The Mayor and the Labor Boss: Earthquake Pals

If you’re a real political pro, nothing is personal. Today’s enemy can easily be tomorrow’s ally.

That’s the lesson of the relationship between Mayor Richard Riordan, a Republican businessman-turned-pol, and Jim Wood, a liberal Democratic labor leader.

Wood, a tall, thin man with a friendly smile and calculating eyes, is secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO. This makes him one of the leading voices of organized labor in Southern California. It also makes him a Riordan foe. For among Wood’s members are L.A. city workers who fear the mayor’s plan to turn over much of their work to private companies. Riordan contends this would save money and improve municipal efficiency.

Labor is preparing to take on the mayor in what promises to be the biggest fight of his young Administration, and Wood will be leading the opposition.

Wood’s approach to issues was evident when he began as a hard-nosed young assistant to then-county federation chief Bill Robertson, a back-room power in Mayor Tom Bradley’s Administration.

Shortly after Bradley’s election in 1973, the liberal new mayor and Robertson teamed up with L.A. business leaders on a huge plan to redevelop bedraggled Downtown L.A. It was another example of politics’ changing alliances because several of these leaders had opposed Bradley’s election.

The plan was for Bradley’s Community Redevelopment Agency to declare a vast area of Downtown blighted and then buy the land at low prices and sell it cheaply to developers. The developers would build high-rises, assuring thousands of building trade union members many years of work.

The trouble was that the political appointees on the CRA board were too green to be trusted to get the complicated deal straight. At Robertson’s suggestion, Bradley appointed Wood, then just 30, to the board to keep the others in line. Wood hammered the Downtown redevelopment plan through and the results are visible in today’s skyline.

When Robertson retired, Wood became head of a federation that had lost considerable clout at City Hall in the 1993 election. The unions had opposed Riordan for mayor. While several of the 15 council members remained union backers, the new mayor’s quick launch of privatization studies was a strong sign of trouble ahead for the AFL-CIO.

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By mid-January, conflict seemed inevitable. On Jan. 15, Wood joined about 500 union workers marching from the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Mall to Bethany Baptist Church to protest Riordan’s plans to privatize city jobs. I talked to Wood just before he spoke and he sounded ready for a long fight with the mayor.

Two days later, the earthquake hit. And within a week, the mayor had enlisted Wood’s help in obtaining earthquake relief.

Reps. Howard Berman and Julian Dixon, the L.A. congressmen guiding the $8.6-billion California earthquake bill through the House, asked Riordan and other L.A. County leaders to lobby members of Congress who were wavering.

Riordan put together an unofficial L.A. lobbying team, with high-powered business leaders, including James Montgomery of Great Western Financial, Lew Wasserman of MCA and Lod Cook of Arco. Republican Riordan and the business leaders phoned conservatives trying to cut the aid. Riordan asked Wood to help out with another problem--liberals who opposed a bipartisan compromise in a dispute over illegal immigrants receiving aid.

“The conversation was quick and to the point,” Wood said. “He (Riordan) said: ‘You don’t have to come to any meetings. All you have to do is make the phone calls. I’ll give you a list of people we think you can contact.’ I made the calls.”

The aid bill passed the House 337 to 4 and is expected to be quickly approved by the Senate.

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I asked Wood why he was so fast to help a mayor who wants to eliminate union jobs. “Privatization is a government policy issue and we will fight that out in the City Council,” he said. “That is not the same thing as delivering blankets to people who are cold.”

He also said he wanted to show Riordan the value of union labor. “Public employees reported to their yards for duty. Traffic officers were on duty when there were no street lights. The city didn’t have to go out and find a (private) contractor.”

For his part, Riordan invited representatives of the major employee unions to the post-earthquake meeting with President Clinton in Burbank. Wood appreciated that.

Riordan and Wood may have a rough fight coming up. But they know another issue will arise some day when they will again need each other. That’s why “nothing personal” is one of politics’ most important rules.