Why bosses call Los Angeles 'Strike HQ'
From a talk by Maggie Vascassenno at the Dec.
2-3 Workers World Party conference
In many ways Los Angeles has become the center of gravity
for exciting developments taking place in the labor movement
across the country.
Labor struggles in Los Angeles reflect the changes in the
working class. Organizing among Latino, Black, immigrant and
women workers and raising their demands for better pay and
working conditions have become the cutting edge in the
resurgence of labor struggles. The ability of lower-paid
workers to organize, use militant street tactics and win
community support is affecting not only rank-and-file workers
but also top leaders in the union movement.
The AFL-CIO, which used to have a deplorable position on
the rights of immigrants, has now called for amnesty for
undocumented workers. And it's called on the federal
government to stop deportations. This is because of the
tremendous organizing efforts and victories by immigrant and
oppressed workers.
I want to mention a few of the great battles that won Los
Angeles the name "Strike Headquarters" in the capitalist
media.
In February 1999, some 74,000 home health-care workers won
union representation. These were mostly women--African
Americans, Latinas and other nationalities--making minimum
wage with no benefits and doing the hardest work. In Los
Angeles they are spread out over hundreds of square miles
with little or no contact with each other. This was the
biggest organizing victory since 1937, when the Auto Workers
organized General Motors.
Another example was the very militant Justice for Janitors
strike. After fighting for years, Justice for Janitors took
the struggle to a new level. The Service Employees union
wasn't going to let the bosses, represented by American
Building Maintenance, ignore its demands anymore.
They organized mass demonstrations and took scores of
arrests for disrupting business as usual at swank Beverly
Hills hotels and the University of Southern California, one
of the wealthiest private universities in the United States.
These mainly Black and Latino workers won a stunning victory.
American Building Maintenance capitulated.
The key to this victory was the workers' ability to reach
out to the communities where they lived and to the people of
Los Angeles generally for support. By the end of this
struggle thousands of non-union people were out in the
streets with Justice for Janitors.
Most recent was the hard-fought battle of the Los Angeles
transit workers to win a decent pay increase and defend
themselves against the Metropolitan Transit Authority's
multi-billion-dollar attempts to bust the union.
The bus drivers, a mainly Black work force, held together,
united behind the union and their leadership. The MTA thought
it could starve these workers out. The bosses wanted to
change work rules to deny the drivers overtime pay. They
expected they'd be able to spin off separate transit zones
where union contracts would not be honored and basically
destroy the union.
After a few days it became clear that the workers were not
going to concede. The MTA launched a multi-million-dollar
public-relations campaign to turn the riding public and the
public in general against the workers. They told outlandish
lies, saying the drivers earned $75,000 per year.
The public was not fooled and the campaign backfired. The
riding public, over half a million mostly oppressed and poor
people, knew where their interests lay--and that was with
their fellow workers.
Support from Los Angeles Central Labor Council leaders and
figures like Jesse Jackson strengthened the strike. But it
was the solidarity and militancy of the workers and riders
that dealt a final blow to management. They gave up and the
workers won a good contract and protected the integrity of
the union.
Coinciding with these struggles, the Los Angeles County
workers, members of Service Employees Local 660, showed they
weren't going to bow down. The United Teachers were
demonstrating for a better contract and working conditions
too.
Also significant, since Los Angeles is a company town for
the movie industry, striking members of the Screen Actors
Guild won a decent contract and preserved their union by
finally mounting militant demonstrations at Hollywood
premiers, shouting at scabs like Elizabeth Hurley.
Certainly the often timid and conservative SAG leaders
showed they had learned something from the unions of
oppressed, immigrant and women workers that won their
struggles by taking it to the streets.
Corresponding to these changes, a group of workers in
California recently filed a claim with the National Labor
Relations Board to stop their company from moving across the
border into Mexico. The workers claimed that the company's
move to set up a maquiladora in Mexico would violate their
right to a job and destroy their community.
Surprisingly, the NLRB agreed with the workers and ordered
the bosses not to pick up and move. This victory can only be
attributed to the rising strength of the labor movement.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
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