Union Man Miguel Contreras - RIP

Miguel Contreras, head of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, died of a heart attack on Friday, May 6th, 2005 - he was 52. A farm worker’s son who started working in the fields at age 5, Contreras began his involvement in politics at age 17 by joining the United Farm Worker's Boycott Grapes campaign. He handed out leaflets in support of the boycott at grocery stores, and eventually was appointed a strike captain. Cesar Chavez sent him to Toronto Canada to act as a representative of the UFW. In recalling his work with Chavez, Contreras said ''Mexican farm workers were seen as nothing more than agricultural implements, to be used and discarded like you would discard an old shovel or an old hoe. He gave us a feeling of real self-worth and a feeling of breaking away those imaginary shackles you had to the grower and standing up for yourself.'' Contreras was working with labor unions in Salinas and San Francisco when the international Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union recruited him as a national organizer, bringing him to LA in the late 1980s. In 1996 he became the head of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, an association made up of 345 local unions with a membership of 800,000 workers. Contreras is widely credited with helping to make LA a union city, he not only energized the labor movement, he opened its ranks to more Latino and immigrant workers. In 2000 he became a leader in the Great Janitor's Strike of LA, where tens of thousands of poor and immigrant janitorial workers went on strike against super wealthy building owners. The work stoppage not only had mass support in LA, it also became the model for labor organizations in the US and eventually ended in victory for the janitor's union.

Contreras was highly regarded across the political spectrum, and messages of condolence have poured in from all quarters. The LA branch of the Committee In Solidarity With The People of El Salvador (CISPES), made the following comment on the day of Contreras' passing: "The progressive movement, the labor movement and working people everywhere are in a state of shock over the passing of Miguel Contreras, leader of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. Miguel died today of a heart attack. We express to his family and to all of the many friends and co-workers of Miguel our deepest sympathy. Labor and working families - and all of us - have lost a real companero and a fighter for social and economic justice... Miguel Contreras, Presente!" Contreras is survived by his wife, Maria Elena Durazo, leader of Unite Here - Local 11, the large hotel and restaurant union, and their two sons, Michael and Mario.