The Right to Organize is a Human Right

Much of the Teamsters membership growth is coming from Hispanic workers, organizers said on the second day of the Hispanic Caucus National Convention. View all photos from this event.

Some of the most successful recent Teamsters organizing victories had a strong Hispanic component. Many of the 8,000 newly organized Continental Airlines fleet service employees are Hispanic. So are many, many school bus drivers and solid waste industry employees.

Of the 15,000 California University Employees who voted to affiliate with the Teamsters, 79 percent are women and the vast majority of those women are Latina and African-American.

Ron Herrera, Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 396, said organizing victories depend on fighting for workers.

“You’ve got to have a reputation as a fighter,” Herrera said.

International Vice President George Miranda told the caucus that organizing involves hard work.

“This is a calling,” Miranda said, adding that he looks forward to bringing the message from the Hispanic Caucus to the General Executive Board.

Throughout the day, Teamsters leadership stressed the importance of unity.

Al Mixon, International Vice President-At Large, said union members have to stick together.

“When one of us wins, all of us win,” Mixon said. “The only way to escape being exploited is through the union.”

Mixon emphasized the urgency of bringing along younger membership to continue the fight. Otherwise, Mixon said, “What’s going to be left if we continue to shift jobs?”

Organizers described how they are working hard to educate and communicate with these new members. With the hard work comes the pride in knowing that the union lifts mistreated workers into the middle class.

Hispanic workers and non-Hispanic workers fight the same battles for decent wages and dignity – and against the same anti-worker forces, said Ernesto Medrano, political coordinator for Local 952.

Hispanics who are treated with disrespect inside the U.S. borders face the same powerful interests that kill U.S. jobs by moving factories offshore, Medrano said.   

“If you can’t have a cheap labor force, you move your company to places where there is a cheap labor force,” Medrano said.