UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment Library

In the last two decades of the 20th century, labor unions in Los Angeles defied a national trend of decline for the labor movement. Led by a new generation of leaders who drew inspiration from social movements of the 1960s, the L.A. labor movement grew by organizing immigrant, Latino, and African American workers in the service economy. In a series of high profile strikes, unions took on the power of transnational corporations and, more often than not, they won. Buoyed by these victories, the L.A. County Federation of Labor then helped to reshape electoral politics in California by mobilizing working-class …

Institution: UCLA, Institute for Research on Labor and Employment Library

UNITE HERE Local 11, currently representing over 30,000 hospitality workers in southern California and Arizona, has a long history in Los Angeles. Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees (HERE) Local 11 brought together previously separate locals for waiters, waitresses, bartenders, cooks, and other hotel workers. In the 1970s and 1980s, the predominantly Spanish-speaking membership of Local 11 fought for fuller participation in their union against a largely Anglo leadership. In 1989, María Elena Durazo became the first Latina to lead a major Los Angeles union. She began reorienting the local towards greater membership participation and a more assertive stance with employers. …

Institution: UCLA, Institute for Research on Labor and Employment Library