Organized Labor

Robert B. Reich hardly fits the conventional mold of secretary of labor. Traditionally the post goes to someone who views the job as the Administration's liaison both to organized labor and management, and focuses largely on labor-related regulatory issues. But, if Reich attempts to put into practice the theories he has preached in his published work and as a lecturer at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, the post might be more properly named secretary of the workplace.

Emboldened by growing membership and political clout, a feisty Los Angeles labor movement is planning a summer of high-profile and potentially disruptive actions, demanding a "fair share" of the region's prosperity. A hint of what's ahead came Tuesday night, when a downtown rally drew an estimated 8,000 union members, including teachers, painters, janitors, actors and sheriff's deputies--the largest such gathering in Los Angeles in years.

When word of Miguel Contreras' death spread Friday night, top members of California's labor and political world flocked to Daniel Freeman Hospital in Inglewood in a show of respect. Presidents of unions representing truck drivers, homecare workers, city employees, janitors and supermarket checkers made their way to console relatives of the longtime Los Angeles County labor leader.

In his column, "America's Big Stake in Mexico's Prosperity" (April 14), James Flanigan casually dismisses labor's concerns over the proposed free-trade pact. Like other proponents, he urges support for a free-trade agreement as a leap towards prosperity for our impoverished southern neighbor. Yet President Bush's drive to "fast-track" free-trade relations with Mexico spells economic and ecological disaster for millions of working Americans--and little, if any, progress for Mexican laborers.

Organized labor, battered by decades of declining influence, scored a big victory with the tentative settlement in the Teamsters strike against United Parcel Service. However, the deal could create some inflationary pressures on the economy, and sends a signal that management may not be fully able to deploy workers as it sees fit. But whether American business suffered a long-term defeat, and lost leverage in battles with organized labor, will be subject of debate.

They lit candles. They stood in silence and bowed their heads to honor people who were killed on the job in the Los Angeles area during the last few years. The list was long and numbing: electrical workers, masons, carpenters, ironworkers. A 36-year-old steelworker named Eddie Amador, who fell to his death when scaffolding broke in Ontario. A 27-year-old social worker named Robbyn Panitch, who was murdered in Santa Monica by a patient who went berserk.

William R. Robertson, executive secretary of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, has launched a sharp attack on the labor policies of the Los Angeles Roman Catholic Archdiocese stemming from the long-running battle to organize the 140 gravediggers at the archdiocese's 10 cemeteries. "Organized labor is shocked and saddened" by the archdiocese's "continuing" resistance to the unionization efforts, Robertson said in the latest issue of the labor federation's newspaper.

Organized labor vehemently declared its opposition on Wednesday to Gov. George Deukmejian's plan to require prison convicts to help pay for their keep by working, contending that the proposal would create "a captive labor force surrounded by armed guards." The plan, a major legislative initiative announced by Deukmejian in his State of the State speech in January, flew into a wall of opposition from labor at a hearing of the Assembly Labor and Employment Committee.

Organized labor attempted to flex its muscles in the great NAFTA debate. It huffed and puffed and struck the pose. It looked in the mirror and saw Sylvester Stallone. What the rest of us saw was Woody Allen. Even the Democrats weren't spooked. More than 100 Democrats, many of them supported routinely by labor, said adios on this one. Many of my fellow conservatives will delight in seeing labor's slow exit. I watch this spectacle with less pleasure.

Sweatshops. Child labor. Jobs fleeing to Mexico. Organized labor, long stymied in its bid to use trade policy as a tool for its agenda, has persuaded the White House to take up its cause when trade ministers from around the world convene in Seattle on Nov. 30. But last week, negotiators got a foreshadowing of what to expect as dozens of developing nations demanded that labor standards be put off-limits at the landmark meeting of the World Trade Organization.