Pittsburgh: The Pittsburgh chapter of LCLAA was officially chartered in March of 2014.  Its primary mission is to bring organized labor and community organizations that serve Latino working families together around the common goal of advancing the social and economic well-being of Southwestern Pennsylvania’s growing Latino community. Some of the “luchas” our chapter is involved in are:

• El Fondo Solidario de Pittsburgh: In March of 2019 our chapter, in partnership with Casa San José, formally launched El Fondo Solidario de Pittsburgh, a lending fund with the mission of helping families raise the money needed to post a bond and gain release of a family member from ICE detention.  The fund was first established with $12,000 raised by the 2018 celebration of ¡Que Viva Clemente!  With additional donations from our past ¡Que Viva Clemente! celebrations, and donations generated by Casa San José, as of this writing, the fund has lent more than $87,000 and has successfully reunited seventeen families and received nearly $33,000 in repayments.

• Turning Out the Latino Vote: Our chapter has been busy working to advance our agenda to build a thriving and prosperous Latino community in Southwestern, Pennsylvania. Perhaps one of the most important efforts we undertook in this regard was our voter registration partnership with the national Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA) and its Pittsburgh chapter to text and knock on Latino voters’ doors to make sure our communities have everything they need to make their voice heard this election cycle.

Driving Pennsylvania Forward: Our chapter has also been active with an ongoing campaign among immigrant rights groups throughout Pennsylvania to pass state legislation that would allow undocumented residents of Pennsylvania access to drivers’ licenses.