LA City Council approves Diane Middleton to Board Of Harbor Commissioners
The Los Angeles City Council has approved Mayor Eric Garcetti’s appointment of Diane Middleton to the Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners. An attorney long active in Harbor area labor and civil rights issues, Middleton fills the vacancy created following the death of labor icon and Commissioner David Arian in January.
“Diane is a proven leader with more than four decades of experience fighting for social justice and advocating for workers’ rights,” said Garcetti. “Angelenos will benefit from the breadth and depth of experience she will bring to the Board of Harbor Commissioners.”
Middleton’s first Harbor Commission meeting took place on March 7.
A resident of San Pedro, Middleton is an attorney and expert in labour and maritime law. She began her career practicing law in San Francisco, then Detroit, where she represented injured auto, steel and hospital workers including many labor union activists. Upon joining the Wilmington office of the law firm of Margolis, McTernan, Scope, Sacks & Epstein in the 1970s, Middleton was the first to file a class action asbestos lawsuit on behalf of shipyard workers.
In 1979, Middleton established her own law practice in San Pedro, which specialised in maritime law and in representing injured longshoremen and shipyard workers, including many who suffered from the effects of asbestos. For more than three decades, Middleton represented approximately 7,000 individuals until her retirement in 2010.
Middleton founded the Diane Middleton Foundation in 1998, a nonprofit foundation committed to supporting individuals and organisations fighting for basic economic, labour and civil rights in the areas of housing and elimination of homelessness, educational reform, and labour organising. Along with David Arian, in 1993 she co-founded the Harry Bridges Institute—an organisation dedicated to promoting labour, worker education and community organising—and has been a member of its leadership team ever since.
Through the years, Middleton has served in leadership positions on numerous boards, including the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners, the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles, the Toberman Settlement Center and the Harbor Interfaith Shelter.
The Port of Los Angeles is America’s premier port and has a strong commitment to developing innovatively strategic and sustainable operations that benefit Southern California’s economy and quality of life. North America’s leading seaport by container volume and cargo value, the Port of Los Angeles facilitated $284 billion in trade during 2017. San Pedro Bay port complex operations and commerce facilitate one in nine jobs in the five-county Southern California region.
For more information visit www.portoflosangeles.org
11th March 2019
