Sit-ins Come Back

Labor issues reframed as civil rights issues in protest tactics.
by Evan George

In hopes of brightening their future, Los Angeles workers and labor organizers are turning to tricks of the past: civil disobedience in large numbers.

This week the strategy showed up on Wilshire Boulevard, where members of a coalition trying to unionize security officers in downtown L.A. sat in the intersection blocking traffic. Meanwhile, groups pushing to unionize workers at LAX area hotels are preparing for a day of protest on Thursday, Sept. 28 that they are calling the biggest civil disobedience in Los Angeles history.

The method speaks to a connection being drawn in the labor movement: labor issues, once dealt with singularly, are being framed in a larger context of civil rights issues that affect not just workers but their families, local economies and communities.

On Monday, Sept. 18, a raucous protest held near the Federal Building in Westwood by the Stand for Security Coalition ended in the arrests of 18 community and religious leaders, after they blocked the intersection of Wilshire and San Vicente boulevards in an act of non-violent civil disobedience. The march ended outside the Los Angeles headquarters of G.E. Real Estate/Arden Realty. The coalition says the company is trying to block a tentative deal between security officers and building owners concerning their right to unionize.

“Security officers are on the verge of a historic step forward that will raise security standards and provide good jobs for this mostly African American workforce and their families, but G.E./Arden is threatening to unravel all that,” said the Rev. Eric P. Lee, CEO of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Los Angeles. Lee was one of the 18 people arrested on Monday, along with the Rev. Lewis Logan II, senior pastor of Bethel A.M. E. Church.

Clergyman like Lee and Logan have played an increasing role in the movement to unionize security workers, arguing that the low-wages, lacking benefits and poor security are pressing issues for the black community because the majority of security officers in downtown L.A. are black. The recent push to unionize has been framed by these leaders as a civil rights issue.

Organizers of the Sept. 28 action, which include both the hotel workers union UNITE HERE and the We Are America Coalition, say that the thinking behind that protest is similar to the security officers strategy. The immediate issue of improper policies by Century Boulevard hotel chains toward immigrant workers directly affects the surrounding communities like Hawthorne, Ingelwood and Lennox, supporters say. In a conversation with L.A. Alternative last month, Paulina Gonzalez, a spokesperson for the We Are America Coalition, said she hoped the civil disobedience would push the national immigration debate past border issues.

“This is about what workers experience once they’re here,” Gonzales said.