Linda Sanchez, 31, will replace Bill Fogarty as head of the Orange County Central Labor Council at the end of March, and she is promising to increase organizing activity here.
The council is one of 24 regional bodies in the state created to coordinate union efforts.
Fogarty, who also runs the United Labor Agency of Orange County,a nonprofit organization that assists union members,is stepping down and Sanchez, the sister of Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Garden Grove, is running unopposed to replace him.
Sanchez will take the helm of the Orange-based council full-time. She is training a replacement for her current position as compliance officer for International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 441. Fogarty will remain at the United Labor Agency, Sanchez said. He could not be reached for comment.
Sanchez laid out an activist agenda for the council. She described past union organization efforts in the county as lackluster, and said her experience running her sister’s re-election field operation in 1998 will make a difference.
Sanchez said she intends to mobilize all of the AFL-CIO affiliates and run aggressive organizing drives as well as encourage more political activism by union members.
“It’s an issue of educating people about labor unions; why they’re important and why they exist,” she said. n
