rose by 463,000 in 2025,<\/a> according to data collected by the pro-labor American Prospect, and national density \u2014 meaning the number of U.S. workers who are unionized \u2014 edged from 9.9% to 10.0%. However, private-sector union density stayed at 5.9%, meaning the numerical gain came chiefly from government employment.<\/p>\nMunoz said he has a message for President Trump, who has used steep tariffs on foreign-made goods in an attempt to return more manufacturing to the United States, leading to price increases domestically. <\/p>\n
\u201cStop those tariffs and stop this automation,\u201d Munoz said. \u201cJust get the people back to work. Help the economy build itself up again with the workers, not with politicians.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Giovanna Mendez, right, hugs her sibling\u2019s elementary school teacher during the Labor Day parade in Wilmington.<\/p>\n
(Kayla Bartkowski \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
While the Wilmington crowd was heavily Democratic, one longshoreman in his early 60s showed it was possible to be pro-labor and pro-Trump.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re a lot better than when [President] Biden was in, way better,\u201d said the worker, who also spoke of his union as \u201cwonderful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jordan Gonzales, a 20-year longshoreman, expressed worries about the future of trade work.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people would rather be in the office and in the AC,\u201d said Gonzales. \u201cWe\u2019ve lost our workers that are outside of an office.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was enjoying a hearty free breakfast at a union hall and looking forward to his 12-year-old\u2019s marching band performance in the parade, where she played a glockenspiel.<\/p>\n
Participating school bands included San Pedro High, Banning High, Harry Bridges Middle, Port of Los Angeles High and Garfield High.<\/p>\n
Delegations from many unions marched with their local chapters and a procession of restored and souped-up cars completed the picture. L.A. Mayor Karen Bass was front and center behind the banner of the shore workers.<\/p>\n
Politicians at work on Labor Day<\/p>\n
In the pre-parade free breakfast inside the Longshoremen\u2019s & Warehousemen\u2019s Memorial Assn. cavernous meeting hall, a parade of elected and aspiring politicians introduced themselves, straining to be heard and noticed in brief remarks over a sometimes inattentive din.<\/p>\n
Xavier Becerra, the Democratic candidate for California governor, spoke briefly, thanking union members for their daily labors and campaign support.<\/p>\n
\u201cNone of us should forget where we came from,\u201d Becerra said. \u201cLet us work hard,\u201d he said, referring to election day. \u201cNov. 3 belongs to us just the way Labor Day belongs to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also on hand were both Los Angeles mayoral candidates: incumbent Bass and challenger Nithya Raman.<\/p>\n
1 <\/p>\n
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1. L.A. Mayor Karen Bass speaks to security during the Labor Day parade in Wilmington. 2. L.A. mayoral candidate Nithya Raman greets parade watchers. (Photographs by Kayla Bartkowski \/ Los Angeles Times) <\/p>\n
Bass praised the city and union movement for positive strides \u201ceven in the midst of Donald Trump, who has done everything he can do against working people, including invading our city, but we are back, and we stay united, and we\u2019re going to continue to do that,\u201d she said. \u201cL.A. is a labor city, and I am there with you 100%.\u201d<\/p>\n
Labor leaders also are almost 100% behind her in terms of endorsements. One exception is the Western States Regional Council of Carpenters, which endorsed Raman. The union represents about 65,000 members across 10 states. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe need more housing in L.A.,\u201d said Doug Hicks, the union\u2019s vice president and director of organizing. \u201cHow many cranes are there in downtown Los Angeles today?\u201d<\/p>\n
In her brief breakfast remarks, Raman, an L.A. City Council member, said that \u201cautomation, AI, are taking away jobs all over this country, and it is up to us to step up and fight back, and that is why I\u2019m here to stand alongside the workers of this country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Master carpenter Joseph W., who did not want to give his last name, declined to speak about endorsements, focusing instead on the challenges of workers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe build the houses, but we can\u2019t buy them,\u201d he said. In 1977, his dad bought a house in Norwalk for less than $50,000. Now that property is worth close to a million dollars. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s 20 times what my dad paid for it,\u201d said Joseph, who is 55 and rents his own home. \u201cI don\u2019t make 20 times what my dad got paid.\u201d<\/p>\n
The younger workers included members of ILWU Local 56, the \u201cship scalers\u201d union, which cleans up hazardous materials and provides environmental remediation both in the ports and beyond. Its members were involved in wildfire cleanups and removing waste from the hazardous Lineage warehouse fire in Boyle Heights in June.<\/p>\n
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Two members of the Western States Regional Council of Carpenters bump fists after Monday\u2019s Labor Day parade.<\/p>\n
(Kayla Bartkowski \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
Evan Briseno, 18, would like to move on to safer work before his health is potentially affected. But fellow union member Francisco, 21 \u2014 who declined to give his last name, wants to move up in the trade, while noting that some areas are so dangerous that every patch of skin needs to be covered. <\/p>\n
Neither follows politics, but they\u2019re both concerned with workplace safety issues.<\/p>\n
Other unions included Teamsters, Service Employees International, SAG-AFTRA (for performers) and teachers \u2014 along with their students.<\/p>\n
Mark Ramos wore multiple hats as chair of the Los Angeles County Democratic Party <\/a> and president of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union Western States Council and UFCW Local 1428. <\/p>\nRamos said one current union battle is to make self-serve checkout lines manageable for the workers who must supervise them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thousands of union workers, their family members and supporters marched through the streets of industrial Wilmington on Monday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":457040,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[180342,78234,13540,180338,8593,8425,1040,180339,45710,48,52,51,180340,47,50,49,212,592,3020,2328,180341],"class_list":["post-457039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-63-year-old-longshoreman","tag-automation","tag-candidate","tag-casual-worker","tag-family-member","tag-future","tag-holiday","tag-jesse-munoz","tag-job-loss","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-labor-day-parade","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-number","tag-people","tag-president-trump","tag-union","tag-union-worker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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