The Los Angeles County Labor Federation is investigating the recent leak of a racially charged conversation that sent political shockwaves reaching all the way to the White House and sparking local protests for the involved city councilors to resign.
The taped conversation—which reportedly happened at an office of the Labor Federation in October 2021—captured LA City Council President Nury Martinez, City Councilmen Gil Cedillo and Kevin de León, and the federation’s President Ron Herrera candidly discussing the controversial redistricting process and how to keep Latino control when the maps were redrawn.
The conversation also included disparaging remarks about another councilor’s son and other ethnic groups, mostly uttered by Martinez.
The recording was leaked on Oct. 9 by an anonymous Reddit user and was subsequently taken offline hours later after the powerful union group reported it. The Reddit user was also suspended.
“When you actually hear [the recording], it’s unbelievable. The labor movement is in bed with City Hall. All you have to do is look close and listen to the recording I just received of LA Fed President Ron Herrera and Nury Martinez (no relation, lol). Someone helped me connect the dots earlier this month,” the post read, as first reported by the Los Angeles Times.
It’s still unclear who is responsible for the leak or the motive behind it.
In the recording, Martinez could be heard calling Councilman Mike Bonin’s adopted black son racial slurs in Spanish, such as “Parece changuito”—or “like a little monkey”—while recalling seeing Bonin’s son misbehaving on a float during a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade. She said the float might have tipped over if she and other women hadn’t stepped in to “parent this kid.”
“They’re raising him like a little white kid,” Martinez said. “I was like, ‘This kid needs a beatdown. Let me take him around the corner and then I’ll bring him back.'”
Then de León said Bonin treated his child the same way as “when Nury brings her Goyard bag or the Louis Vuitton bag.”
While referencing Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón, Martinez said “[Expletive] that guy. He’s with the blacks.” The conversation, which the officials did not know was being recorded, also included Martinez making disparaging comments about Oaxacans, an indigenous group from Mexico.
At one point in the conversation, de León could be heard saying “Mike Bonin won’t [expletive] ever say peep about Latinos, he’ll never say a [expletive] word about us.”
The labor union’s lawyer, Julie Gutman Dickinson, sent a letter to the Los Angeles Times saying the conversation was recorded in violation of California’s privacy and recording laws on LA County Federation of Labor property and that if the paper published anything from the recordings, they would be “condoning this illegal conduct.”
The Los Angeles Times’ lawyer responded back Oct. 9 defending the paper’s right to publish.
In the internal memo to other union affiliates on Oct. 9, the Los Angeles Times reported that the federation said they plan to investigate and “make sure these crimes are prosecuted to the full extent of the law.” The union did not immediately comment in response to Epoch Times inquiries on the remarks made in the recordings.
The federation represents over 300 affiliated unions with over 800,000 members.
In a statement Oct. 10 Herrera, the federation’s president, said “I apologize to all of you, Mike Bonin and his family, the affiliates and community members, specifically those in the Black and Oaxacan community. There is no justification and no excuse for the vile remarks made in that room. Period.”
Herrera resigned on Oct. 11 and Martinez resigned Oct. 12 amid mounting condemnation by community groups and politicians—including President Joe Biden, Gov. Gavin Newsom, Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), LA Mayor Eric Garcetti, LA mayoral candidates Karen Bass and Rick Caruso, and several city councilors.
The LA County of Labor Federation was not immediately available for comment by press deadline.
