After the top three Democrats running for the U.S. Senate spent an hour answering questions from union leaders on Sunday night, the executive director of the California Labor Federation said

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Secretary-Treasurer Lorena Gonzalez told the crowd in the stands that the choice of who she supports to replace Senator Dianne Feinstein will be difficult.

The appearance was what first time Reps. Barbara Lee of Oakland), Katie Porter of Irvine, and Adam Schiff of Burbank have appeared together since the launch of their 2024 Senate campaigns, underlining how vital union support will be in California’s

primary next year.

The crowd gathered in a Sheraton Grand ballroom just steps from the Capitol and heard little difference between the candidates about their stances on support for workers’ rights, proponent of project labor in federal spending agreements, and their desire for the government to push back industry more vigorously Consolidation and automation in everything from supermarkets to steel mills.

“We’re ashamed of wealth here,” Gonzalez said twice as he stood on stage with the three candidates.

The California Labor Federation is an umbrella group of approximately 1,200 labor unions representing approximately 2 million workers in both the public and private sectors. Last year it appointed Gonzalez,

Who is

a former state councilor, as new leader. She replaced longtime executive secretary-treasurer Art Pulaski.

Gonzalez and her team. Work with an executive council of nearly 50 members, made up of the heads of labor councils and unions across the state. These groups are a powerful organizing force in state politics. Their approval is coveted because it comes with the federation’s ample financial and organizing power to aid candidates.

She said the federation’s approval decision won’t come until later in the year, after their board of directors meets.

Still, the interview was an opportunity for each of the candidates to burn off their bona fide labor. They all tried to talk their ties to unions and tout the union recommendations they had already obtained.

In March, the

province of Alameda

Building and construction trade

Council of Alameda County

endorsed

Rep. Barbara

Lee receives support from 40,000 workers who are part of 28 affiliated unions in Lee’s current congressional district. She is also supported by labor icon Dolores Huerta, who co-founded the United Farm Workers Union nearly 60 years ago.

one of the

The Fletchers of Gonzalez

The first big steps last year were to bring the farm workers into the Labor Federation after leaving the umbrella group in 2006.

The three candidates were asked when they first stood on a picket line, and Lee, 76, recalled standing in solidarity with dockers from the International Longshore and Warehouse Union during anti-apartheid protests in South Africa in the 1970s.

At one point, Lee loved the transition from fossil fuels to green energy and how it impacts workers until the time the federal government shut down

Closed

military bases across the country.

“We have to do it in a way that reduces employee anxiety,” she said, adding that the federal government needs to find ways to retrain workers and secure jobs that are sustainable well into the future.

Schiff agreed and said

and said

that there should be “a guaranteed income for people affected by those workforce disruptions”.

This moment provoked a sharp reply from Porter.

“One thing Washington is full of is buzzwords,” said Porter,

adding that the

vegetable

economics cannot simply result in union contracts where people are paid $15 an hour

function

. Federal investments in green industries

Like it

Like solar panels, she said, workers should be protected to ensure that unionized labor is used and that people are not abused by employers.

“So I want to push back this idea of ​​a just transition a little bit and talk clearly about what that means. … It’s not enough to talk about a just transition. You have to make sure you build it into every one of our tax dollars that we spend,” said Porter, who brought Gonzalez as her guest to this year’s State of Union address.

The candidates were asked about the hardest moment they experienced during childbirth.

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said it can sometimes be difficult to get across to major employers or voters why it’s important to get behind union groups.

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He joined the picket line

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during a recent strike by thousands of aid workers

for

in the Unified School District of Los Angeles.

“You have thousands and thousands of parents who suddenly have to figure out what to do with their child and they ask why you support the strike,” he said.

“Because it’s the right thing to do.”

This received applause from the standing room only ballroom.

Porter followed

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noting that she had never accepted campaign donations from super-PAC political action committees, something Schiff has done in the past, even though he had promised not to do so in the Senate campaign.

Both she and Schiff were vocal supporters of the recent writers’ strike here in Hollywood, with the Irvine congressman tweeting her solidarity by saying, “All workers must be fairly compensated, including in a changing economy.”

Schiff said in a statement that the Writers Guild of America’s fight “for better wages and pay protection in the age of streaming content is vital to ensuring the livelihoods of those who make the entertainment industry such a creative powerhouse.”

Lee said she hoped to get to the picket line the next time she was in Los Angeles.

The trio strongly supported legislation in Congress to expand labor protections. The law protecting the right to organize swept it out of the House of Representatives, but died in the Senate during the last two sessions of Congress. It was reintroduced in February, with Porter, Schiff and Lee as co-sponsors.

At the event, all three said it would be a priority to find ways to pass this legislation.

subsequently

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Bill Shaver, political director of the Sheet Metal Workers

union

Los Angeles Local 105 said hearing the three candidates made a difficult decision even more difficult.

The difficult thing for us in the labor movement is that we have three friends. Which friend do we vote for? Which friend do we return? Scheer said.

He said it’s hard to imagine at this point that all of the unions that are members of the California Federation of Labor will support the same candidate because they have relationships with each of them.

Organized labor is divided, we are divided on who to support, Shaver said. “So that’s the dilemma we have, where do we all come from. We all have our own connections with those candidates. So it’s going to be tough.