Organize, Organize, Organize!

Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, addressed the Convention Wednesday afternoon, Sept. 28. She stressed that it’s not enough to just pass laws that protect working families – they need to be enforced.

Gonzalez Fletcher shared that many young people want to join a union but don’t know how. She cited the launch of unionizecalifornia.org to connect young people with a union. She emphasized that we have to be accessible to workers, whether it’s on social media or in their workplace. “We have to meet workers where they are,” she remarked.

Gonzalez Fletcher also reminded delegates and guests that we cannot forget about immigrants, and we need to learn how to talk to them. She concluded by mentioning the pending legislation for the United Farmer Workers in California, which was signed into law later that afternoon by California Governor Newsom. It will provide the first private sector card check to allow undocumented farm workers to organize. “Hard work comes in every color, and we’re going to value it however it comes,” Gonzalez Fletcher declared.

Newly Formed Organizing Committee Presents Resolutions

After Gonzalez Fletcher’s speech, Convention delegates heard from the Committee on Organizing, which referred five Resolutions, among them Resolution Numbers 48, 50, and 51. 

Resolution No. 48 calls on BAC’s continued support of and advocacy for immigration reform, to denounce those who use demagoguery, fear, and hateful rhetoric to divide workers, and to commend the Biden Administration’s efforts to focus its resources on unscrupulous employers, rather than punishing the workers they exploit. The Resolution also calls on BAC to continue to expand its efforts to connect those who seek assistance in obtaining legal work status or naturalization with the resources they need.

Resolution No. 50 reaffirm BAC’s commitments to identify, organize, train, mentor, and support all women, immigrants, and people of color who are interested in a career in the masonry trades, and to collaborate closely with IMI, IMTEF, JATC programs, ICE, and individual signatory contractors in identifying and overcoming barriers to recruiting and retaining a multicultural organized trowel trades workforce. The Resolution also commits all levels of BAC to continue to diversify its organizing efforts to ensure that we can credibly and effectively communicate with all craftworkers working in our trade, and to continue cooperative efforts with community coalition groups and union constituency groups.

Resolution No. 51 is premised on the centrality of organizing to BAC’s survival, growth, and success.  It amends the International Union Constitution to require each Local Union and ADC to establish an Organizing Committee.

The Committee’s recommendations were unanimously adopted by the Convention.