During Labor Day rallies and marches Monday, hundreds of Southern California workers pledged unity and aggressive action to prevail in upcoming contract negotiations in what many described as one of the toughest labor climates in years.
At a breakfast attended by representatives of more than 100 unions and dozens of elected officials, labor leaders told the crowd that contracts covering 228,000 workers would expire next year. That group, the largest facing contract negotiations at one time in several years, includes actors, healthcare and construction workers, electricians and janitors.
To withstand pressure for cutbacks in healthcare and other benefits, workers must support each other, even if their own contracts are not at issue, said Maria Elena Durazo, head of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor.
"When we stick together, when we fight together, we win together," Durazo declared to wild applause at the event held downtown in the conference center of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels.
She added that workers would confront the looming challenges through labor organizing and political muscle, warning elected officials that labor would hold them accountable for their votes.
"If any elected official fails to defend our core values, then they do not deserve to say they are a friend to workers and labor," Durazo said.
After the breakfast, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony celebrated a Labor Day Mass. He spoke of the rising gap between rich and poor and urged universal healthcare, better schools and comprehensive immigration reform, including a pathway to citizenship for the nation's 12 million illegal immigrants.
Immigrant workers in particular need public support, Mahony said, with many living in fear despite their backbreaking contributions to building up the nation's economy.
"Our immigrant people need us to stand with them and help protect their rights," said Mahony, among the most vocal advocates of labor and immigrant rights in the nation's 69-million member Roman Catholic Church. "Otherwise, we are not seeing them in the image and likeness of God."
In Wilmington, thousands of truck drivers, longshoremen, teachers, nurses and other workers joined a Labor Day parade that included floats, classic cars and marching bands, followed by a rally and picnic in nearby Banning Park.
Louie Diaz, parade chairman and vice president of Teamsters Local 848, said retaining healthcare and retirement benefits were two of the labor movement's biggest issues.
