When Miguel Contreras arrived in Los Angeles in 1987 to fix the battle-scarred hotel employees union, the young national organizer worked out of the large two-story union hall at 4th and Bixel streets.
"We didn't know what to think of him," recalled Maria Elena Durazo, then a local organizer who was challenging union leadership. "I was suspicious of his real intentions."
It was in that hall west of downtown that he repaired Local 11 of the hotel workers union, making a special effort to reach out to Spanish-speaking workers. It was where he started the local career that made him chief of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor for a decade, and where he held meetings for political campaigns that tapped the energy of immigrant workers. There he also made his intentions clear to Durazo. They were married in December 1988.
And this afternoon, a new high school occupying the same corner will be formally named after Contreras, who died last year at age 52. The labor movement and its political allies -- the mayor and majorities of the school board, City Council and area state legislators -- have embraced the Miguel Contreras Learning Complex as their own and the school's opening as a milestone for unions in Los Angeles.
The county labor federation, a collection of more than 300 local unions that is now headed by Durazo, has made backpacks for students, distributed a DVD about Contreras and the labor movement and will offer union-sponsored apprenticeship programs.
On Wednesday, teachers at the school received a lesson plan put together by the federation. It includes suggestions for making the labor movement part of classes on world history, U.S. history, government and economics, as well as an exercise handout called "What Are Your Rights on the Job?" and an hourlong lesson with sentences such as "People in the labor movement around the country look to Los Angeles as a leader."
The $160-million campus, which opened last week, has space for 1,800 students and academies for social justice and business tourism.
"You name high schools after very important people," said Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles), who was among those who pushed for the naming. "It's a point of pride to know that a high school is named after a labor leader who fought to improve the rights of working families and poor people in Los Angeles."
