CONVENTION UNDERSCORES CHANGING FACE OF LABOR MOVEMENT.

Byline: Jason Takenouchi Staff Writer

Southland union leaders declared victory Wednesday even before the last delegate left the floor of the Los Angeles Convention Center at the 23rd biennial convention of the country's largest labor organization.

The convention's groundbreaking inclusion of community activists, religious groups and younger unionists - something that Los Angeles union leaders say is vital for organizing success - reflected the new face of the union movement, officials said.

The convention ``has become really what the trade union movement has to become in the next millennium,'' said Tyrone Freeman, deputy general manager of Service Employees International Union Local 434B.

``What I was looking for at the convention is truly what I have seen,'' Freeman said.

The main order of business was a three-day convention that decided policy matters and the presidential endorsement for the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations - an umbrella organization for 68 international and national unions that represent about 13 million U.S. workers.

But AFL-CIO organizers used three days of preconvention events to underscore the changing face of the labor movement, including meetings that brought unionists together with religious organizations, civil rights leaders and students.

Foremost among those was a Saturday rally that drew 9,000 workers and supporters to the Convention Center. The event, which was held to draw attention to issues affecting working families, was simultaneously translated into Spanish, Tagalog, Korean, Vietnamese and Chinese.

SEIU Local 434B, which organized 74,000 Los Angeles County home care workers this year, was one of scores of area unions that supported the event. Other participants included Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Woodland Hills; Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles; and Gov. Gray Davis.

By holding the convention in Los Angeles - an area with huge populations of immigrant, non-White and low-wage workers - the AFL-CIO gave center stage to the growing importance of organizing a diverse range of workers, union leaders said.

The venue also highlighted the community-based organizing that has added about 90,000 area workers to the rolls of about 350 AFL-CIO-affiliated unions.

``This will make all the unions look at Los Angeles as a place where they should be organizing,'' said Neal Sacharow, spokesman for the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, the county's union umbrella group. ``There could potentially be a huge increase in union activity.''

The convention may boost existing union activity as well, said Richard Slawson, executive secretary of the Los Angeles/Orange Counties Building and Construction Trades Council, AFL-CIO.

``Just as any corporation that is advertising its wares, unions are trying to get their message out,'' Slawson said.

The convergence of religion, union and immigrant communities - a focal point during the convention - is familiar ground for the labor movement, according to Sanford M. Jacoby, a professor at the Anderson School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles.

``Some of the tactics remind one of what the labor movement did 90 years ago, back in a period when we were experiencing large waves of immigration,'' he said.

But the union has hard work ahead, Jacoby warned.

``Symbolism and public relations are several steps removed from the tough work of getting people to join a union and convincing employers to recognize employees' wishes,'' Jacoby said. ``It's going to be a tough road for labor to expand beyond those sectors where they've traditionally shown strength.''

Los Angeles union leaders say the wide gap between rich and poor in Los Angeles will work to their advantage.

``I think the disparity between those who have and those who have not has become so great it has seeped into the churches, the community, and onto the shop floors where people work,'' said Freeman, the SEIU official. ``Now people have said we've had enough.''