TheLiberalOC has obtained a letter from the Los Angeles/Orange Counties Building and Construction Trades Council to Henry Vandermeir of the Democratic Party of Orange County that unless Greg Diamond, a lawyer and candidate for District Attorney, isn’t removed from Diamond’s Vice Chair of the DPOC North leadership post, the union will immediately withdraw all support of the DPOC. Diamond also blogs for the Orange Juice blog. The letter can be read here.
The LiberalOC has learned that other unions and candidates endorsed by the Building/Trades are being encouraged to join the Building/Trades union’s efforts to remove Diamond from his party leadership position, and while unions have complained about various members and candidates over the years, a formal letter demanding a member’s removal is considered unprecedented.
Other organizations copied on the March 31 letter include the CA State Building and Construction Trades, the California Federation of Labor, the Orange County Labor Fed and the California Democratic Party. The letter was signed by Ron Miller, executive secretary, and Jim Adams, a council representative for Orange County. The union is only asking for Diamond’s removal from a leadership position, not his Central Committee position.
The union’s gripes with Diamond stem from his role as a lawyer for CATER and the lawsuit filed against the City of Anaheim for its approval of the extension of the Anaheim Convention Center in addition to Diamond’s opposition to numerous other construction projects in Orange County.
Excerpts from the letter include:
“Unemployment in the construction industry still remains at an all time high. Every job is important. Yet Mr. Diamond acts openly to take jobs away from working class people….We can’t block people’s jobs and ask them to vote for our candidates…(we) cannot act against the interests of our 140,000 dues paying members.”
The union references several projects not supported by most Democrats — the 241 extension, the Tesoro extension, Poseidon Desalination and 405 Improvements as examples of projects Diamond has opposed giving him “a miserable track record of opposing numerous construction projects in…Orange County.” And for those suggesting, “this is just one union” which doesn’t reflect the viewpoints of labor unions in general, we’ve been assured this effort is the tip of the iceberg.
The DPOC is treating this as an internal issue and had no comment for TheLiberalOC. The letter and Diamond’s status are sure to be a topic of conservation at the next party meeting. While Diamond hasn’t violated any party rules, he can be removed from his position as Vice Chair for any reason with a simple two thirds vote.
Ya know, one reads a post like this and one can’t help but come away thinking that these construction projects are simple, black & white equations for unions (which is kinda pathetic)…you either want them, and support the unions, or you are anti-union. There is no such a thing as other factors. Factors like what it’s going to cost taxpayers, the toxic relationship on many of these projects between elected officials and developers, the impact of many of these projects on the environment, etc.
I mean, do unions really see these things THAT simplistically?
This is more likely the tip of an ice cube rather than an ice berg. When you hear of more than one or two unions joining in this ridiculous threat, please let us know about it. As you keep reminding us Dan, the Democratic Party is the big tent party. It allows all points of view to be expressed and party positions are approved by the party, and the positions of individual members or officers does not necessarily represent the views of the party.
Following the building trades logic here, every office who opposed the extension of the 241 toll road for environmental reasons should be tossed out of their leadership roles. This is an absurd position for any politically astute group to take. I’m surprised that they have taken such a dramatic step.
I doubt the DPOC will bow to such threats to its democratic and free speech prtinciples.
If you noticed, I’ve played this story pretty straight. When union people tell me this is the beginning and there’s more to come, I just added it to the story. And I think I made it pretty clear, there was considerable opposition to a number of examples the union cited.
If I were Mr. Diamond, I’d be far more concerned about a lack of endorsements, a lack of issues and a lack of money coming into his campaign for DA. His web site is barren and absent meaningful content.
I really don’t like to see this type of in-fighting amongst the D’s. (snark)