San Diego – Douglas Moore, executive director of the 65,000 member UDW Homecare Providers Union, has been named 2008-2009 Labor Leader of the Year by the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council.

Since his appointment as deputy administrator in 2005, Moore has helped rebuild UDW from the ground up. Under his leadership nearly 25,000 new members have joined UDW since 2005. He has helped win the highest wages in UDW’s 30-year history and has led the effort to win affordable health insurance and livable wages for the union’s 22,000 San Diego County members.

Moore was appointed executive director by UDW’s Executive Board in February 2008.

In selecting Moore for its top award, the Labor Council made particular note of his efforts to reach out to and engage hundreds of diverse community leaders and groups throughout San Diego County. “He has created bridges to community partners for the entire labor movement, providing a conduit for organizing and political success.”

A veteran of nearly 30 years in the labor movement, Moore is also an international vice president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). He began his labor career with the Communications Workers of America, where he became president of CWA Local 9586 in Santa Fe Springs, CA. He subsequently worked for Service Employees International Union as an international representative before becoming Ohio state director for the national AFL-CIO, where he was responsible for more than one million members.

Remarks by Doug Moore
San Diego/Imperial Counties Labor Council Awards Dinner

Saturday, April 18th 2009

I accept this award with thanks and appreciation.  But it is not my award.

It belongs to the more than 65,000 UDW homecare providers and the UDW staff who are fighting for dignity and respect here in San Diego County and throughout California. We are proud to represent them.

We are proud that UDW is only the third union in America founded by African Americans or Hispanics.  We are following in the footsteps of A. Phillip Randolph, who founded the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, and Cesar Chavez, who founded the United Farm Workers and whose vision helped create UDW.

We are proud to be California’s only union made up entirely of homecare providers.

We are proud that our membership has increased by more than 50 percent in the past four years.

We are proud to be recognized in Sacramento and in the 11 counties in which our members serve.

And we are especially proud to be a part of your outstanding team, led by Lorena, which is fighting for working men and women and their families in San Diego and Imperial Counties. 

During the Revolutionary War, Benjamin Franklin said, “We must all hang together or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.”  

That is true today as well. We cannot win the fight for social and economic justice alone. We need to reach out to community based organizations and build alliances based on active mutual support .

That is why UDW is working hard to reach out beyond the labor movement to churches, community groups, business organizations and others.  We want them to carry our message of economic empowerment and justice.

For example, we have met with business and community groups in San Diego and Chula Vista. We’ve shown them how paying a livable wage to the 22,000 county homecare providers would result in an economic windfall for the county in excess of $80 million. We have also explained to them that home care is at least six times cheaper for taxpayers than institutional care. 

Many of these groups and individuals have more access than we have to the San Diego County Supervisors and other decision-makers.  That’s why we are asking them to deliver our message.

In the long run, we look forward to working with you to help end the reactionary rule of the current San Diego Board of Supervisors.  It is time to elect supervisors who give a damn about the working men and women in our county.

It is time to elect state officials who give a damn about working men and women in our state.

It is time to elect city council members who will keep their word when they make a commitment to us!

And yes, it is time to elect legislators at all levels who have the courage to take a stand when the going gets tough; to take a stand when leaders of the legislature ask you to vote for something that you know is morally wrong!

That is what Assemblyman Sandre Swanson did. And that’s what Assemblywoman Mariko Yamada did. They were the only two legislators who did not vote for cuts to the IHSS program. They stood their ground!

Sandre, who was chair of the Assembly Labor Committee, was stripped of that chairmanship by the Speaker because of his vote.  He spoke at our convention last month. He explained his vote by saying he is from a union household and has values he cannot vote against.

Sandre Swanson is a principled leader who was willing to put it on the line for what he believes in.

None of the politicians in this room tonight can make the same claim.

So it is time for us to hold you accountable.

No more forgive and forget.

No more playing one union against the other.

The Labor movement in San Diego is growing.  We are getting stronger!  We are building our relationships with community allies so when you take on Labor, you are taking on the community and you will not win!

That’s why we cannot continue to elect legislators who lack the courage to go against the status quo! We need to elect people who will be warriors on our issues and who will champion our issues.

We thought we did that with the newly elected members of the City Council and the State Assembly. 

The precincts we walked, the phone banking, the contributions, the major effort we made to get you elected, and you turn around and stick a knife in our back.

I can’t speak for the rest of the unions here tonight, but UDW believes in an eye for an eye! We will not forget that all of the state legislators in San Diego County voted to cut the IHSS program. 

Your actions demonstrate that you are not part of the solution; you are part of the problem.

Putting your leadership on the line is the morally right thing to do.  If you are not willing to lead, then we need to help you find another line of employment.

Brothers and Sisters, we must continue to fight the moral fight and continue to pressure elected officials to do the right thing.

Because, in the long run, nothing counts but pressure, pressure, more pressure and still more pressure.  We need broad, organized aggressive mass actions in our respective communities. We need to open up dialogues with senior citizen organizations, ministers from all denominations, non-profits and other community groups.  We have the moral high ground and we need to use it to our advantage!

It is our hope that, someday, the Labor movement in our counties will reflect the enlightened view of A. Philip Randolph, who said:

“At the banquet table of nature, there are no reserved seats. You get what you can take and you keep what you can hold. If you can’t take anything, you won’t get anything; and if you can’t hold anything, you won’t keep anything.  And you can’t take anything without organization!”

The San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council is organized and is on the move!  Together, we can make it happen!

Thank you.

Doug Moore