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April 7, 1978January 14, 2022

Claiming the right to full union membership

ACLU News Release: Ruiz v. HERE Local 11 — In the 1970s, rank-and-file activists found common cause with progressive legal groups like the ACLU. Daniel Ruiz, an immigrant member of HERE Local 11, sued to win the right of non-citizens to hold office in the local union.

In 1978 members of HERE Local 11 launched a campaign to unseat long-time union leader Andrew “Scotty” Allan. United Workers of Local 11 ran a multiracial slate of men and women committed to greater member participation in the 20,000 member union. Their candidate for the office of secretary-treasurer was Daniel Ruiz, a resident immigrant and respected leader among the workers at the Hyatt hotel. However, the election committee of Local 11, citing the constitution of the international union, declared Ruiz ineligible for office because he was not a U.S. citizen.

“Denying non-citizens the right to run for office means, in effect, that the Spanish-speaking majority is without representation, without equality under the law, and that the minority of the membership exercises all decision making powers while the majority is left out.”

Daniel Ruiz

With the help of the ACLU of Southern California, Ruiz and his allies sued Local 11 for violating Ruiz’s right to full participation in the union and other members’ right to nominate the person of their choosing. The union’s election committee quickly backed down and allowed Ruiz’s nomination. Although United Workers of Local 11 did not win the election, members of the union continued to demand a more responsive union leadership. Following the 1978 lawsuit Local 11 began translating contracts and other key documents, but the English-speaking members who dominated union meetings routinely voted down proposals for simultaneous translation of meetings. In 1985, the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund filed a lawsuit against Local 11 on behalf of two members demanding full translation of meetings, and in 1987 a judge ruled in their favor. A year later Scotty Allan was out of office.

Download the Press Release. Download Ruiz’s statement. From the papers of the ACLU of Southern California, box 826 folder 6 and box 665 folder 3. Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles. Learn more about UNITE HERE Local 11.

March 1, 1978May 28, 2022

United Workers of Local 11 rank-and-file campaign

Campaign literature from the *United Workers* of HERE Local 11, a rank-and-file group that challenged the union’s leadership in 1978. Supported by the ACLU, the group won the right of non-citizens to hold office in the union.

During the 1970s, the Hotel and Restaurant Employees union (HERE) Local 11 in Los Angeles was losing power as restaurant owners dropped their union contracts and hotels cut wages and benefits. In 1978 a multiracial group of members calling themselves United Workers of Local 11 challenged the union’s long-serving leader Scotty Allan. The group distributed campaign flyers accusing union leaders of making backroom deals with employers and ignoring the concerns of the Spanish-speaking majority of members. Meeting weekly at the People’s College of Law near MacArthur Park, the rank-and-file activists found support from progressive lawyers and activists from other unions. Their bilingual campaign literature declared, “We can no longer disregard a major portion of our membership and make ‘second class members’ of so many.” Although United Workers lost the election, they helped established the right of non-citizens to hold office and participate fully in the union’s affairs through the lawsuit of Daniel Ruiz their candidate for secretary-treasurer. Their effort was the beginning of a decade-long struggle for union leadership that culminated in the election of Maria Elena Durazo in 1989.

From the papers of the ACLU of Southern California, box 826 folder 6, Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

Learn more about UNITE HERE Local 11.

June 22, 1973February 19, 2023

ACLU News Release: Loya v. INS

Responding to “dragnet” deportation raids in Latinx communities, the ACLU sued the INS in 1973, which became the case Loya v. INS.

In 1972-73, the Immigration and Naturalization service carried out widespread raids on workplaces, businesses, and homes in Los Angeles. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Southern California, in collaboration with the Center for Autonomous Social Action (CASA) and other allies in the Latinx community, filed suit to stop the raids–a case that became known as Loya v. INS. Founded in 1968 and led in its early years by Bert Corona, CASA provided social and legal services to undocumented immigrants, trained them to assert their rights, and supported unionization efforts. As this press release details, the ACLU charged that the INS was using “terror methods,” and targeting everyone with a “Latin appearance” including U.S. citizens. The Loya case was an early episode in a long-running battle between legal advocates and immigration officials. Download the Document.

May 2, 1938February 19, 2025

To ask for more would jeopardize what we have

Between 1933 and 1945, the University of California worked with California Department of Education and the California Federation of Labor to offer workers' education course through the University Extension. Known first as the Western Summer School for Workers, then as the Pacific Coast School for Workers, and finally as the Pacific Coast Labor School, the program trained hundreds of rank-and-file union members. Following World War II the school became part of the new Institute of Industrial Relations. 

In this 1938 letter to the head of the University of Wisconsin School for Workers, the Director of the Pacific Coast Labor School describes the fraught relationship between the school and the University of California. That would change during World War II when UC President Robert Sproul began to see labor programs as a way to expand the university's role in the state. 

How to cite this document: George Hedley to Ernest Schwartztrauber, May 2, 1938, School for Workers Records, 18/5/37-3 box 9, University of Wisconsin Archives.

Mr E. E. Schwartztrauber, Director
The School for Workers in Industry
The University of Wisconsin

1214 West Johnson Street

Madison, Wisconsin

My dear Mr Schwarztrauber:

Thank you for yours of 26th ult.

It is a bit difficult to reply to your enquiry. Kerchen, the W.E.B. representative at the University of California, is a grand old chap. The School itself could not have come into being without his cooperation with Mrs. Adams, the co-founder; and he has given wise counsel and active teaching service from year to year.

So far as I can find out, however, he is unable to accomplish much else. He used to conduct a few evening classes himself, but for the past two years he has been in poor health and has done almost nothing in that field. The Labor Institutes have been, for better or for worse, almost completely taken over by the School organization; that is not unnatural, in view of the fact that the School personnel are the labor people interested in education, and in view of the additional fact that most of the progressives are pretty impatient with what they regard as the extreme caution (most of them would put it more sharply) of Spencer Miller.

An added complication re the University is the tension existing between a President who wants to be liberal and a Board of Regents which is almost violently reactionary. We are happy off the University campus — in fact, I personally suggested the move in 1936; but it was an obvious relief to Sproul when I did so! Kerchen never has suggested any possibility of further financial aid from the University (I say further, because we provide only his board and room for his teaching services), and I think he is wise in saving his breath.

In the long run the situation is not hopeless. Sproul, as I said, really wants to be liberal; but he has a job to keep — and Heaven pity us if he were jammed out and the Regents put in the sort of man their present mood would select. This week the wife of the retiring Director of the Extension Division is giving a tea in the School’s interests, and is deliberately inviting the campus people who have been most skeptical about our right to exist. Incidentally, I have taught on the Extension myself throughout the year, and with apparently happy results.

But the sum total at present is that we are lucky to have the formal blessing of the institution and the personal participation of Kerchen. To ask for more, with things as they are, would be seriously to jeopardize what we have…. And do you know that our Governor cut the budget for the University something like half a million, with the remark that we are actually spending more than does the University of Kansas?

We look forward to the coming of the two ladies from Green Bay, and hope that they will contribute largely to a strengthening of the relationship between your School and ours.

Thanking you for your kindness, and hoping that you will have time to inform and to advise us frequently, I am

Very truly yours

George P. Hedley
Director

September 1, 1933February 19, 2025

Western Summer School for Industrial Workers, 1933

In the summer of 1933, California union organizers, state education officials, and the University of California Workers' Education program collaborated on the first Western Summer School for Industrial Workers. Later renamed the Pacific Coast Labor School, the Western Summer School was an important forerunner of the University of California Institute of Industrial Relations that was founded in 1945. This document from the school's archive at Occidental College Library names many of people and organizations that helped launch the program.

How to cite: "Class Record: Summer School for Industrial Workers, Occidental College, August 1933," Pacific Coast Labor School records, Occidental College Library.

Summer School for Industrial Workers
Occidental College
Los Angeles, California.
August 1933.

History

The Summer School for Industrial Workers which opened its doors at Occidental College on Sunday evenings, August 6, 1933, is the realization of a dream which originated several years ago with a club of Industrial Workers at the Young Womens Christian Association in Los Angeles. The Club was started in 1928 by Sadie Goodman, who had attended the first Workers Summer School at Bryn Mawr. It met weekly for study and discussion; and from among its members students were chosen each year for Bryn Mawr.

The group talked often of the possibilities of a Workers School on the Pacific Coast, and two years ago, under the inspiration of Helen Richter, Bessie Goren, and Sadie Goodman, it took the first active steps. Both Scripps College and Occidental College gave warm support to the project; and Occidental offered its hospitality for the summer of 1933. The California Association for Adult Education was invited to cooperate with the colleges, the Y.W.C.A., and other bodies, in organizing the School, and its Director, Mrs. Lucy Wilcox Adams, was placed in charge of the work.

The plan of the School was launched at a dinner at the Los Angeles Y.W.C..A. on March 13, 1933, at which Dr. Remsen D. Bird, president of Occidental College presided. Representatives of a number of colleges, clubs, and educational institutions were present and expressed their support of the project. A committee representing the various interests concerned in the founding of the School was appointed to perfect plans and raise the necessary funds. Mrs. Ethel Richardson Allen former chief of Adult Education in California, acted as chairman. Other members of the committee were:

Dr. John Darr of Scripps College, Mrs. Irene Heineman, Assistant State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Mirian Bonner, former instructor in the Bryn Mawr and Vineyard Shore
Schools for Yorkers, Mary Buchtel, Assistant Secretary of the Los Angeles Y.W.C.A., Florence Nichol, Industrial Secretary of the Los Angeles Y.W.C.A., Ethelwyn Mills, Anne Peterson of the International Ladies Garment Workers, Dr. W.A. Diebold of the Unemployed Cooperative Relief Association, Sadie Goodman, Bessie Goren and Helen Richter, representing the Industrial Club of the Y.W.C.A., Dr. William F. Adams of the
University of California at Los Angeles, and Mrs. Lucy Wilcox Adams of the California Association for Adult Education. This committee worked with a committee representing Occidental College under the chairmanship of Anne Munford, and received the most cordial and helpful cooperation.

The plan as finally agreed upon called for a four weeks school from August 6 to September 1, 1933 at Occidental College. Orr Hall, one of the womens’ dormitories, was placed
at the disposal of the students, and the fountain room of the College Union was opened for meals. The original intention had been to limit the students to women, but at the meeting in March the men present asked to have the privileges extended to men as well. This was agreed upon, but it was deemed advisable because of expense to limit residence to women. The sum of $25.00 per resident student for the four weeks period was set as the amount of the individual scholarships. This covered the cost of room and board, laundry, the services of the kitchen staff, and other incidental expenses. Dr. Bird offered to make himself responsible for the cost to the college of the School. In addition to the residence fee, a registration fee of $1.00 was charge.

Meanwhile, the Extension Division of the University of California was invited to participate in the School and accepted. Its Workers Education Bureau, representing jointly
the University and the California State Federation of Labor, assigned its Director, John L. Kerchen, to the School.

A second dinner under the chairmanship of Mrs. Lucy Wilcox Adams was held at the Y.M.C.A. in Los Angeles on May 8th. Completed plans for the school were announced, together with the proposed curriculum and the names of the Faculty. In view of the fact that the School was a new venture in the West, the Faculty all volunteered their services. Without this assistance it would have been too difficult, if not impossible, to raise the necessary funds. The outstanding event of this dinner was the presentation by the Industrial Club of the Y.W.C.A. of the first scholarship, and their example stirred the gathering present to raise another scholarship to match it.

A committee under the chairmanship of Mrs. Adams was appointed to prepare a bulletin of information and an application blank, and a scholarship committee under the chairmanship of Miss Ethelwyn Mills was formed to interview prospective students. The purpose of the School as outlined in the bulletin was as follows:

“The Summer School for Industrial Workers at Occidental College has been established to provide opportunity for workers in industry to study the social and economic problems of present day industrial society, to train themselves in clear thinking, and to develop a desire for study as a means of understanding and enjoyment or life. The Summer School is not committed to any dogma or theory, but will conduct its teaching in the spirit of impartial inquiry with freedom of discussion and instruction.”

The original intention had been to limit membership to applicants with at least three years of wage-earning experience, two of which, preferably, should heave been in industry;
but the rule was relaxed to some extent and a few men and women from the business field and the ranks of domestic workers were enrolled. A limited number of college students were also admitted to serve in the capacity of tutors and general assistants.

It did not prove an easy matter to raise funds in the midst of the general business depression, but the help of the following organizations and individuals made possible the
School: Occidental College, Pomona College, Scripps College, Stanford University, the University of California, the State Federation of Labor, the Los Angeles Y.W.C.A., the Industrial Club of the Los Angeles Y.W.C.A., the Pasadena Y.W.C.A., the San Francisco Y.W.C.A., the Womans Civic League of Pasadena, the Girls Council of Los Angeles, Mrs Ethel Richardson Allen, Miss Averic and Miss Elsie Allen, Dr. and Mrs. Remsen Bird, Miss Martha Chickering, Mrs. Oliver C. Field, Mrs. Ludwig Frank and a group of friends in San Francisco who raised a scholarship in memory of Mrs Jesse Steinhart, Miss Helen Marston, Miss Ethelwyn Mills, Dr. Ernest C. Moore, Dr. Gordon Watkins, Dr. C.H. Rieber, and Miss Mary Yest. Special thanks are due to Dr. John Darr of Scripps College for his continued help in every phase of the School’s activity.

It has been possible to carry on the School on the meagre budget of $700 partly through the assistance of the students, all of whom have worked in the dining room, and have been responsible for the care of their own rooms, and for some measure of janitor service. This has proven very satisfactory, and has reduced service charges to a minimum.

The work of interesting students in the School was accomplished largely through the efforts of the Industrial Club of the Y.W.C.A. and by meetings at the Labor Temple and
at various unions. At the last moment plans were upset to some extent as the adoption of NRA gave jobs to half a dozen or more prospective students. But on August 6, 1933, a total of 29 students were enrolled and attended the Opening Exercises.