Drywallers’ Strike Nails Down a Principle : Labor: Workers, especially immigrants, need a ‘public face’ to win justice on the job.

For five months, carpenters’ union halls in the Los Angeles area bristled with activities reminiscent of California’s farm worker organizing efforts in the 1960s and ‘70s. The halls had been opened to drywall workers seeking union recognition from about three dozen drywall companies. Caldrons of steaming food were prepared in the small kitchens to feed the hundreds of striking workers seven days a week; visitors brought food and money, each donation raising morale in the usually quiet union halls. As the weeks passed, these workers’ family and geographical ties to Mexico reinforced their solidarity and resolve.

Now, with the union contracts won, it would be a mistake to draw the lessons of this effort too narrowly. The very significant accomplishment of these immigrant workers is a sign that the construction industry is ripe for organizing by the building trade unions. But what these exploited drywall workers won goes beyond guaranteed wages and benefits.

Before these angry workers walked off the job on key construction sites in June, they had no public existence. Hardly anyone, not even the unions, knew of the reality of these thousands of workers locked into manual labor at poverty-level wages with no medical benefits, living in cramped apartments in dangerous neighborhoods, their children attending overcrowded schools and having hardly any access to health care.

This lack of recognition isn’t peculiar to drywall workers; not having a “public face,” extends to tens of thousands of marginalized people in Southern California.

Uniquely and to their credit, leaders of the drywallers went public in their campaign to win basic recognition as working people with rights.

The drywallers began developing a public existence by forging a relationship with the International Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners. Jesse Martinez, who heads Carpenters Local 309, and who is also a Catholic deacon, understands the workers’ pain, anger and hopes. In 1987, Martinez brought his membership, with higher-wage trade jobs, into the Industrial Areas Foundation-led campaign to raise the state minimum wage for the poorest-paid workers in California. The carpenters union, of course, was aware that residential construction had become almost entirely non-union, with union workers being replaced by immigrant workers. When leaders like Martinez and the carpenters’ district president, Doug McCarron, embraced the hopes and energy of these workers, they had won their first recognition fight.

The strike gained critical public attention through the efforts of Mario Valadez, himself a drywaller who had cut short his university education several years ago to return to the trade when his family was facing tough financial times. The drywallers’ initial strike activity had no media coverage or community or religious support. Valadez, learning by doing, cultivated impressive coverage and considerable community support. The drywallers lost their anonymity during work-site protests that led to arrests and criticism, but at least they now had public recognition, which led to growing support. Important public figures stepped forward and recognized these workers. Amin David, founder of the Latino business and professional organization Los Amigos spoke out vigorously on their behalf. Msgr. Jaime Soto, vicar for Hispanics in the Diocese of Orange, worked both publicly and behind the scenes for an equitable resolution of the dispute. Hermandad Mexicana provided leverage with important legal assistance.

Critical recognition came next from the subcontractors who sat down in negotiations with the drywallers and the carpenters union.

Finally, last Tuesday, an agreement was signed that gave the drywallers union representation, increased wages and health-care benefits.

The ultimate recognition and proudest achievement of these brave workers would be for other unions, for other employers, for religious leaders and the taxpaying public to recognize that we all lose when workers lack a public voice to communicate pain and injustice.

The children of these drywall workers should be proud of their parents who, even in these tough economic times, stood tall and refused to live with exploitation in anonymity.