Vote Ends Struggle for Control of County Union

Members of the largest union of Los Angeles County employees have voted overwhelmingly to elect Gilbert Cedillo their general manager, bringing to an end a yearlong battle for control of the union, officials said Thursday.

Cedillo won with 67% of the vote in an election completed Wednesday evening, said Steve Weingarten, a spokesman for Local 660 of the Service Employees International Union. The union represents 42,000 county employees. About 5,000 members mailed in ballots.

Earlier this year, Cedillo was voted out of office by a narrow majority of the local’s board of directors. Service Employees officials in Washington, D.C., placed Local 660 in trusteeship in July, after allegations that the directors violated union bylaws when they removed Cedillo.

Cedillo said his election was a mandate for the militant “rolling thunder” tactics the union followed under his leadership last fall when it successfully resisted proposed cuts in employee benefits. Union members organized a series of one-day walkouts at county facilities.

“We are going to make this a union driven by its membership and responsible to the community,” Cedillo said. “The democratic manner in which the election was held will make the leadership more accountable.”

The election was the first in a series of democratic reforms ordered by Service Employees International officials in Washington.

In July, union officials found that the union had been run by an “outdated and unworkable constitutional structure, which allows the membership virtually no input in the local’s decision-making process.”

Union officials have ordered elections for a new board to be held later this year. They have also proposed amendments to the local’s bylaws which will change the way board members are elected.

Earlier this year, the local’s board of directors voted Cedillo out of office and replaced him with Ron Azlin, a former communications union official.

But the president of Local 660, Alejandro Stephens, refused to recognize Azlin as general manager, throwing the union into turmoil during key budget deliberations.

Service Employees officials then removed Azlin and appointed David Baker as trustee. Baker will supervise Cedillo and run the local until all the recommended reforms have been put into place, union officials said.