I’m honored to share a letter that was sent by Maria Elena Durazo, Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, regarding her recent endorsement of my re-election. I urge you to watch her video message and share it with your friends and family.
Dear Friend,
My name is Maria Elena Durazo, Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO. I am proud today to announce my endorsement of Congresswoman Jane Harman.
The Los Angeles County Federation of Labor represents over 300 unions – the men and women who make up all of the different industries that make Los Angeles work – from the public sector and the private sector.
In the years I have known Congresswoman Harman, she has shown herself to be leader. She takes hold of an issue in Congress and gets the job done. She is as courageous as she is energetic.
Congresswoman Harman has always fought for a worker’s right to organize, and she is an original co-sponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act. She refuses to cross picket lines and has marched with local janitors, health care workers, and others to make sure that people who work hard and play by the rules are paid well and treated with dignity.
She has opposed unfair trade agreements, including NAFTA and CAFTA, and has long advocated better technology and fairer hours for air traffic controllers.
Most importantly, as we fight our way out of the Bush recession, we are proud to work cooperatively with her to create good, high-paying, skilled jobs for our communities.
I hope you will watch this short video and share it with your friends and family.
We appreciate somebody who is strong, thoughtful and courageous. And we are deeply appreciative of Congresswoman Harman for always fighting for us.
Jane Harman deserves our support. I could not be more proud to endorse her today and ask you to vote for her in the Democratic Primary on June 8.
Sincerely,
Maria Elena Durazo
Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor
Jane Margaret Lakes Harman has not a working class bone in her body, and has never shown any enthusiasm or interest in workers’ issues. That is in stark contrast to her primary opponent, Marcy Winograd, who grew up in the union movement, organized in the ’70s for the United Farm Workers (in which Durazo and her late husband, Miguel Contreras, have roots), and was an activist and is a longstanding member of UTLA, the second largest teachers’ union in the country. UTLA and the Southern California District Council of the ILWU, both with significant membership and institutional presence in the district, have endorsed Winograd. (Her husband is a union-side labor lawyer) Marcy was on the picket line (as was Durazo) taking on the Hyatt in Century City in January, and in April at the British Consulate in west Los Angeles supporting the ILWU Local 30 locked out Boron workers (who have since won their battle against international industrial giant Rio Tinto). Where was Harman? Did she ever carry a picket sign in her life? (I’d peg her more as someone who’d cross) Did she lift a finger to help the locked out Rio Tinto workers? Harman has no unionism in her heart or blood; Winograd is the embodiment of the kind of representative who will have labor’s back and be out front for labor in Congress. Harman would just continue to yawn and take labor for granted, as too many Dems like her do now.