Santa Ana Local Elects Woman as Its Leader

In a move seen as a sign of political maturity and gender equality, a woman has been elected head of one of Orange County’s largest labor unions.

Lupe Rodriguez was elected business manager Sunday of the 3,100-member Laborers’ International Local 652 in Santa Ana, a union known in recent years for dominance by men.

Her election comes nearly four months after Linda Sanchez took over as head of the Orange County Central Labor Council. The council represents more than 80 unions and 106,000 members in the county.

Rodriguez’s and Sanchez’s rise as labor leaders in a county that has never warmed up to unions reflects the changes that have occurred in the area’s demographics and work force. Latinas represent a significant number of new union members, and several head small unions in the county.

Until now, Sanchez was better known as the younger sister of Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove). But she is a labor lawyer in her own right and is the only Latina to head one of the 600 central labor councils in the nation.

“Labor unions are in an evolving state,” Sanchez said. “It’s not status quo anymore. It’s changing rapidly, and it will take a while before the leadership reflects that change.”

Rodriguez, who did not return telephone calls Monday for comment, won with 66% of the vote, said Art Montez, a community activist with longtime ties to Local 652.

Rodriguez, 41, inherits a union that barely avoided a federal takeover in 1995 and is still dogged by charges of corruption.

Her predecessor, Ruben L. Gomez, was ousted by the international leadership in April for using union funds for personal trips to Las Vegas and San Francisco. He had been in office since 1994.

It was Gomez’s departure that opened the door for Rodriguez’s election. Sources said she has been a member of the local for about 10 years, serving as a dispatcher, compliance officer and organizer.

“For a woman to get elected business manager of the laborers’ union is like a woman becoming a head coach in the NFL,” Montez said. “The laborers’ is male-dominated. This shows that this local, which is dominated by Latino men, is mature enough to elect a woman to lead them.”

Montez predicted that the union, which is heavily involved in Democratic politics and played a key role in the campaigns of Rep. Sanchez and other Latino officeholders, will become more influential in local politics.

“Lupe has that rare ability to organize and motivate people who haven’t had much political influence in the past,” he said. “She’s someone who can organize in Orange County, one of the most hostile environments for labor in the nation.”

Linda Sanchez said that running the laborers local is an important job: “As business manager, she’ll handle the day-to-day operations of the union and make decisions for the local.”

The laborers union represents workers who do manual labor for other trade unions. It has about 750,000 members nationwide and is one of the nation’s oldest unions.

*

Times staff writer Greg Hernandez contributed to this report.