Javier Gonzalez, a lefty radical who majored in Sociology at UCLA in 1996 got his first taste of social justice when he participated in a march for No on Prop. 187.
After graduating, Gonzalez worked at the Day Labor Network where he conducted wage theft investigations.
Gonzalez gained a passion for workers’ rights, immigrant rights, and social justice which led him to work for the union representing janitors, SEIU Local 1877.
During a janitorial wage theft investigation, he uncovered that nonunion contractors paid janitors less than minimum wages to clean Los Angeles City and County facilities.
In an effort to make a profit off the backs of low wage workers, nonunion contractors with the lowest bids often paid workers less than minimum wages.
Wanting to uplift the lives of these janitors, the union successfully organized against nonunion janitorial contractors in Los Angeles.
Gonzalez said, “Nothing gets resolved until you have a problem. Then the fight is to define the solution.”
Gonzalez quickly learned that the political process was necessary to make positive changes in workers’ rights.
The first political campaign Gonzalez worked on behalf of the union, was to organize turn out for an independent expenditure campaign that supported Antonio Villaraigosa for Los Angeles Mayor.
While Villaraigosa’s opponent James Hahn received union endorsements, the janitors resisted and volunteered their personal time to elect Villaraigosa.
After working on several political campaigns, Gonzalez earned the title of State Political Director under the leadership of Dean Tipps and Mike Garcia.
Gonzalez attributes his success to his mentors Dean Tipps, Mike Garcia, and Triana Silton for supporting his efforts, teaching him strategy, and giving him guidance and tools needed to succeed.
Gonzalez left SEIU to follow his passion for electing progressive democrats and started the grassroots political organization Strengthening Our Lives (SOL), the mission was to build a greater voice for working class and immigrant communities in California.
He felt that for too long communities had fallen under attack, been neglected, and saw this effected the community’s health, poverty, public schools, and general decay.
Through SOL, Gonzalez created a successful voter registration and education platform. They knocked on hundreds of thousands of doors and registered voters one by one.
Gonzalez continued to successfully run political and community campaigns on behalf of labor where SOL climbed to the top 10 in the state.
Javier credits his passion for social justice to his father. He remembers how hard his father worked, yet received little appreciation.
While in his teens, Gonzalez got in to a lot of trouble.
“My father was consumed with trying to get me out of trouble but never gave up on me,” said Gonzalez.
Currently Javier runs his own consulting company, Tell That Story, which provides high quality consulting services for electoral, political, issue advocacy, and community campaigns.
Some of his clients include Bernie Sanders 2016, Lots of People for Garcetti Campaign, SEIU USWW, SEIU Local 99, Teamsters Local 396, The Sound Strike, Citizens PAC in support of Alex Villanueva for Sheriff and many more.
