Hispanic Heritage Month Profiles: Lupe Valles

Throughout Hispanic Heritage Month, the AFL-CIO will be profiling leaders and activists to spotlight the diverse contributions Hispanics and Latinos have made to the labor movement. Today's profile features Lupe Valles of the Office and Professional Employees (OPEIU).

An OPEIU member since 1989, Lupe Valles, president and business manager of OPEIU Local 174, has spent her entire career helping working people realize their own power. Valles also sits on the board of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement and serves as an OPEIU vice president. 

Kenneth Quinnell Thu, 10/02/2025 - 10:16

Tags: Hispanic Heritage Month

CALL: Fund the Government and Fix the Looming Health Care Crisis

The federal government is shutting down because the Trump administration chose chaos and pain over responsible governing.

Countless jobs, the essential government services we all rely on and the economy are in jeopardy right now—all because the administration wants to take one more swing at wrecking the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and throwing working people off our health care.

The labor movement’s message to the administration and their allies in Congress is clear: Get to work. Fund the government. Fix the health care crisis. And put working people first.

Make a call to House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, and your senators and representative to tell them to get to work, fund the government and stop the health care crisis. Make a call now: 844-896-5059 or click here to call.

As the government shuts down, hundreds of thousands of federal workers are being put on leave or will be forced to work without pay. More than 80% of those workers live outside Washington, D.C., running the services we rely on—caring for our veterans, processing Social Security applications, keeping our food and water safe, protecting us at airports and responding during natural disasters. Some of those workers may get paychecks when the government reopens, but people who are contracted through another company—like government building custodians or cafeteria workers—won’t get back pay, even though they still have bills to pay.

And last week, Project 2025 architect turned White House Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought threatened to illegally fire hundreds of thousands of those workers if Congress doesn’t cave to the Trump administration’s demands. 

And what is that fight all about? The Affordable Care Act. (Yes. Again.)

The Trump administration wants to let out-of-pocket health insurance premiums for some 22 million people who get health care through the Affordable Care Act spike by 114%, just before open enrollment begins on Nov. 1. Yes, you read that correctly: This fight is about letting the Trump administration allow insurance prices for ACA health care to more than double in just a few months, a crisis that would leave millions of people uninsured and raise prices for everyone, whether you get your insurance through the ACA or not.  

Every day this Trump shutdown drags on, workers and our families are forced to make impossible choices. Our message to the administration is clear: Federal workers aren’t your pawns. Fund the government. Fix the health care crisis. Put working people first. Now.

Click here to make a call. 

Kenneth Quinnell Wed, 10/01/2025 - 15:03