LCLAA's Bi-weekly Newsletter | 28 Jan. 2022
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La lucha sigue - The Fight Goes On
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Dear LCLAA members and allies,
Last week marked the harrowing end to a protracted debate on two critical pieces of voting rights legislation: the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and the Freedom to Vote Act. The laws were drafted in response to a widespread push in Republican-held state legislatures to restrict voting access, which is amounting to a new Jim Crow for working-class minority voters.
The proposed bills would have enacted regulations to ensure that all Americans have access to their Constitutionally-enshrined right to vote. To pass this law, however, the Senate would have had to change its own procedural rules to override the filibuster, a rule that has long been used to prevent the passage of civil rights legislation. When Democratic Senators Kirsten Synema and Joe Manchin joined 50 Republican Senators in opposing a change to Senate rules, they destroyed the possibility of passing this legislation for the time being.
But the fight for voting rights is not over! Today I join AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler in declaring voting rights an essential goal of our activism and organization. Despite this setback at the federal level, we can still fight restrictive voting and corrupt gerrymandering at the state and local level. In fact, LCLAA chapters from Los Angeles to Lansing are already working to ensure that their communities will be heard during the 2022 election--whether by organizing voter registration and get out the vote campaigns or attending redistricting meetings. I urge to to join la lucha for voting rights to ensure that are hard-earned democracy is not damaged by discriminatory laws.
In solidarity,
President Yanira Merino
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Puerto Rico’s nearly five-year bankruptcy battle was resolved Tuesday after a federal judge signed a plan that slashes the U.S. territory’s public debt load as part of a restructuring and allows the government to start repaying creditors. Read more in this piece in Latino Rebels.
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Vice President Kamala Harris will lead the US delegation to Honduras attending the inauguration of President-elect Xiomara Castro later this month, according to the White House. Read more in this article from CNN.
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In the spring of 2020, Heather Hemingway, RN, BSN—a new board executive of Huntington Hospital Nurses Association (HHNA) in Huntington, New York—had a big problem: How to communicate effectively with a disconnected, frontline membership... as it headed into contract negotiations... during a pandemic. Read more on the Union Strong App Blog.
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- No upcoming events--but stay tuned for information about our next board meeting!
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- 50 for 50 Membership Drive! - Help grow LCLAA by recruiting 50 new members! If you participate with your local chapter, you can help raise funds and win swag! Check out the rules for more details, and take the pledge to participate.
- Join the fight against toxic pesticides! - Nerve-agent pesticides called organophosphates (OPs) are deeply harmful to children’s brain development and toxic to farm workers. They also tend to impact Latino workers and communities more than any others. Join us in calling on the EPA to ban OPs.
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Reconocimientos - Shout-outs
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- Congratulations to former LCLAA Executive Board member Melody Gonzales on assuming her new role at the Biden White House! Sister Gonzalez is now Executive Director of the White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence and Economics.
- ¡Feliz cumleaños Presidenta Merino! Be sure to wish LCLAA National President Yanira Merino a happy birthday on January 31st¡
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Oportunidades - Opportunities
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- Staff Attorney - UCLA Latino Politics and Policy Initiative (LPPI). UCLA LPPI seeks an emerging legal advocate to serve as a staff attorney for the UCLA Voting Rights Project. The UCLA Voting Rights Project is the flagship project of LPPI and works to ensure an accessible and equitable system of voting for all Americans through impact litigation, research, and clinical education to expand access to the ballot box.
- Deputy Director - UCLA Latino Politics and Policy Initiative (LPPI). UCLA LPPI seeks a strategic leader to serve as Deputy Director. UCLA LPPI addresses the most critical domestic policy challenges facing Latinos and other communities of color through research, advocacy, mobilization, and leadership development to propel policy reforms that expand genuine opportunity for all Americans. This role requires a person with the strategic acumen and intellectual ability to advance sophisticated initiatives, exceptional project management and execution skills, and the interpersonal savvy to motivate and retain a cross-functional team for a dynamic and fast-paced research enterprise… Read more.
- 2022 Dream Summer Fellowship at UCLA - Dream Summer is a national fellowship that empowers immigrant youth and allies to be the next generation of social justice leaders through leadership and professional development, movement building, and on-the-ground experience in social justice organizations. Learn more.
For more labor job and apprenticeship postings, visit the Union Jobs Clearinghouse.
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El Avance is published by the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA), the leading national organization for Latino(a) workers and their families. LCLAA was born in 1972 out of the need to educate, organize and mobilize Latinos in the labor movement and has expanded its influence to organize Latinos in an effort to impact workers' rights and their influence in the political process. LCLAA represents the interest of more than 2 million Latino workers in the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), The Change to Win Federation, and independent unions. Visit us on the web at lclaa.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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The Labor Council
for Latin American Advancement
815 Black Lives Matter Plz NW
Washington DC, 20006
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