Labor Struggles to Select a Replacement for Ludlow
Los Angeles labor leaders scrambled Friday to find a replacement for Martin Ludlow, who is pondering whether to step down as head of a powerful federation of unions while facing an investigation involving the use of member funds.
Potential candidates mentioned by several leaders include Sergio Rascon, chief of Laborers Local 300; state Sen. Gilbert Cedillo (D-Los Angeles); and Maria Elena Durazo, a union leader and wife of the late Miguel Contreras, Ludlow's union mentor.
However, the candidate who seems to be getting the most support is Kent Wong, 49, director of the UCLA Center for Labor Research and Education. Wong is the son of Judge Delbert Wong, who in 1959 became the first Chinese American to be appointed as a jurist in the continental United States.
For weeks, federal and state authorities have been investigating whether Ludlow's 2003 campaign for Los Angeles City Council received secret financial support from a union in the federation he now leads.
Ludlow has been offered a plea bargain by prosecutors in which he might escape jail time but could face up to $181,000 in fines, $81,000 in restitution and a ban on serving in public office or a union leadership position for more than a decade, according to sources who are familiar with the deal but spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to comment publicly.
Ludlow has been given until Tuesday to accept the deal, the sources said.
Federation spokeswoman Mary Gutierrez said Friday that Ludlow had left town with his family.
"Under the circumstances, Mr. Ludlow and his family have some important decisions to make," Gutierrez said. "They will be taking the long weekend to address those decisions."
Jim Hilfenhaus, a delegate to the federation from Laborers Local 300, confirmed that support appears to be coalescing around Wong and said that it was a difficult time to recruit anyone to step into the top union post in Los Angeles County.
Wong is "not directly affiliated with any particular union, and everybody gets along with him," Hilfenhaus said.
The news that Ludlow might be leaving put many labor leaders in a difficult position after a trying year for the labor movement.
In 2005, the AFL-CIO saw two of its largest members -- the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the Service Employees International Union -- leave the organization. Then unions in California at great expense fought off Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's special election ballot measures that threatened to rob them of political might.
