For Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month this year, the AFL-CIO is spotlighting various Asian Americans 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 Anita Roberts of the

Anita Roberts, a union member since 1998, serves her colleagues at Naval Amphibious Base Coronado in San Diego as a mess attendant, cashier and shop steward. “Industrial, Technical & Professional Employees Union (ITPEU)/OPEIU Local 4873 has given AAPI members a voice at work,” Roberts said. “Our union recently won a great contract with guaranteed pensions, raises, job security, health care and good working conditions.” 

Working people across the United States have stepped 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.

Flight attendants at Utah-based Breeze Airways voted overwhelmingly to join the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA). The flight attendants filed for a union election in just two weeks, one of the fastest campaigns AFA-CWA officials have ever seen. More than 76% of Breeze flight attendants voted in favor of joining the union, which now represents the airline’s roughly 600 flight attendants. The workers are seeking to address issues such as low pay, inconsistent policies, insufficient travel accommodations, erratic scheduling and poor communication.

“Management broke out all the tired old union-busting, but together we weren’t intimidated or fooled,” said Robynne Martino, Breeze flight attendant. “Our work group spoke clearly. It’s time for Breeze to treat us with the dignity we earn every day on the line. We call on management to come to the table and negotiate a fair contract without delay.”

For Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month this year, the AFL-CIO is spotlighting various Asian Americans 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 Gary Kakalia of the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC)

Gary Kakalia is a member of NALC Branch 1100 in Garden Grove, California, and is originally from Hawaii. He has served his fellow letter carriers as a shop steward for 20 years, and 2025 will mark Kakalia’s 30th year as a letter carrier. Alongside his wife, Linda, who is also involved in NALC as a branch officer, Kakalia is involved in a variety of activities that give back to the membership and the community, including the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive. His favorite event was being dunked in a dunk tank to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association at the annual picnic.

It's time once again to take a look at the ways working people are making progress in the states. Click on any of the links to follow the state federations on X (formerly Twitter).

Alaska AFL-CIO:

Teachers go above and beyond in the classroom every single day. We will keep fighting until every single teacher has the opportunity to retire with dignity and has enough resources in their classroom to deliver high-quality education. #PensionsForPublic #RaiseTheAKBSA pic.twitter.com/80eVOkwf9X

— Alaska AFL-CIO (@AKAFLCIO) May 7, 2024

Arizona AFL-CIO:

Working people across the United States have stepped 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.

Lab professionals at Labcorp held a union election from March 1 to 3, where 434 workers voted to join the Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). The new union members work at labs in Portland, Oregon, and Salmon Creek, Washington, and include medical technologists, lab specialists and phlebotomists. The workers are the latest in a wave of health care unionization.

“I am excited that lab professionals at Labcorp have finally won a union and can now advocate for better wages, benefits and working conditions,” said Meagan Hollis, a medical laboratory scientist at Labcorp. “When we come together as health care professionals, we have the strength to make huge changes that can benefit the future of our entire health care system.”

For Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month this year, the AFL-CIO is spotlighting various Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders who have worked and continue to work at the intersection of civil and labor rights in the United States.

• Gilbert Galam
• Abe Lagrimas Jr.
• Mary Akimo-Lu’uwai
• Emily Reyes
• Jan Tokumaru
• Steven Moy
• Jamie Uyeunten

Every week, we bring you a roundup of the top news and commentary about issues and events important to working families. Here’s the latest edition of the Working People Weekly List.

Report Exposes Racial Disparities in Workplace Safety: “‘These alarming disparities in workplace fatalities among workers of color are unacceptable, symptomatic of deeply ingrained racial inequity and the need to pay increased attention to the dangerous industries that treat workers as disposable,’ remarked AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler in a statement.”

Congress Has the Opportunity to Keep Millions of Americans Connected: “The internet is one of America’s greatest success stories and is now an essential part of daily life for millions of people around the world. Through significant investment, innovation and the hard work of thousands of people building modern and innovative broadband networks, we’re close to making the internet accessible to all Americans—regardless of where they live. The digital divide is a persistent challenge, but it’s one Verizon Communications and the Communications Workers of America are committed to solving.”

Citing Infrastructure Spending and Jobs, Philly Construction Union Endorses Biden: “Union leaders from the Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council announced their endorsement of Joe Biden for president at an event at their headquarters. The endorsement comes on the heels of a major national union endorsement, the North America’s Building Trades Unions. Leaders and members pointed to the Investing in America plan as the catalyst for the endorsement. ‘A lot of my members have been out working on the infrastructure bill,’ said Francis McLaughlin, business manager for International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 21 (IUPAT).”

EPA to Ban Most Uses of Methylene Chloride: “The Environmental Protection Agency will ban most industrial and commercial uses of the carcinogenic chemical methylene chloride, under a final rule announced April 30. A solvent widely used in bathtub refinishing, as well as in paint strippers, cleaners, adhesives and sealants, methylene chloride has contributed to the deaths of 88 workers since 1980, EPA says. Most of the cases stemmed from exposure during home renovation contracting. In some instances, the workers were fully equipped with personal protective equipment.”

Urge DHS to Protect, Empower Immigrant Workers: “Around the world, workers’ lives, livelihoods and rights are under attack. Climate disasters and conflicts are displacing people from their homes, and are increasing risks for working people and all our families. In the face of those challenges, we stand united in our fight for justice for all workers at home and abroad. Immigrants and refugees have always helped to build, feed and care for our nation, and we will not allow them to be treated as a second class of exploitable workers. The AFL-CIO is calling on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to take action today to help tear down barriers to worker organizing and empowerment, so that all working people in our country can live and work safely and with dignity.”

AFL-CIO: The Fights for Climate Justice and Racial Justice Are Intertwined: “‘Thinking about movements coming together in the same room today made me think of Dr. King and what he said,’ remarked AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Fred Redmond, the highest-ranking African-American leader in the labor movement. ‘During his days, a term like environmental justice didn’t really exist, but he understood how interconnected these challenges were. Structural racism, economic injustice, and underinvestment in Black and brown communities. He told us in 1967 that the cities were gasping in polluted air and enduring contaminated water. What’s equally important is that he knew the solution, how important it was to stand together in solidarity. Organized labor can be one of the most powerful interests to do away with this evil that confronts our nation that we refer to as discrimination.’”

These Are the Most Dangerous Jobs in America: “Fatalities are on the rise, in part, because some employees are afraid of potential retaliation if they highlight dangerous conditions at their job, resulting in many workers operating in an unsafe environment, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said in a statement. Employee overdosing on drugs while at work, deadly violence against co-workers and suicides have also contributed to the jump in workplace deaths, according to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration.”

Workers and Activists Across Europe and Asia Hold May Day Rallies to Call for Greater Labor Rights: “Workers, activists and others across Europe and Asia took to the streets on Wednesday to mark May Day with protests over rising prices and government labor policies and calls for greater labor rights. May Day, which falls on May 1, is observed in many countries to celebrate workers’ rights. May Day events have also given many an opportunity to air general economic grievances or political demands.”

Poor People’s Campaign Emphasizes Moral Resurrection of Economic Rights: “‘There is no greater form of oppression than when a country that has immense resources and wealth allows its people to suffer and die from a lack of resources,’ said Fred Redmond, secretary-treasurer of AFL-CIO. ‘Poverty is a failure of the system, it exists because we allow it to exist.’”

Pro-Worker Rules to Help Millions; Republicans Blast Them: “Union leaders cheered—and corporate-backed congressional Republicans slammed—three new Biden administration decisions to help workers and consumers. With deadlines for announcing new federal rules looming, the Labor Department issued two. One orders investment managers for pension plans to put recipients, not themselves, as the top priority. The other raises to $58,656 annually on January 1 the amount of money a worker can earn before becoming ineligible for overtime pay. ‘Expansion of the federal overtime rule will help millions more workers earn the pay they deserve,’ said AFSCME President Lee Saunders. ‘Some public service workers–including those in child welfare, mental health and substance abuse counseling–have been ineligible for overtime pay despite modest wages and the long hours they put in at essential jobs,’ he explained.”

Biden Praises UAW-Daimler Truck Agreement as a ‘Testament to the Power of Collective Bargaining’: “President Joe Biden praised the United Auto Workers and Daimler Truck for reaching a tentative in the eleventh hour Friday night, preventing a potential strike affecting 7,300 workers. ‘This agreement is a testament to the power of collective bargaining and shows that we can build a clean energy economy with strong, middle-class union jobs,’ Biden said in a statement Sunday.”

Labor Leaders Honor Key Bridge Victims on Workers Memorial Day: ‘We Have More Work To Do’: “Sunday was Workers Memorial Day, an annual day of remembrance for laborers killed or hurt on the job, started in 1989 by the AFL-CIO. Thousands of workers nationwide are estimated by the organization of labor unions to be injured or killed on the job each day, and the issue became front and center in Baltimore on March 26 after the six men, all employees of Brawner Builders, died while working an overnight shift filling potholes on the bridge that was struck by a cargo ship early that morning.”

Latino Workers Are Disproportionately at Risk of Dying While Working, Study Shows: “Latinos face a disproportionate risk of dying while on the job in the United States, a new report by AFL-CIO found. Fatality rates have been increasing over the years and continued doing so in 2022, the year analyzed by the organization, reaching 4.6 per 100,000 workers. That is 24% higher than the national average and a 24% increase over the past decade.”

On Workers Memorial Day, AFL-CIO’s Shuler Says Workers Still Pay ‘Ultimate Price’: “Even after decades of enforcement, activism and union campaigning, ‘workers are still paying the price every day’ in deaths and injuries on the job ‘for corporate greed,’ AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler says. Flourishing a copy of the federation’s 33rd annual report, ‘Death on the Job: A Toll of Neglect,’ Shuler told a Labor Department audience the job of campaigning to cut the toll is incomplete. Workers and their allies must lobby for tougher laws against companies and more enforcement, too, she said.”

For Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month this year, the AFL-CIO is spotlighting various Asian Americans 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 Steven Moy of the Electrical Workers (IBEW).

Steven Moy is a member of IBEW Local 3 in New York. He comes from a family of labor activists, including his young daughter who belongs to SAG-AFTRA. He began his career as a Local 3 apprentice in 1994. Since then, he's been active in the Asian American Cultural Society, where he filled several positions, including president. He was elected to the APALA National Executive Board in 2011. In 2012, Moy was appointed president of the New York City chapter of the Electrical Workers Minority Caucus. In January 2015, he was elected as president of the New York City chapter of APALA. 

Working people across the United States have stepped 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 80 organizers, including participants and teaching fellows, joined together this week in Las Vegas and St. Paul, Minnesota, at the AFL-CIO Organizing Institute (OI) Three-Day Training.

The OI’s mission is to train union organizers to secure the kinds of huge wins that grow the labor movement and change lives for generations. Tens of thousands of member activists and staff organizers have been trained by the OI, which provides them with the best practices and mobilization principles that are key to helping workers win respect, dignity and a voice at work through forming a union. AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler joined attendees at the St. Paul session, where they were reinforcing the skills necessary to help usher in a new era of labor organizing.

Find more information about the OI and register your teams for training at aflcio.org/oi.

As a Japanese American, I’m especially moved by the stories of early Asian and Pacific Islander immigrants and Native Hawaiians who are a part of the tapestry of our labor history, though their stories are not well celebrated. From the sugar fields of Hawai’i to the California coast where the Transcontinental Railroad originated to the grape fields in Delano, California, employers exploited these immigrant workers brutally. 

The 19th century was the era when bosses perfected the strategy of pitting one race of workers against another, all in a cycle to drive down wages. But this was also the era where workers—especially Asian immigrants—figured out how to organize across races and nationalities. This was a matter of survival for those who defied expectations.

Their success is more remarkable when you think they often had to overcome cultural and language barriers to find commonality with others—and all in a time when the right to organize was not well protected.

There are countless stories of untold heroism in this history. 

Native Hawaiian sugar workers staged the first general strike by native laborers in the Hawaiian Islands in 1841 because they rejected the western concept of work and being paid in scrip. Five thousand Chinese workers staged a strike covering 30 miles of rail in 1867. There’s the story of Japanese and Mexican agricultural workers fighting for justice together in sugar beet fields at the very beginning of the 20th century. The lessons of the Japanese-Mexican Labor Association repeated in the 1960s when Filipino workers banded with Chicano and Mexican workers to organize grape fields in California. Standing right alongside César Chávez were Larry Itliong and Philip Vera Cruz. 

It’s extraordinary to think that these workers often were organizing at a time when they had little support from communities, press or even organized labor. In fact, it was the labor movement of the late 19th century that promoted the hateful Chinese Exclusion Act, which has the ugly distinction of being the first and only major federal legislation to explicitly suspend immigration for a specific nationality. These workers often were not welcomed into the unions of the day, but it didn’t stop them from acting collectively and demanding justice at work.

Today, the landscape of organized labor is vastly different from what existed in the 19th century. Almost 800,000 Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) call themselves union members (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2024). 

In 1992, we founded the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, AFL-CIO (APALA) to recognize the role of AAPI union members in the movement and to make a commitment to organizing AAPI workers. APALA has since served as a vital entry point for AAPI union members to their union activism and as an important resource for unions as we continue to train AAPI organizers through our Organizing Institutes. We are also the bridge to AAPI communities which, not surprisingly, have become increasingly pivotal in elections as we continue to grow our voter turnout. 

Despite a dark history of labor’s hostility toward AAPI workers, we are now a vital part of today’s labor movement and will remain vigilant to ensure we do not regress in the name of trade or nationalism. We will fight for worker rights, job protections and safe communities while uplifting all workers.

As immigration trends have changed, a new wave of AAPI workers is organizing in their sectors and winning. The New York Taxi Workers Alliance is organized by mostly south Asians from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Members staged a strike in 1998 where 98% of New York City’s 24,000 yellow cab drivers parked their cars on a single day to protest unfair and arbitrary fines. 98%! Young AAPI academic workers are leading in their unions and AAPI teachers who are members of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and National Education Association (NEA) are leading the fight to include AAPI history in our curricula. 

There is still a long way to go and more organizing to be done. The rise in anti-Asian hate during the pandemic underscores that the ugliness of racism that fueled the nativist rhetoric of the 19th century isn’t that far away. False narratives about AAPI folks being meek and passive continue to undercut the truth that we will always fight for justice at both work and in our communities. Yet I’m optimistic as I look ahead to a new generation of AAPI union activists leading their unions. We are sharing the collective responsibility of uplifting our history and our members as rightful and powerful parts of the labor movement.

May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, a time to cast a spotlight on AAPI contributions to our culture and heritage. I welcome this as it focuses on a national conversation on our history. But I do look forward to the day when our AAPI labor history is seamlessly woven into the fabric of all labor history. A day when we think of our labor heroes and conjure up not only the images of Mother Jones, A. Philip Randolph and César Chávez, but also Larry Itliong or May Chen, who led the 1982 International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union (ILGWU) strike in New York City’s Chinatown. I think that is a fitting responsibility for us today to honor our heroes of yesterday. 

Resources

• Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA), AFL-CIO
• Labor Toolkit on Anti-Asian Racism

Sandra Engle is a retired UAW member and executive director of the Asian