Labor Leaders Center The Real Stakes In Redistricting Fight

Gov. Gavin Newsom, on Aug. 14, held a critical news conference inside of the Japanese American Museum in Little Tokyo to announce the pushback on Republicans’ attempt to gerrymander the midterm elections. The significance of holding the announcement there in light of the recent ICE raids in Los Angeles is the symbolism of the Japanese internment during World War II that put over 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry into prison camps during the war. That piece of dark American history and current events is not lost on either Newsom nor the Japanese American community.

 A trio of California labor leaders took center stage in making the argument for redrawing California’s congressional maps if Republicans go first to put a check on Trump’s deadly, destructive dictatorial ambitions, placing the focus on the immediate stakes involved.

Setting the stage for Gov. Gavin Newsom and other elected Democrats, at a press conference announcing the redistricting plan, the three leaders made it clear that the stakes were both deeply personal and national in character, impacting working families most of all.

While Republicans are fine with Texas and other red states redistricting already unfair maps, without any say from the voters, they’re suddenly very upset — even though the proposed maps will go before voters this November, and California’s independent redistricting commission will remain in place and draw new maps after the 2030 census, hopefully after Trump’s threat to democracy has been defeated.

But the labor leaders spoke to what Trump’s threat means right now.

“The Trump administration is waging war on every public institution we hold dear,” said Erika Jones, secretary treasurer of the California Teachers Association, and California Republicans in Congress have slavishly supported Trump, rather than protecting the vulnerable they represent. Public schools in particular are being targeted and students are being traumatized.

“The Trump administration removal of schools as safe zones from ICE has unleashed a level of trauma and fear that no one should have to endure, let alone our children,” Jones said. “Just this week, a 15-year-old student here in Los Angeles was detained by federal agents outside Arleta High School. Our students deserve better.”

“The majority of Americans are not with him on these vicious attacks,” Jones stressed. “So what does Trump want to do? Rig the next election and steal our right to fair representation? He wants to stack the deck to keep slashing public services to pad the pockets of his billionaire donors? I taught my kindergarteners to be kind and to help each other, not to cheat and be a bully. Y’all, five-year-olds get it. Why can’t he?”

While California’s GOP representatives said in a statement they would “stand with the citizens of California and defend their rights” by opposing the redistricting proposal, Jones recounted how they had already done the exact opposite, and betrayed those they claim to represent.

“We spent months reaching out to the nine Republican representatives in California. Several refused to even meet with their local teachers in their offices. Some lied directly to our faces and promised they wouldn’t vote for draconian cuts to our schools and our healthcare only then to go back to D.C. and side with Trump and vote to harm our kids and our families here in California,” Jones said.

More specifically, “In the short few months he [Trump] has been in office, he has worked with Republicans, including nine from California, to freeze funds for critical education programs, including afterschool programs, teacher trainings and migrant education programs. He’s cut health care for millions of our students and their families, attempted to dismantle the Department of Education, and pass a voucher program designed to destroy public education entirely,” Jones said, none of which sounds like California’s GOP representatives standing with Californians and defending their rights.

“Given these extreme threats and these corrupt politicians who will throw their own communities under the bus, our union stands in full support of this ballot initiative. We are ready to do whatever it takes to stop this power grab and fight back against any and all attacks on our democracy, on our students, and on public education,” she concluded.

Trump has betrayed working people who voted for him, said Lorena Gonzalez, president of the California Federation, and by pushing Texas to redistrict to counter a voter backlash, he’s left labor with no choice but to fight back.

“We’re not a partisan organization. A lot of people forget that,” Gonzalez said. “We have Democrats and Republicans. And we understand that some of our members even voted for Donald Trump. We understand that they were told by him that he wanted to make us more safe, that he wanted to deport criminals. And instead he’s been deporting and targeting workers and grandmothers and children and dreamers,” she said.

“They were told, even by our Republican members, that he was for working people, that somehow he cared about bringing manufacturing and jobs back to America and to make sure that working people were taken care of. And what has he done? He has systematically destroyed our federal government unions by abolishing basically collective bargaining agreements that were decades in the making. He has taken away the right to collectively bargain for every employee he possibly can. And that is not pro-worker. So we tell our members who believed him, it’s okay. He fucking lied.”

And now to avoid the consequences for lying, he’s told Texas Republicans to redraw maps and create five more safe GOP districts to protect against voter backlash. “But if he wants to cheat, we’re going to fight back,” Gonzalez said. “We are tired of lap dogs. We want people who are independent, not obedient. And it’s time for us to show a little disobedience to Donald Trump,” she warned.

“It’s time for us to fight with everything we have. Because if we care about working people … if we care about unions, the right to make better for your life, to work a hard day and be able to come home and afford a house, to put your kids through college, to to put food on the table. If we care about this, then we have to fight and make sure elections are fair. We have to make sure that there is a check in Congress and California can unilaterally do that.”

The problem isn’t just Trump, said David Huerta, the president of SEIU California State Council. “Republicans have one goal and that goal is to silence the voices of working people. Divide brown and Black communities in particular, unleash terror in immigrant communities, and establish a government that will serve corporations and the wealthy, not the working people.

“We cannot allow the voters in this country to be disenfranchised — perhaps permanently — by the actions of an authoritarian,” Huerta warned. “SEIU members, our members, care too much about fairness, about our right to vote and our democracy to let that happen. And we do not back down from a fight,” he promised.

“California voters must be given the chance to save our democracy. And I trust California voters will save our democracy. We will not sit silently while extremists manipulate elections, disenfranchise the majority of voters and take away our rights.”