CHANGING THE RULES.

Eliseo Medina's chance meeting with Cesar Chavez ensured he would avoid a life in the fields and put him on a path organizing workers and becoming a leading national voice

BORN in a dirt-poor pueblo north of Mexico City Eliseo Medina immigrated to Kern County with his family when he was 10 years old. But after finishing the 8th grade, Medina left school to become a farm worker, like his father, something he believes he would be doing to this day if not for the 1965 strike against Delano grape growers led by Cesar Chavez.

Instead, at age 19, Medina joined the farm workers union as an organizer, and three years later helped spearhead its nationwide grape boycott. He stayed with the United Farm Workers of America, rising to the rank of second vice president, before leaving in 1978.

In 1986, he joined the Service Employees International Union - the union behind the "Justice for Janitors" campaign that has found organizing immigrant workers a source of strength. In 1996, Medina was elected one of three executive vice presidents, and he has become a leading national voice in the call for immigration reform, including an amnesty for undocumented workers. In California he has been chief strategist of successful organizing campaigns in the healthcare industry.

Question: How is it the SEIU has managed to be successful organizing folks like janitors, nursing home workers and home care workers, while other unions have seen their memberships stagnate or slide backward?

Answer: You have to go back and look who started the SEIU. It was janitors, close to 80 years ago in Chicago, who were being exploited and not being paid fairly. As (their efforts) became successful, they sent people to other places around the country. In many ways, what the union today is doing is going back to its roots, organizing people who often don't have the kind of resources or education that other people may have.

Q: And what in particular is the union offering that other unions may not be?

A: I think, unfortunately, the labor movement has not been as active as it should be, but in the SEIU, much of what we do is determined by the interests of our members. Basically, worker issues or needs are what drives the agenda of this organization. Consequently, we have a lot more activity and a lot more commitment from the workers.

Q: What does that mean in the hospital industry, where you have been organizing not only your lower skilled workers, but even registered nurses?

A: We have found that in some cases there has been a race to the bottom in the industry - who can make the most profit by squeezing the workers. What happens is that workers feel they don't have any control, and so they want to have a voice. In some cases, it led us to working in partnership with some of these corporations to figure out how to solve some of these questions.

Q: How extensive are some of these partnerships?

A: With Kaiser (Permanente) we have a very strong partnership. For example, when they were going to open up a hospital, the workers were involved in every step of the process, of planning how it was going to be opened, what the hospital was going to look like, and how service was going to be given.

Q: How important are these partnerships compared with traditional labor concerns, such as higher wages and benefits?

A: At the end of the day, people want to feel like when they go home that they have made a difference. Last year, we had a big strike with janitors, but this year put together a "Lights Out" campaign in which janitors working with managers and owners figured out how to conserve energy. Now, (before unionizing) would you have had a situation where janitors had that kind of voice and the owners would have listened to them?

Q: Aren't you concerned that much of the union's gains came during a stretch of posterity that is now fading?

A: The bottom line is that workers, regardless of what happens to the economy, are going to feel the same need for a voice, the same need for a process to resolve their problems. Some companies will take advantage of the bad economy to try and downsize, to cut wages or take away benefits. And in those cases, workers need a union more than ever.

Q: Immigration reform has been an important issue for you, but clearly the terrorist attacks have changed the debate.

A: No question Sept. 11 has created a pause in any domestic agenda discussions, not just immigration. But the bottom line is, sooner or later we have to get back to the unfinished agenda of this country. Paramount on my mind is this whole question of what are we going to do about immigrants.

Q: How long do you think it will be?

A: I think that by next year, with a new Congress, this debate will be able to be had again. Whether we can accomplish immigration reform next year I don't know, but one thing I do know is that this issue is critical to our members. At our convention, when we talked about immigration reform, everybody felt this was one of the main priorities of the union.

Q: I understand you met Mexican President Vicente Fox shortly after lie was elected as part of a bi-national committee sponsored by the Carnegie Foundation, briefing him on labor issues. How did you find him?

A: I think he understands more than any other Mexican president the importance of the relationship with the U.S. and the Mexican community here. For many, many years people in Mexico thought that those of us who left were turncoats, even though our contributions helped keep the Mexican economy afloat. So I think Vicente Fox is the first president to come to the U.S. and say Mexican workers (here) are heroes.

Q: You've also met with Administration officials on this issue. Did you ever imagine how far you would come in the labor movement, given your humble beginnings?

A: That is not something I spend time thinking about. You have to believe in what you are doing, and I have been very fortunate in my life to work with a lot of very good people, like Cesar Chavez and (AFL-CIO president and former SEIU president) John Sweeney.

Q: Talking about Cesar Chavez, when did you first meet him?

A: I went to this meeting at the local church. It was jam packed. All these guys were talking about we need to strike. I was 19 years old. It was the most exciting thing I had ever seen. There was this man talking, very distinguished, gray hair, mustache and stuff. He was really impressive.., and then he introduces Chavez, 5-foot-5, dark, unassuming. Then he started talking and he made a lot of sense - that fact that even though people are poor and they are there to sell their labor, they are not selling their soul. They have a right to be paid.

Q: How big n role did he play in your life?

A: He was one of those life changers. He had something about him. It certainly wasn't a formal education, but in many ways he was an organizational genius. But he also had something that was very humble and appealing that would make people believe that if they tried something they could in fact made some changes in the way things are.

Q: So what is the biggest challenge facing organized labor?

A: Workers are ready to organize, and the biggest challenge is how do we rise to that challenge. When you see that only 13 percent of workers belong to a union we still have a long ways to go. I don't think we have figured that out yet.

Elisee Medina

Title: International executive vice president (western U.S. region)

Organization: Service Employees International Union

Born: 1946, Zacatecas, Mexico

Education: 8th grade

Career Turning Point: Joining the farm workers union in 1965

Most Admired Person: Cesar Chavez

Hobbies: Light reading, high-tech "toys" like the Kyocera Smart-phone

Personal: Twice married, three children