Okay, I Can't Take it Anymore - Lisa Soto's Union Problem

Lisa Soto is running for the Democratic nomination for the 8th Court of Appeals. When you run for office under the banner of a particular political party, the presumption is that you espouse the values of the party you are running under.

I'm clearly biased here because I'm a union man - like my father before me. 

My dad was a union organizer and I am a union organizer. 

But it doesn't make what I'm explaining less true - it just means I know what I'm talking about. 

This is where we need to talk about some important core values to the Democratic Party. Two major progressive values that are long-time planks of the Democratic Party platform are protecting workers rights and advancing labor rights like livable wage for all workers.

No matter how Lisa Soto will want to spin this, her experience as a contract negotiator for management (which she touts), runs contrary to the values of the Democratic Party. 

This needs to be addressed by Democratic organizations issuing endorsements and considered by Democratic voters in the primary. 

Which is why I almost lost my shit last night at the Eastside Democrats candidate forum when I heard Lisa Soto have the audacity to say three words. 

Lets take a quick detour shall we? A few years back in my hometown of Phoenix, there was a white Republican who was running for office in a Chicano part of town. This Wonder Bread had that balls to legally change his name to Cesar Chavez as a way to trick people on the ballot. 

I guess he thought we were a bunch of dumb Mexicans and that would work. Well it didn't. 

But the rage any self-respecting Chicano felt in their gut when they saw him do something so blatantly politically opportunistic - and an insult to the intelligence of voters - is exactly how I felt when I heard Lisa Soto have the audacity to use a time-honored union phrase like, Si Se Puede.

It is a slap in the face to every friend of working people and supporter of labor rights to hear a wealthy management contract negotiator defile the battle cry of working people everywhere. That was a phrase born from people who toiled in the sun doing back-breaking work in the worst of conditions - facing contract negotiators that didn't want them to have anything that bettered their lives.

Seriously - a contract negotiator quoting Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta to advance her campaign...surely there's a ring in Dante's political hell for that level of hypocrisy... 

It was an embarrassment and an insult to all the people who every marched, held a picket sign, participated in a boycott or went on strike to hear the enemy of working people use Dolores Huerta's motto as a punchline for her campaign. 

Working people like my mother who was farmworker who worked la pisca - or El Paso families with relatives that worked in la fabrica - that could never dream of being able to afford to eat at the exclusive venues that Soto holds her hoity-toity fundraisers, would be insulted that - a child of private school privilege - would appropriate la lucha that so many working people fought through. 

Its a slap in the face to all those people that go home at the end of the day with dirt under their fingernails, a bad back from being bent over toiling in the sun, legs sore from working a double to cover for your coworker who is out sick with COVID, pants full of paint, oil, or cement from an honest day's work, or a sore back from taking care of kids all day or laying rock wall. 

Like I said, El Paso's upper-crust probably really like her. Thats why she has all her events on exclusive westside and downtown venues. I want you all to understand clearly what I'm about to say:

Regardless of how Soto will want to downplay this, at the end of the day Soto - as a contract negotiator - was paid by management to repress the rights of workers. She was paid to ensure management paid as little as they could get away with to workers. 

While the rest of us are fighting to expand the rights of workers, Soto was paid by management to limit the rights of workers. There is no way around that fact.

While the rest of us are fighting for a higher minimum wage, Soto's job as a contract negotiator was to ensure frontline workers like teachers got the least pay possible. There is no way around that fact. There is no polishing that rock

No matter how much she will try to spin it, Soto enriched herself by keeping people poor. 

Thats a fact, not an opinion. 

Contract negotiators for management are there to advocate what is best for management. Management negotiators aren't paid to care about workers. Management negotiators aren't paid to make sure workers get a fair wage, they are paid to make sure they get paid the least amount possible. Management negotiators aren't paid to care about working conditions of workers, they are paid to make sure that management has to make the least amount of accommodations they are legally allowed to get away with. 

Don't get me wrong mi gente, Soto will likely highlight other work in her career. She'll talk about suing the state of California to make sure her employer was fully funded. She'll say she advocated for volunteer firefighters at the ESD's here in El Paso County and she'll say her husband is a union boss. 

All true as far as I know. 

But it doesn't change the fact that she took on a professional role - for which she was well-compensated financially - that is contrary to the values of the Democratic Party. She made that choice freely, no one put a gun to her head and forced her to do it. 

It was a choice. 

And you as a voter have a choice. 

Progressive Democrats are the ones that speak the most about progressive values. It would be hypocritical for any progressive to support someone who was paid to keep wages low, make sure more people stayed poor, and ensured employers had to do the bare minimum possible under the law for worker's conditions. 

When I saw Soto list that on her bio for the Westside Democrats, to me that meant she was proud of that experience. So I gave her an opportunity to address the issue. Go back to the video I posted the other day between Soto and her opponent Veronica Lerma, you'll see I asked her about that experience. 

Honestly, I think she knew she was busted because she fumbled through a response and I let her off the hook. 

Shame on me for that. I should've held her accountable - especially for what she said after I turned off the camera. 

Essentially she said that as a negotiator for management in California, her job was to make sure everyone came to a mutually beneficial agreement. 

As we say in the valley - PURO PEDO!

No contract negotiator for management is ever tasked with coming to a mutually beneficial agreement. Anyone who has every sat at the bargaining table across from management's negotiator knows that is absolute, USDA certified prime BULLSHIT. 

You want to say that the powers that be hand-picked you for the job? 

Fine. Do you.

You want to raise an alarmingly large amount of money for a judicial candidate from the business community? 

Fine. Do you.

You want to hold all your upper-cluster events in exclusive venues?

Oralé, do you boo-boo. 

But don't tell organized labor that a contractor negotiator for management is looking our for us working stiffs. That is an objectively dishonest characterization of what management's negotiators do.

Because there are a lot of farmworkers, bus drivers, janitors, housekeepers, healthcare workers, fast-food workers, steel workers, auto workers, electricians, truck drivers, construction workers, mechanics, and teachers that would beg to differ. 

You can do a lot of things in this country, but bullshit the working class - 

No.

Se.

Puede.