Labor Unions March, Pray, Feel Stronger

Hundreds of people--including Gov. Gray Davis, Cardinal Roger Mahony and some of the nation’s top union leaders--attended rallies and church services across Los Angeles County on Monday to push for immigrant rights and better wages.

On the eve of the meetings between President George W. Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox, Mahony and the head of the powerful AFL-CIO used a church pulpit to call for legalizing millions of undocumented workers.

“We’re a nation of immigrants, yet we daily visit injustice upon new arrivals to our shores, a cruel irony not lost on those of us who share experiences as children of immigrants,” union President John Sweeney told more than 1,600 people--including Davis--who attended a Mass at St. Vincent’s Roman Catholic Church.

In San Fernando, Los Angeles and Wilmington, people turned out in force to celebrate the resurgence of the city’s labor movement, brought about largely by last year’s Screen Actors Guild strike.

Others, meanwhile, spent the day relaxing, on the beach or attending festivals. At the Orange County Fairgrounds, nearly 1,700 people entered their classic cars in the Great Labor Day Orange County Cruise. The annual three-day show brought together hot rods, Corvettes and cars made from a little of this and a lot of that, the rule being they had to be pre-1972.

Former Mayor Richard Riordan, who has been touring the state as he considers a gubernatorial bid, returned to Los Angeles, attending a party on Olvera Street to mark the city’s 220th birthday.

Mahony, meanwhile, said he wanted to get a Labor Day message through to Washington to urge lawmakers to take steps to give “new opportunities” to undocumented immigrants, the majority of them from Mexico.

Mexican President Fox is scheduled to leave for Washington today to met with President Bush and press for an improved work-visa program, amnesty for undocumented immigrants and other changes in the United States’ immigration policy.

“While immigrant workers continue to be a vital part of our economy, their immigration status leaves them vulnerable to many different types of abuses in the workplace,” Mahony told the congregation at St. Vincent’s.

He also urged Congress to support a bill to increase the minimum wage.

“Let us lift our collective voices together in prayer that we may be strengthened in our resolve to stand with working people,” Mahony said.

The mostly Latino crowd, which included members of more than a dozen unions, responded with thunderous applause.

In addition to Davis, Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, Rep. Hilda L. Solis (D-El Monte), City Council President Alex Padilla and more than a dozen other elected officials were present.

There was one noticeable no-show, however. Mayor James Hahn--who has been on vacation for two weeks--attended no public events Monday, aides said.

“If anyone is entitled to a vacation, he is,” said Julie Butcher, general manager of the Service Employees International Union, Local 347.

Even so, Butcher said she felt it was important to spend her day at events with other workers.

“It really is important for us to look at all the things we have in common,” Butcher said. “If there ever was a holiday you would want to celebrate the meaning of, it’s Labor Day.”

Across town, at the traditional Labor Day parade in Wilmington, longshoremen marched next to Hollywood cameramen in what some longtime union supporters called the biggest and most diverse turnout in recent years.

Marchers along Avalon Boulevard toted banners for dozens of union locals, from the Teamsters to television actors. The parade route ended at Banning Park, where union members mingled under shade trees, eating hot dogs and listening to musicians play union tunes. The crowd appeared to top 2,000, Los Angeles Police Department officers said.

“It’s a clear indication that L.A. is becoming a union town,” said James Johnson, director of political and legislative affairs for Local 535 of the Service Employees International Union. “When I do a picket and get steelworkers on the line, or teachers, I know the labor movement is different than when I started.”

Some called significant the fact that Sweeney, who attended the Wilmington event after the Mass, chose to spend Labor Day in Los Angeles rather than New York, Detroit or another city with a strong union tradition that has been lacking in Southern California.

In his Banning Park speech, Sweeney spoke out against Bush’s request for expanded authority to negotiate trade agreements, called “trade promotion authority” in Washington and “fast track” in labor circles.

Unions say a “fast track” deal would move more jobs overseas and dilute workers’ rights. Many marchers Monday waved red-and-yellow fliers reading, “Working families say STOP Fast Track.”

After his speech, Sweeney said that while Bush went to Detroit for Labor Day, he wanted to be in Los Angeles. “We see L.A. as a model for cities across the country,” Sweeney said, singling out immigration as a key issue here.

“Our nation has been built on waves of immigrants,” Sweeney said. “It’s high time we treat those workers like other workers.”

A key turning point in organizing the local labor community, some said, was the Screen Actors Guild strike of 2000, when union actors staged a six-month walkout against the ad industry. Industrial unions rallied to support the actors, forming bonds between Hollywood and union strongholds such as Wilmington and San Pedro.

“We’re all Americans and workers. You’re not an actor, you’re not a doctor, you’re a worker,” said Michael Lofgren, 40, of Los Angeles, an actor in films and commercials who marched Monday in a red-white-and-blue stovepipe hat.

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Times staff writers Alex Pham and Jeff Gottlieb contributed to this story.