Leading Labor Forward

On the walls of Linda Sanchez-Valentine’s new office in Orange are her law degree from UCLA and framed photos of her flanked by her better-known sister, Rep. Loretta Sanchez, and President Clinton. Another photo displays the president with the entire Sanchez clan--father Ignacio Sanchez, mother Maria Macias and their seven children.

But the picture that Sanchez seems to cherish the most is one of her with the late farm labor leader Cesar Chavez, taken in San Luis Obispo the year before he died in 1993.

It is Chavez’s legacy, she says, that helped to shape her beliefs and activism. And now, at the young age of 31, she too has assumed a leadership role in California’s labor movement.

This spring, she was chosen to head the Orange County Central Labor Council, the voice for 80 unions in the county and more than 110,000 workers. She succeeded Bill Fogarty, who headed the group since 1990 but did not seek reelection when his four-year term expired.

The election of Sanchez-Valentine--the first Latina and first minority female to head the 80-year-old group--says much about the changing face of organized labor, particularly in a county known for its conservative and anti-union climate.

“It’s amazing that in Orange County, which is not a union stronghold by any means, they would elect the only Latina to head a central labor council in the country,” said Kent Wong, a labor expert at UCLA.

“You’re not going to see an overnight turnaround,” Wong noted. “But I do think that it symbolizes that things are changing in the labor movement in Orange County.”

It’s Sanchez-Valentine’s task to turn symbolism into reality. And in many ways, as she candidly acknowledges, it is a daunting one.

In many other urban centers, there are stirrings of a more aggressive labor movement. In Los Angeles, San Diego and San Jose, janitors are standing up to employers demanding better pay and wages. In Los Angeles County, more than 70,000 home-care workers were unionized last year, and union workers there are planning vigorous rallies this summer during the Democratic convention downtown.

But in Orange County, the labor movement can barely be heard. The labor council’s membership has increased by more than 10% this past year, but that was more a reflection of the strong economy and robust construction market than successful union organizing efforts.

Membership in Orange County’s labor council still accounts for less than 10% of the county’s work force. In contrast, the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor has about 800,000 members, one-fifth of all workers in that county.

“We need to get caught up,” Sanchez-Valentine said.

For instance, an effort to unionize janitors in Orange County is only in its beginning stages. Many of the janitors work for the same commercial building owners as the Los Angeles janitors, but they have no health benefits and in some cases earn more than $2 an hour less than their Los Angeles counterparts.

Justice for Janitors, the aggressive labor campaign that won better wages and benefits for the Los Angeles janitors this spring, launched a campaign for more than 3,000 janitors in Orange County in April, but it has yet to gain momentum. A recent march in Los Angeles in support of the Orange County workers drew only 150 janitors, far less than the 1,000 that organizers had hoped for.

Blanca Gallegos, a spokeswoman for the organizing group in Los Angeles, said the Orange County effort “is still in the preliminary stages” and that the low turnout is not reason to be discouraged. The organizing effort in Los Angeles “has been a 10-year process,” she noted.

Experts say union membership in Orange County must continue to grow if the council is to gain much-needed political clout. Wong said a growing number of immigrant workers in Orange County could provide that boost.

“There is power in immigrant workers who are aggressively joining and building unions,” Wong said. “There is a large and growing Latino and Asian immigrant work force in Orange County which has a huge disparity between rich and poor. In many ways, Orange County is ripe for more union activity.”

Immigrants’ Fate Tied to Unions

Julie Monroe, assistant coordinator of labor programs at UCLA, said the AFL-CIO is focusing heavily on the struggles of immigrant workers, helping them with their paperwork and with learning to speak English. She said immigrant organizing and union organizing “are becoming the same issue.”

Sanchez-Valentine said Orange County also needs to boost its immigrant union membership.

“It’s overcoming the fear,” she said. “They really see themselves at a huge disadvantage in terms of bargaining power with their employer. We haven’t done as good a job as we should in conveying the benefits of union membership.”

She said she has set “no hard percentages” in terms of how much of an increase in union membership she would like to see, and she is also vague about which specific groups of workers she would like to recruit other than immigrants.

“The council is here to support and lend aid in the organizing campaign, but it’s up to each local whether they are going to go out and organize different segments of workers,” she said.

The council’s activities are funded by dues from its member unions. The dues also pay Sanchez-Valentine and her assistant. Sanchez-Valentine would not disclose her salary or release information about the council’s annual budget.

“I don’t think it’s relevant to what we want to do,” she said. “I don’t think it’s something that needs to be highlighted.”

She is more candid when discussing the council’s political priorities. She said the group is “drawing up our game plan” to address what she says is inadequate affordable housing for local workers in Orange County. She expects the shortages to grow next year as Walt Disney Co. opens its new California Adventure theme park, a luxury hotel and a dining and entertainment strip next to Disneyland, creating thousands of jobs.

“Where are these workers going to come from?” she asked. “There has not been any thought put into creating housing for those workers. This is an area that the tourism industry has completely neglected. Housing is through the roof, and there is no concerted effort by any of the cities to make housing affordable.”

Sanchez-Valentine said housing will be one of the key issues political candidates will be asked to address when they seek the endorsement of the labor council for the fall elections. There are also two bills pending before the state Legislature that the council is actively backing. One proposed law would prohibit employers who receive state grants or have state contracts from hiring consultants to try to dissuade workers who choose to organize or participate in union activities.

The second bill increases penalties against employers who underreport wages or pay workers under the table to avoid employment taxes.

Miguel Contreras, executive secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, said Sanchez-Valentine must “get all the labor on the same page [in Orange County] with the same vision” in order to have an impact.

“The history is that they have never worked together,” Contreras said. “Now they have an opportunity to work together and push an agenda for working families.”

The ascension of Sanchez-Valentine reflects the growing ranks of Latinas in labor leadership. In addition, Lupe Rodriguez was elected in June as the first woman and the first Latina to head one of Orange County’s largest labor unions: Laborers’ International Local 652 in Santa Ana.

Because of her ethnicity, some predict that Sanchez-Valentine will become an important figure in the national labor movement.

“There are 600 central bodies in the country and she is the only Latina to head one, so her success is important to the national AFL-CIO,” Contreras said.

Sanchez-Valentine is keenly aware of the political tightrope she must walk with her older sister as the council begins considering political endorsements. Some local union leaders say it is important that Sanchez-Valentine emerge from her congresswoman sister’s shadow.

“Since her sister has gained notoriety, she has a little bit of proving to do to people who don’t know that she is her own person who brings things to the table not connected to her sister,” said Brent Beasley, a roofer who is a member of the council’s executive board.

Sisters Say They’ll Take Separate Stances

Sanchez-Valentine took time off in 1998 to manage her sister’s successful reelection campaign against Bob Dornan, the nine-term Republican whom Sanchez had narrowly defeated two years earlier in a bitter race.

Both sisters say that they agree on many issues, but they insist that family ties will not influence their political stances.

“I don’t always vote with labor,” Sanchez said. “I’ll do what is in the best interests of a majority of the district.”

Sanchez, 39, who served as her youngest sister’s mentor during her high school and college years, said she doesn’t plan to give Sanchez-Valentine any special treatment in their current professional roles.

Still, the family pride is evident.

“She is a very intelligent, very well-educated woman about the issues of working people, so I think it’s a great fit for her,” Sanchez said. “She must, if she does her job well, represent the interests of the people she works with. On some things we’ll agree and some things we won’t agree. It’s not a personal thing in that regard.

After her sister’s campaign, Sanchez-Valentine took a job as a compliance officer for International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 441 in Orange, traveling to work sites and surveying workers to make sure they were being paid the prevailing wage required by law.

Sanchez-Valentine said the investigations solidified her commitment to labor and the plight of workers. She would encourage those who were being underpaid to file a complaint with the state.

“There were violations everywhere,” she said. “It was just disgusting. Employers would say to them, ‘You have a job with me, you’re lucky.’ ”

In one case, Sanchez-Valentine said, she found electricians were being paid less than half of the $23-an-hour wage required by law. Four electricians received $144,699 after filing complaints.

“She has a legal background and came to the job with an awful lot of energy,” said Michael McGrorty, who was Sanchez-Valentine’s counterpart in Los Angeles. “What she lacked in trade knowledge she acquired very quickly. She has a willingness to dig very deep for solutions.”

She Draws Strength From Chavez’s Life

The new union leader married Mark Valentine, a 34-year-old engineer and craftsman, in the spring and is only now settling into her new office in Orange, just blocks away from Edison Field.

A white hard hat that she wears when visiting work sites is on her desk, but some boxes have yet to be unpacked. She has been immersed in a series of speeches, meetings and other activities since taking office.

Sometimes, in the middle of a long and busy day, she draws strength from the picture of Cesar Chavez, whom she calls the “galvanizing force” of the struggles of migrant farm workers.

“The dignity about him was tremendous,” she said. “He was very serene, calm and reasonable. He had that look about him that comes from learning the hard way.”