Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month Profiles: Karen Cross

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 Karen Cross of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT).

Karen Cross is currently the secretary-treasurer of the Boston Teachers Union and has been a math teacher for the past 24 years. She is also treasurer of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance Massachusetts chapter and a trustee of the Boston Retirement Board. In addition, she has been part of a cohort of the Trustee Leadership Forum at Harvard Law School’s Center for Labor and a Just Economy for the past two years.

Kenneth Quinnell Tue, 05/26/2026 - 10:11

Service & Solidarity Spotlight: University of California IT Workers Join UPTE-CWA, Form Largest Tech Union in U.S.

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.

More than 2,100 tech workers at the University of California have voted to join University Professional and Technical Employees (UPTE)-Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 9119. With the addition of these system analysts, database administrators and other information technology (IT) workers, UPTE-CWA has become the largest tech union in the United States.

“Millions of Californians rely on the University of California for their healthcare and education,” said Max Belasco, business systems analyst at UCLA. “Until now, we haven’t had the opportunity, as the people who understand AI, to say: we want a seat at the table. If the workers who provide these critical services to the people of California don’t have the power to demand transparency and advocate for the safe deployment of AI tools, there will be no safeguards in place to ensure AI will be used as anything more than a poor cost saving measure. Unionized healthcare workers have set new quality standards across UC hospitals that save lives—tech workers can play the same role when it comes to AI.”

Kenneth Quinnell Tue, 05/26/2026 - 10:02

Tags: Organizing