Fight Erupts After Union Vote
By ELLIOT BLAIR SMITH
June 20, 1993
FIGHTING MAD: Violence that including chair throwing breaks out Saturday in Santa Ana after the election for leadership of the Laborers International Union local. Opponents of the winner plan to protest the results to the National Labor Relations Board.
LABOR: 'Matchy' Duarte gets a sixth three-year term, but
his foes plan to appeal the election results.
SANTA ANA-A bitter union election struggle ended Saturday in a
bloody brawl, but Marcelino "Matchy" Duarte - longtime boss of the Laborers
International Union, Local 652-emerged with his leadership intact.
Duarte, 61, garnered just 34.9 percent of 2,066
votes cast. But angry union rank-and-file members-predominantly Mexican-American
construction workers whose jobs and benefits are disappearing amid the recession- divided
their votes among four candidates.
Duarte's leading opponent, foreman Crispin Perez, immediately
vowed to appeal the results to the National Labor Relations Board. Perez backers alleged
before the vote was final that 138 union members-nearly equal to Duarte's margin of
victory- failed to receive ballots.
Immediately after his victory, which brings with it a sixth three
year term, Duarte was hoisted onto the shoulders of his cheering supporters and ushered
out of the union hall at 1532 E. Chestnut Street as violence erupted.
Scattered fistfights, which had threatened to break out all day,
quickly intensified into a chair-swinging melee that left one Duarte supporter, Rudy
Ruvalcava, 32, splattered with his own blood.
Perez's backers alleged that eight deceased union members were
mailed ballots, though election judges offered assurances that none were
cast.
"In the past dead people have voted. Today we haven't run
into any," said Ralph Flores, 40, who ran on Perez 's electoral slate and finished
second in the race for union president. That positon is largely ceremonial. Nearly
absolute power is vested in Duarte's position as union business manager. Duarte directs
regotiatrions with contractors, oversees job assignments, and, in the 15 years of his
stewardship, has controlled $38.2 million in union membership dues.
Critics say Duarte squandered the union's wealth in prosperous
times, leaving its treasury nearly depleted in recent lean years.
During the voting, Ruvalcava had jeered the opposing electoral
factions, saying, "If they really wanted Matchy out, they would have gotten one slate
together. But they all want the same position."
And Perez, 55, noted: "We all know what
needs to be done. We're all losing."
Former Duarte aide Luis Holguin, 52, who in April broke with his
boss after a 15-year relationship and ran a close third, said beforehand,
"I'm hoping if Matchy wins he'll open up his eyes that we want things to change
around here."
Local 652 is one of Orange County's oldest and largest labor
unions. Last year largely Hispanic drywall workers initiated organizing efforts in their
part of the construction industry, but those efforts were unrelated to
Saturday's activities.
During the campaign, Duarte pledged that he would cut his $103,140
salary by 15 percent bringing it to pre-recession levels. But that doesn't address related
allegations by his union foes of absenteeism and excess at a time when
about 540 active union members are out of work.
Duarte, who arranged Saturday for a mariachi band to play "El
Rey" ("The King") even before the election results were known, is alleged
by union foes to spend increasing amounts of time away from the union
hall at his second home in Cabo San Lucas.
Meanwhile, many rank-and-file members, facing long-term
dislocation from the work force, identify themselves by their by their page number on a
lengthy job- wait list.
"Anybody who goes against the system doesn't work," said
David Hernandez, 59,who in 1978 was ousted as the union's leader by Duarte. Hernandez now
is unemployed and on page 23 of a 30-page waiting list. Each page lists about 18 names.
"In the past, the system doesn't work," dead
people have voted. Today we haven't run into any." RALPH FLORES
Opponents of Duarte say he has maintained his
power base by developing strong loyalty among young, new members who are willing to accept
lowerpaying jobs. He also maintains a disciplined political organization that has
withstood its stiffest test.
And, it seems, Duarte still relishes a good fight.
At a union meeting in January, one of his frequent hecklers,
Sergio Estrada, 51, passed out fliers depicting the union boss with green eyes and
dollar-signs through the pupils. Duarte, after demanding to see the flier, invited one of
Estrada's more vocal supporters to a fistfight at the podium.
"And the man threw haymakers like he should have been
fighting for our rights," Estrada recalls, "but he was missing
by a mile. "