Members in Politics: A Friend in the GOP

In Florida's state legislature, Rep. Julio Robaina gets kidded about being an "oxymoron."

He's a champion of unions and workers' rights — and he's a Republican. In fact, the former CWA Local 3122 steward says he's one of a growing number of moderate Republicans who value the labor movement.

"Being a blue-collar person, I understand the balance and need for the respect of labor," says Robaina, who spent 26 years as a Bell South service tech. "Republicans tend to work well with business, but I've got to look out for the people who made those businesses successful."

Robaina's efforts include working to improve pay and staffing ratios for nurses and ensuring that unionized condominium workers earn a living wage. His first bill in office called for taking a sliver of Medicaid funding and putting it toward benefits for the low-wage workers who provide Medicaid services. Currently, he's fighting to reinstate about 40 social service employees who were laid off within a year or two of retirement. "When things like that happen, I'm going to go to battle," he says.

Robaina was first elected to the statehouse four years ago after serving three terms as mayor, and previously as a city commissioner, for South Miami. In 2002, "I thought I was done," he said. "But a lot of my union brothers and sisters said, 'You're not done. You're running for the state legislature.'"