Labor and the Political Scandal in LA
Source: CBS News screenshot
Restaurant workers who want to organize for better conditions in the industry have been closely following the story coming out of Los Angeles, from earlier this year, of the independent union, connected with the KIWA worker center, that won recognition and a contract at the Genwa Korean BBQ chain. This was after a five-year campaign among a staff of 325 workers.
LA is again on the minds of many active workers this month for a different reason: the scandal resulting from the conversation between the president of the LA City Council, two other councilmen, and the head of the AFL-CIO's LA County Federation of Labor (the "LA Fed"), secretly recorded at the offices of the LA Fed in October 2021 and publicized in early October 2022. There's no need to retell the main facts here, since every major newspaper has already reported on them, with particular attention on the racist comments captured throughout the recording.
What emerges from the scandal—three leading Democrats and a top labor bureaucrat caught in the act of racialized scheming regarding LA's redistricting process—is a picture of a trade union leadership that is out of touch with the most basic of trade-union values: to represent the interests of all workers based on the fact that we are workers. Union leaders should not be playing racial political games.
But, that is not all. Of special interest to restaurant workers: tucked in the recordings is a remark by the LA Fed President complaining that the KIWA worker center, which helped to organize the Genwa Korean BBQ chain, "does all the restaurants and small stores" and therefore "encroach[es] on HERE and UFCW".
We in RWU-STR have written elsewhere on the limitations of worker centers. This view is in our program. However, the LA Fed President's charge of "encroachment" against KIWA is laughable in light of the state of unions in the restaurant industry.
How many restaurant workers belong to unions today? 1%. Top union leaders who enjoy making claims on this unorganized industry should also take responsibility for the complete lack of job security and bad conditions that define the sector. We won't be forgetting the mass layoffs of 2020 anytime soon. As for all the rest of us workers, who want to contribute to a new union movement that embraces every restaurant worker, let's get our heads together, across any of the labels that might divide us, and figure out how to unite among ourselves and organize the industry.