The California Labor Federation (CLF), an umbrella group that includes all AFL/CIO-affiliated local labor councils as well all labor union locals in California, has voted to publicly oppose the Federal Marriage Amendment that would write a ban on same-sex marriages into the US Constitution. The vote came at this past week’s statewide convention of the CLF, which represents 2.7 million workers in the state of California. The milestone vote also came just weeks after a June 22 resolution by the Service Employees International Union, at its international convention, to support full marriage equality.

“I think it’s very important,” said San Diego Area Pride At Work and SEIU Local 535 representative Brian Polejes, of the recent CLF resolution, “and it’s not necessarily an easy thing for a group that encompasses so many different people to come out in support of this issue.” Polejes went as a delegate to this year’s CLF state convention. “The thing that brings labor folks together in the union movement is advocacy for better wages, benefits and working conditions,” he said. “The fact that the federal marriage constitutional amendment would interfere with labor’s ability to negotiate benefits, like domestic partner benefits for their workers, puts it in direct conflict with the mission of the labor movement.”

While the proposed amendment died in the US Senate last week, Republicans are advancing similar legislation in the House of Representatives. A vote of approval from the House has the potential not only to ban same-sex marriage but also could invalidate civil unions and domestic partner benefits that are a part of state laws and many union contracts.

Democrats have said that amendment supporters intend to embarrass labor’s endorsed Presidential candidate John Kerry and Congressional Democrats in advance of the election. For labor, the proposed amendment is also a threat to its power to negotiate benefits for represented workers, besides being a blatantly bigoted attack on its many GLBT workers.

Pride at Work had the added advantage of having the co-chair of its national executive board, Nancy Wohlforth, as chair of the CLF legislative committee that reviewed all of the legislative resolutions for the 2004 convention. Wohlforth is also the secretary/treasurer for the Office Professional Employees International Union.

“That’s another example of where having a place at the table is important,” Polejes noted. “The legislative committee and the executive board of the California Labor Federation recommended to the delegates that they take a stance against the federal marriage constitutional amendment. There was no objection from the floor. There was no discussion. The recommendation was adopted by a voice vote, without any opposition voiced.”

In the labor community, such a vote came as even a shock to Polejes who recognizes the enormous diversity of the unions represented in the CFL.

“Just as with all other sectors of society, there are folks in the labor movement who are homophobic and have difficulty with us.” But he added optimistically, “I think the whole society is becoming less homophobic. As more of us come out and as our advocacy efforts bear fruit, and as more of us get into appointed and elected positions and as more of us do this sort of work in the places that we work. As far as the labor movement, we still have a ways to go.”

Despite the resounding victory in California’s labor unions, the AFL/CIO, which is the national umbrella group that the CFL falls under, has still not taken a position on the federal marriage amendment. According to Polejes, there is still a lot of resistance in labor to addressing GLBT issues, but that is where education and consciousness raising has become an important part of Pride At Work’s mission.

“I was disappointed that the AFL/CIO did not take a position before the amendment came up in the United States Senate,” Polejes said. “The United States’ House leadership has said that they want to bring the issue up in the House, so it’s not too late for the AFL/CIO or any group to take a position against this homophobic constitutional amendment.”

The executive board of the San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council was expected to vote on its opposition to the federal marriage amendment this week; but the CFL vote speaks for all state labor councils, making local votes a moot point.

Pride at Work will participate in this year’s annual Pride parade. To learn more about the organization or to march with them, contact Brian Polejes at (619) 295-0102.