Miguel Contreras

Miguel Contreras, executive secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, has brought a different focus to the Los Angeles labor movement. Under Contreras, the County Fed has committed itself both to organizing a vast underclass of Latin American immigrant workers and to unprecedented political campaigning in elections.

During state budget deliberations each year since 2003, Republican lawmakers have tried to scuttle funding for a University of California institute dedicated to studying organized labor and workplace issues. And each year labor leaders and Democratic lawmakers have rallied to the program's defense. But this year, the fight is different. This year it's personal. In January, the UC Institute for Labor and Employment was renamed the Miguel Contreras Labor Program, after the late labor leader.

As America's new Ellis Island, Los Angeles is viewed as ground zero in the national labor movement's battle to reconstitute itself as a more formidable force by organizing more workers, particularly recent immigrants. For decades, the percentage of U.S. workers who are union members has been shrinking. It now stands at 14%. Unions are striving to change that.

When Los Angeles County labor chief Miguel Contreras died of a heart attack in May 2005, some news reports said he had been stricken in his car after a long day of meetings. But according to an LA Weekly cover story published Thursday, Contreras was found unconscious at a business that purported to sell herbal medicines on Florence Avenue in South Los Angeles.

There are the paid political consultants. Then there are the family and close friends. The ones with the real access. For mayoral hopefuls Antonio Villaraigosa and James K. Hahn, those friends and family are the unpaid advisors, the candidates' closest confidants. Villaraigosa relies on Miguel Contreras, the head of the powerful Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. Hahn often turns to his younger sister, Janice Hahn, who is running her own race for a seat on the Los Angeles City Council.

Organized labor in Los Angeles was in the doldrums last summer after a long, high-profile supermarket strike ended in humiliating defeat. Making matters worse, prominent reformers in the national labor movement were calling for the elimination of regional councils like the one headed by local union chief Miguel Contreras. It would have been a fine time for the top officer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor to go on the defensive.

Labor leader Miguel Contreras took a huge gamble in backing mayoral candidate Antonio Villaraigosa--a longtime friend, former union organizer and would-be "warrior for Los Angeles working families."

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."

During state budget deliberations each year since 2003, Republican lawmakers have tried to scuttle funding for a University of California institute dedicated to studying organized labor and workplace issues. And each year labor leaders and Democratic lawmakers have rallied to the program's defense. But this year, the fight is different. This year it's personal. In January, the UC Institute for Labor and Employment was renamed the Miguel Contreras Labor Program, after the late labor leader.

The body of Miguel Contreras came home Saturday to the vineyards and orchards of the San Joaquin Valley, where the labor leader, as a young boy, got his first taste of the struggles of farmworkers nearly half a century ago. His burial in this small farm town in Tulare County, where he grew up picking grapes alongside his father and mother and five brothers, could not have been more different than his funeral Thursday in Los Angeles.

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."

Martin Ludlow had been crisscrossing Los Angeles to get voters to the polls since 4:45 a.m. when he took the stage at a downtown ballroom late Tuesday. But the leader of the powerful Los Angeles County Federation of Labor held nothing back as he whipped up union members celebrating the election-day shellacking of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. "Elections are won by the people who turn out to vote, and we turned out the people to vote!"

City Councilman Martin Ludlow has emerged as the leading contender to head the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, the powerful union organization that was left leaderless with the sudden death of Miguel Contreras. Rick Icaza, president of the county federation, said Monday that he has called a special closed session of the executive board for today to ask the panel to recommend the executive secretary-treasurer's job be offered to Ludlow. "He's got my support," Icaza said.

When you honored me by electing me leader of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor in 1996, my thoughts kept returning to my roots in the farm workers union. For those who do not know me, I've been a union man since that day in 1973 at 4:30 a.m., when the ranch supervisor and crew bosses assembled the entire Contreras family in front of our little home in Dinuba.

The body of Miguel Contreras came home Saturday to the vineyards and orchards of the San Joaquin Valley, where the labor leader, as a young boy, got his first taste of the struggles of farmworkers nearly half a century ago. His burial in this small farm town in Tulare County, where he grew up picking grapes alongside his father and mother and five brothers, could not have been more different than his funeral Thursday in Los Angeles.

California's most powerful politicians and some of its least empowered laborers crowded elbow to elbow in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels on Thursday to bid farewell to Miguel Contreras, the son of migrant farmworkers who grew up to be one of the nation's strongest labor leaders and a dominant force in Los Angeles politics.

Controversial . . , " Miguel Contreras says, introducing Maria Elena Durazo with adjectives culled from press clips. "Confrontational . . . agitational. . . ." Los Angeles' top union leader, Contreras wears a gray suit and dignified, gentle demeanor. Durazo has a presence more like the raised-fist graphics on her yellow T-shirt.

It was the first day of hearings on a controversial $11-billion plan to modernize and expand Los Angeles International Airport. In the gilded chamber of the Los Angeles City Council, airline representatives, residents and business leaders bustled around the marble columns. One man stood out. It wasn't just his demeanor -- the contented look of someone anticipating a big victory.

Organized labor in Los Angeles was in the doldrums last summer after a long, high-profile supermarket strike ended in humiliating defeat. Making matters worse, prominent reformers in the national labor movement were calling for the elimination of regional councils like the one headed by local union chief Miguel Contreras. It would have been a fine time for the top officer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor to go on the defensive.

Mayor James K. Hahn, speaking to precinct walkers Saturday in the San Fernando Valley, once again accused challenger Antonio Villaraigosa of siding with gang members instead of poor families. The councilman, meanwhile, roved Los Angeles, attending a community cleanup, a library opening and an event for seniors, and answering questions about the death of labor leader Miguel Contreras, a friend of his.