Unions come out in full force to support march

A Valley-long march against state budget cuts wound its way north on M Street in Merced on Wednesday afternoon.

It was clear the group was made up of mostly union members. United Farm Worker flags, T-shirts emblazoned with union symbols and laborers' chants were all reminders of the strong union presence.

While the March for California's Future was led and organized by teachers and focused on the cuts in funding for education, some of the marchers and their supporters are union members who work outside the education field.

The march from Bakersfield to Sacramento follows the trail Cesar Chavez took in 1965 to support grape pickers.

The march's main goal has been to focus attention on the cuts to education and social services, but it has also acted as a bond for union cooperation statewide. Many of the unions involved see the state budget cuts as more than cost-cutting measures. Instead, they see them as an attack on the well-being of Californians at the expense of the middle class, said union spokespeople and marchers.

In Merced, the union support for the march came from the Merced-Mariposa Central Labor Council, which hosted the march. "Labor as a whole, which is what the Central Labor Council speaks for, is involved in this march because labor and working people are the chief casualties of the state's budget cuts," said Doug Fleming, spokesman for the council.

Ysmael Rocha, a member of the Merced chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said that kind of march brings unions together for a common cause. "Hopefully, this will let us see that we have commonalities," he said. State budget cuts have hurt more than teachers, said Rocha. At the Human Services Agency, where he works, there are fewer people working more caseloads because of state cuts.

Steve Smith of the California Labor Federation said the state's draconian budget cuts have galvanized unions into action. "This is really about things that are much broader than education," he said about the march. "What has happened due to these cuts is people are really losing their grasp on what we thought was the Californian dream."

The march, which includes 140 organizations, has brought a lot of unions together for a common cause. It also showcases the people powerful unions can bring to bear on the political playing field, remarked Marty Hittelman, president of the California Federation of Teachers.

The march, said Hittelman, "is solidifying the labor movement."

In the past California's unions have spent a lot of money on electing politicians, he said, but that hasn't been very effective. "The strength of the labor movement is in its people," he said. "This march is to wake up the people in the Central Valley so that they can have power here."

Somewhere, Cesar Chavez may be smiling.

Reporter Jonah Owen Lamb can be reached at (209) 385-2484 or jlamb@mercedsun-star.com.