Can a mild-mannered bakery clerk solve the grocery workers' labor strife?

Come January 1, Cordova says she will clean up Local 7.

The first thing she plans to do is bring in an independent company to thoroughly audit the union's books "so the members know how their money was being spent, and we'll make sure we're on a clean slate going forward." She also plans to invite the Department of Labor to talk to the new executive board to make sure its members understand what they can and cannot question. "I don't want a rubber stamp," Cordova says. "I want people to say, 'What are you doing, and why are you doing that?'"

Kim Cordova will lead UFCW Local 7 come January 1.

Crisanta Duran is challenging the recent Local 7 election

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More About

• Kim Cordova
• Ernest Duran
• Crisanta Duran
• Labor Unions
• Jobs and Labor

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She wants to reinforce spending policies, institute a new rule against nepotism and prohibit the union from suing members with money collected from their own dues, which range from $40 to $65 per month. "We're definitely going to make change," she says. "I campaigned with the promise of change, and change is coming January 1."

Cordova says she and Duran haven't spoken since the day she told him she planned to challenge him. "He has not acknowledged that I won the election; he hasn't called me to congratulate me. He told the members, 'If anybody runs against me and they win, I'll shake their hand,' and he has yet to do that."

Cordova says she knows it will take time for "the membership to heal," but the Bakery Clerk says she's the right woman for the job.

"This shows the workers that you really are the union," she says, "when you can be a rank-and-file member and stand up and say, 'This is my union and we know what we want. We know what's important to us.'"