"'Enough is enough' is something you can understand in any language," said Teamsters chief steward Maria Martinez to a reporter outside the IBP beef processing plant where she works.

In early June, the 1,300 workers at the plant, outside the town of Pasco in eastern Washington, said "enough!" with their own voices. They spoke mostly in Mexican or Central American Spanish, but also in Lao, Vietnamese, and the Serbo-Croatian language of Bosnian immigrants.

When Paul Policicchio became president of Local 79 of the Service Employees International Union in 1988, many activists saw it as a welcome change. His predecessor, Richard Cordtz, was a kindred spirit to the old guard Teamster officials he associated with. Cordtz was a highly paid, white, male official with multiple salaries, presiding over a local full of low wage people of color who had little say in the running of their union.