said Julie Butcher, general manager of the Service Employees International Union-Local 347. “They represent the new labor movement: avoiding NLRB elections and really helping members understand that the union works for them, even before an election happens.”

Part of that success, Garcia says, comes from the fact that Local 1877 is a statewide union. So if, for example, problems arise at Bank of America or Pacific Bell, employees up and down the state at those companies are aware of the issues and can also bring pressure.

“We’ve been effective through these strategies,” said Garcia, who lives in Van Nuys with his wife and three children. “We’re up against all of these companies all the time. . . . Organizing is taking on the corporate structure, the wealth and power of a city and putting together an effective union. It’s very, very difficult.”

Madeline Janis-Aparicio, who heads the Living Wage Coalition, said Garcia has proven that his is one of the most successful organizing unions, transforming low-wage workers who may have been skeptical that they even need unions into card-carrying, demonstrating employees.

Griego, who along with Pacheco says he welcomes labor support, is a community and political organizer who, among other things, ran school board President Vicky Castro’s unsuccessful Assembly campaign against Cedillo. That, along with his support of the controversial Belmont High School project, made him less favorable to some in labor.

But Pacheco, who is backed by Mayor Richard Riordan and Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Los Angeles), hasn’t established a strong relationship with labor, officials say. As an elected charter reform commissioner, he also lost favor with the city unions with some of his votes on reforming city government.

Establishing a Toe-Hold

To many in organized labor, the council seats are crucial to more labor success in such future elections as the 2001 mayoral race.

And, if they are successful, labor won’t be shy in asking “their” council members for help.

What’s first on that list?

Garcia says he’s looking for the council to require publicly subsidized developers to pay workers a living wage and family health benefits and to contractually guarantee that workers have a right to unionize without intimidation. This so-called “responsible contractor” language would show developers that the city’s lawmakers are serious about their support for labor.

“We’re talking about highly immigrant and exploited workers,” Garcia said. “They’re the most impoverished workers in our society.”

The janitors, who in 1990 held a raucous demonstration in Century City that resulted in a confrontation with police that ultimately cost the city a $2.35-million settlement, are about to face new contract negotiations, Garcia said.

“Our goal is to win family health coverage for all and to protect health coverage,” Garcia said. “We expect the City Council members to support our union and our janitors in their efforts to win decent wages and benefits.”

The next step for labor, consultants and academics say, will be to elect local leaders from their own ranks. To be sure, that already has occurred on a state level with the elections of Villaraigosa and Cedillo, but some say it should also happen locally.

To that end, Garcia, along with Maria Elena Durazo, who heads the hotel workers’ local, are credited with training a new generation of leaders, a network of shop stewards and other workers with strong labor skills.

“We’re demonstrating we can come together and elect who we want,” Garcia said. “We can build a huge grass-roots organization . . . and we are becoming more sophisticated.”