Honoring Maria Elena Durazo’s struggle for workers
The husband and wife team of Miguel Contreras and Maria Elena Durazo came out of the farm worker movement and went on to transform the Los Angeles labor movement as leaders of the L.A. County Federation of Labor, the umbrella organization of hundreds of local unions and hundreds of thousands of rank-and-file union members. Beginning in the 1990s, they turned the County Fed, as it is known, into a national model of how a local labor movement can help affiliated unions mobilize thousands of labor activists to effectively battle for workers’ rights, especially low-wage and immigrant workers. They also turned the County Fed into a powerhouse of progressive politics in L.A.
Maria Elena often recounts growing up as one of 11 children from a migrant farm worker family in Fresno. Her life was changed, she says, by Cesar Chavez and our movement that “led my people out of the wilderness of poverty and oppression.” While welcoming 100 Gerawan workers to downtown L.A. on Oct. 22, when the City Council passed a resolution supporting their struggle, Maria Elena said, “I worked in the same fields where you toil now. I endured the same abuses, threats, humiliations and poverty pay that plaque Gerawan workers today, the same bullying that growers like Gerawan practice, the same paternalism of growers like Gerawan who want to decide whether their workers will have a union contract."
Miguel died much too young in 2005. He was succeeded by Maria Elena, whose home union is UNITE HERE, the hotel and restaurant workers union. Maria Elena Durazo just announced she will resign as executive secretary-treasurer of the County Fed effective Jan. 1. She will continue her indispensable work as vice president for immigration, civil rights and diversity with the UNITE HERE International Union. Maria Elena begins this latest chapter in her life with the deepest gratitude and best wishes of all of us in the farm worker movement.
Arturo S. Rodriguez, President
United Farm Workers of America
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