Guess Workers Stage Anti-Union Demonstration

The bitter labor battle at Guess Inc. took a surprising turn Friday, as 150 to 200 employees of the Los Angeles clothing company staged a street demonstration against the union that has been trying to organize its warehouse and production workers.

A Guess spokesman said the lunchtime protest--featuring demonstrators chanting, “Guess, yes! Union, no!”--was a spontaneous development. He said management played no role in the event.

But officials of the garment industry union that was the target of the march, UNITE, countered that the demonstration was orchestrated by Guess as part of a “union-busting” drive.

The protest marked the intensification of a labor battle that burst into the open last summer when UNITE unveiled its campaign to organize 500 to 600 Guess workers. Guess, the biggest company in Los Angeles’ sprawling apparel industry, had until Friday constantly been on the public relations defensive since the campaign began.

Early on, the company was hit by state and federal investigations inspired by union complaints. Those investigations linked the company to a small ring of illegal home-sewing operations as well as to contractors violating minimum wage and overtime laws.

Later the company laid off a group of workers active in the union effort, only to hire them back in January--just in time to head off unfair labor practices charges that were being prepared by federal authorities.

Guess, which started as a jeans manufacturer but now makes or licenses a vast array of consumer products, also jolted the local business community in January by disclosing that it would move most of its production from Southern California to Mexico and South America.

The company has said the production shift was made for economic reasons unrelated to the union campaign. But UNITE complained to the National Labor Relations Board that the move was intended to thwart the union illegally, and the agency still is reviewing the case.

Meanwhile, the dispute has highlighted the resistance unions encounter trying to organize low-wage workers. It also has put a spotlight on business pressures pushing apparel manufacturers to shift production to low-cost foreign factories.

In the first significant public show of support for the company, however, Guess employees on Friday marched just over a half-mile from the company’s headquarters on Alameda to a UNITE organizing office on 14th Street. Police said the demonstration was peaceful and there were no arrests.

Company executives, while denying any involvement, were gleeful about the demonstration.

“The company was totally surprised and pleased by this expression of support,” said Bill Barnes, a company consultant and spokesman.

Barnes maintained that about 500 workers participated--well above the police estimate of 150 to 200. In all, he said, Guess employs 1,300 workers in Los Angeles.

Hillary Horn, a UNITE spokeswoman, insisted the company was behind the demonstration. She said, “When workers had something to say pro-union last year, Guess fired them. But today, if you want to say something pro-Guess, that’s OK. You can do that on work time.”

After the protest ended, Guess made employees involved in the demonstration available to reporters for interviews. One of those workers was Miguel Alcala, 38, of Pico Rivera. Alcala said he has been with Guess for three years and earns $6.25 an hour, along with frequent time-and-a-half pay for overtime work.

“In this company, I can speak with my supervisor [if there is a problem], and if the supervisor doesn’t listen to me, there are open doors at the office of the personnel chief,” he said. “That’s why we don’t need a union.”

Company and union representatives each accused the other of intimidating workers to further their own aims. Both Barnes and Horn linked Friday’s protest to a separate labor dispute that recently emerged at San Bernardino-based Sorrento Coats, one of the few union apparel plants in Southern California. Sorrento says that 42 of its 55 workers represented by UNITE have signed a petition saying they want to leave the union, and a formal bid to decertify UNITE as the workers’ bargaining representative is expected.

Barnes said that development demonstrated to the workers that they can challenge the union. But Horn countered that Guess urged Sorrento management to push for decertification and claimed that Guess is paying for a lawyer to handle the matter for the coat company. That charge was denied by both Guess and Sorrento.