Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month Profiles: Joelle Naeole-Corona

For Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, AFL-CIO is spotlighting various Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders who have worked and continue to work at the intersection of civil and labor rights in the United States. Today's profile is Joelle Naeole-Corona of the Office and Professional Employees (OPEIU).

Joelle Naeole-Corona is an OPEIU Local 30 trustee and steward at Kaiser Permanente, where she works as a hospital aide. Hailing from a union family, Naeole said the best way to empower Asian American and Pacific Islander workers is to ensure “members are valued, recognized for their hard work, and empowered in the workplace.”

Kenneth Quinnell Fri, 05/22/2026 - 08:22

Service & Solidarity Spotlight: Hotel and Gaming Trades Council Wins New Industry-Wide Tentative Agreement

Working people across the United States regularly step up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our Service & Solidarity Spotlight series, we’ll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story.

Ahead of the FIFA World Cup, the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council (HTC) has reached a new tentative agreement with the Hotel Association of New York City that secures the biggest wage increases in the union’s history.

The new contract would be active for eight years, and by the end of its lifetime, room attendants and other nontipped workers would be earning six figures. Other highlights of the deal include fully paid parental leave, artificial intelligence guardrails, additional protections for immigrant members and more.

“Our union’s team carried out sophisticated and effective legal and political strategies, engaged in thousands of conversations with employers, and executed numerous bargaining strategies to create the leverage we needed,” said HTC President Rich Maroko in an open letter to the union’s members. “But in the end, we would not have won this agreement without the dedication of our members and the very real threat that we would strike. The threat of a strike or a picket line is our union’s most powerful weapon. In every contract fight, we need management to understand that if they won’t agree to a fair contract at the bargaining table, we will take our fight to the streets.”

Kenneth Quinnell Fri, 05/22/2026 - 08:08