David Sickler 

David Sickler is the Executive Director of Employment Relations for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the largest municipal utility in the country. He is responsible for DWP’s relations with approximately 9,000 employees. Mr. Sickler is also Senior Labor Advisor to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Following Mayor Villaraigosa’s election as Mayor in 2005, one of his first appointments was to tap his long term friend and colleague David Sickler. Mr. Sickler was appointed as Commissioner of Public Works, as well as to a newly established position of Senior Labor Advisor. As Senior Labor Advisor, Mr. Sickler represented the Mayor and the City of Los Angeles in a series of contentious negotiations with city employee unions. He won high praise from both management and labor in successfully averting potential strikes.

As Commissioner of Public Works, Mr. Sickler conducted quarterly meetings with building contractors, working closely with them to discuss and resolve their issues with the city. He has been honored for his efforts on behalf of contractors.

Prior to joining the Board of Public Works, David Sickler served for eight years as Southern Regional Director of the California State Building and Construction Trades Council. He was responsible for major political and organizing campaigns involving building trades unions throughout Southern California. He also assisted in the developing relationships between building trades unions and the broader community.

From 1986 to 1995, David was Regional Director of the AFL-CIO, representing California, Nevada and Hawaii. During his tenure as Regional Director, he launched the Labor Immigrant Assistance Project (LIAP) and the California Immigrant Workers Association following the passage of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. These were among the first coordinated efforts by the American labor movement to reach out to Latino immigrant workers.

Mr. Sickler began work for the AFL-CIO in 1976, and in 1978 was appointed Executive Director of the Los Angeles/Orange Counties Organizing Committee. The LAOCOC has successfully launched and won some of the most successful union organizing campaigns in Southern California history.

David Sickler began his career in the labor movement in the state of Colorado with the Brewery Workers Union Local 366. He served as an organizer, shop steward, and business manager. In 1977, when the Brewery Workers Union went on strike against the Adolph Coors Brewery, David Sickler served as the National Director of the Coors Beer Boycott. The boycott was brought to successful conclusion in 1987.