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Los Angeles County Federation of Labor
The Los Angeles County Federation of Labor is a regional labor organization. Located in the city of Los Angeles. The L.A. County Federation of Labor evolved representation of the interests of workers to include political involvement. Its formation was a function of political influence in labor and the relevance of merging labor movements to have better representations and high compulsion among leaders. The Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, as the name suggests, is a composite labor body formed after the merging of all labor bodies in Los Angeles.

Purpose
The formation of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor was a function of merging of various local bodies. The objectives include representation of the Los Angeles workers from exploitation, facilitation of existence of a middle income class in the economy and empowerment of workers in production and in political involvement. The political involvement of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor is a function of the importance of politics in directing labor regulations and thus affecting the welfare of workers. Political influence enables the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor to play an influential role in important policies.

Start of the "Los Angeles County Federation of Labor"
Los Angeles County Federation of Labor is a federation of Los Angeles labor organization in 1957. Its formation was a direct response to trends in merging of organizations representing the interests of workers all over the US. The Los Angeles County Federation of Labor was an improvement of the earlier Los Angeles Council of Labor and the formation enabled involvement in regional and national politics after the emergence of politics as an important influence of labor movements.

In the late 19th century, labor organizations were not as organized as they are today. In Los Angeles, there was a federation of labor parties that was officially organized by five different unions. The different unions represented the different industries in Los Angeles. Workers joined working unions based on the industries that they were working on. The different unions were problematic because the labor climate was not what it is today. Workers rarely had specialized training. The laborers worked on casual basis and they moved from industry to industry based on the availability of employment and suitability of pay.

In 1989, using the models adopted earlier in the state of Chicago, the five main unions in Los Angeles, the printers, the bakers, the cigar makers, the carpenters and tailors, organized the initial Los Angeles federation of labor. The main reasons for the union was creation of a better platform to lobby for the interests of the worker and a need to streamline employment in Los Angeles. After the merging of the five labor unions, there was a trend of merging labor unions to increase the strength of the labor organization. In 1894 a charter was procured from the San Francisco Federated traders to facilitate the formation of the Los Angeles Council of Labor. In a further attempt to create strength and unity, the Los Angeles Council of Labor joined forces with the American Federation of Labor in the same year.

The decision to join the national body came back to haunt the Los Angeles Council of Labor in later years. Due to the large affiliations of regional labor organizations to the national body, political forces created an internal division in the American Federation of Labor in the 1930’s, leading to the emergence of the Congress of Industrial Organizations. The new body, the Congress of Industrial Organizations, chartered a Los Angeles council in 1937, effectively creating a division within the Los Angeles Council of Labor as a function of a new labor charter in its territory. The new labor union under the Congress of Industrial Organizations was called the Greater Los Angles CIO council.

The different national labor forces, the Congress of Industrial Organizations and the American Federation of Labor merged in 1955, twenty years after the initial split. The merge set in motion a series of mergers of the regional labor organizations to facilitate a complete merger of the two national organization. In Los Angeles, the two county labor organization, the Greater Los Angles CIO council and the Los Angeles Council of Labor merged in 1957 to form the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. In addition, the merging process included five other central labor bodies, Long Beach, San Gabriel Valley, Pomona, Santa Monica, San Pedro and Wilmington.

Reasons and Objectives of Formation
The main reason for the merge was the compliance to the national labor organizations that coordinated the fragmented bodies in Los Angeles. The earlier mergers, the ones that saw the formation of the national bodies, had established the relevance of national compliance and leadership in labor movements. Therefore, it was important for the local labor movements to follow suit and the Los Angeles labor organization duly complied.

In the years after the initial merger of labor unions in the US, there were federal statutes that were passed to regulate labor in the country. For example, the Fair Labor Standards Act is a federal statute that came into play in 1937. It established equal working conditions and similar pay for similar work outputs in the US. The implication is that the working conditions in the US were regulated by the federal government and they were similar in all states within the US. Before the Fair Labor Standards Act, the working condition in the US were subject to local interpretations of laws as well as state statutes. However, the Fair Labor Standards Act facilitated unification of all labor unions by creating a common platform of evaluation of work output. Therefore, the passing of federal statues regulating labor resulted in merging of national labor organizations and consequently resulted in localized merger, thus facilitating the formation of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor.

A new dimension of labor parties was also emerging in the late 1950’s. Due to their large memberships and political interest, labor unions emerged as political bodies with the ability to influence the direction of local and regional politics. The Los Angeles County Federation of Labor has a membership of more than eight hundred thousand workers in the county of Los angles. Its ability to mobilize all these workers gives it’s the ability to sway the opinion of local and national leaders. For example, in the initial Presidential campaign, Democrat, Barrack Obama, then a senator for Illinois, used the backing of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor to launch his presidential campaign in California.

The relevance of the political ability in the formation of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor is the ability of large bodies to attract more membership and therefore hold a bigger appeal to politicians. In this regard, the labor bodies use their political influence to lobby for regulations that are favorable to their workers.

The interest of the workers was a major force in influencing the formation of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor from the smaller groups. Traditionally, a capitalist economy has a large divide between the wealthy and poor. Working unions are representative of the working population and they represent their interest to ensure they ate not exploited. Unions represent poor workers in court cases when the workers have been mistreated. The principles of strength in numbers is therefore a major reasons for the formation of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor because it facilitated merging of the smaller workers unions. After the formation of the formation of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, most of the major objectives were realized. Yet, political activities are often problematic because association with one party results in negative outcomes if the selected party loses an election. However, the ability of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor to maintain political influence is a major developmental milestone. In fact, in contemporary times, politicians attempt to get the support of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor leadership by adopting friendly policies.

Involvement in politics results in influence in the direction and outlook of education and other services that empower workers. In addition, it directs important policies that affect the workers in the Los Angeles County. For example, federal regulations resulted in the migration of many production units from Los Angeles. Involvement in politics seeks to eliminate the negative influence of politics on workers under the protection of a labor movement.

The contemporary model of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor is based on empowering the workers under its protection in terms of availing educational opportunities, empowering informed political decisions and representation on the streets. The Los Angeles County Federation of Labor hopes to empower a resurrection of the now dysfunctional middle class to provide employment opportunities and diversify the production capabilities of the Los Angeles.