This June, County Supervisor Fernando Armenta celebrates his 25th anniversary as an elected official. He served for a decade on Salinas City Council before he was elected to the Board of Supervisors.
Every year he’s been up for re-election, he’s received a key endorsement from the Monterey Bay Central Labor Council, an umbrella group representing 35,000 members of 70 unions in Monterey and Santa Cruz counties.
Until this year. When delegates met March 9 at the Labor Council headquarters on Market Street in Salinas, they voted to endorse Assemblyman Luis Alejo. The three-term assemblyman from Watsonville is terming out, and relocated from Watsonville to Salinas last year for the express purpose of challenging Armenta.
Alejo, Armenta and Salinas City Councilman Tony Barrera all qualified for participation in a Labor Council forum, where they answered members’ questions Feb. 29.
A Labor Council endorsement requires a two-thirds vote among delegates from dozens of unions – a tough threshold to cross in a three-way primary among union-friendly candidates.
The Labor Council has also endorsed Alejo in each of his campaigns.
Last year, Alejo authored a bill providing a labor agreement for the $68 million Nacimiento-San Antonio interlake tunnel in South County; the deal guarantees union wages for all construction involved in the project. He also authored a bill raising the state minimum wage to $10 per hour, understandably popular with unions.
Barrera says he’d rather see unions unified than divided, so although he believes he could get individual unions to endorse him, he won’t ask: “You break down the strength of the union.”
Armenta believes even without the endorsement, he can secure the votes of union members – critical for winning District 1, which covers most of urban Salinas. “I have a strong reputation for being the strongest county supervisor for labor,” he says.