AFL-CIO Calls L.A. a Top City for Working Families

Los Angeles was named one of the top cities in America for working families by the AFL-CIO, the national labor federation.

The award, announced Friday, recognizes what has been apparent to labor insiders for several years: Despite its long-standing reputation as an anti-union town, the city has become one of organized labor’s brightest success stories.

“Los Angeles is a model for the labor movement around the country,” AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney said in a statement. “It shows how working families, working together, can make our hometowns better places to live and work.”

The announcement cites the local labor council’s efforts in 2000 to craft a single message that could unify all unionized workers, from janitors and bus drivers to doctors and actors. The message--that the growing economy needed to pull all segments of the population along--resonated strongly in a year marked by a wave of strikes and high-stakes bargaining, backed strongly by religious and community groups.

The last year has been marked by disappointment, however. Organized labor in Los Angeles was bitterly split over an endorsement in the mayoral election, with the most active unions backing Antonio Villaraigosa, who lost to James K. Hahn. The economic downturn, which has disproportionately hit hotels and Los Angeles International Airport, also has taken the wind out of two major organizing campaigns.

Miguel Contreras, executive secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles Labor Federation, will receive the award next week at the AFL-CIO biennial convention in Las Vegas. Los Angeles was among 14 cities chosen by the federation from a pool of 170. Other California cities named were San Diego and San Jose.