Labor Council for Latin American Advancement- History

Founded by a group of Latinx trade unionists in 1973, the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA) has become the leading advocacy group for Latinx working rights in the country. 

In collaboration with like-minded organizations likeFRONTLASH, LCLAA’s new chapters engage in energetic voter education, registration, and get-out-the-vote campaigns. By the November election, LCLAA is credited with helping register over 35,000 voters across the country.

LCLAA hosts its first National Membership Convention from April 11th to 13th, 1975 in Albuquerque, NM. The event is attended by 150 delegates from 44 international unions as well as rank-and-file members, executive board members, and dignitaries from the labor movement and New Mexico politics. 

In response to the passage of the Immigration Reform and Control act of 1986, which granted amnesty to millions of undocumented immigrants, LCLAA establishes an Amnesty Assistance Program to help undocumented workers regularize their immigration status. As part of the initiative, LCLAA collaborates with labor unions and other community organizations to distribute information on citizenship to undocumented workers across the country.

In 2003, LCLAA members help lead theImmigrant Workers Freedom Ride (IWFR) to highlight the plight of undocumented workers. Inspired by the freedom rides of the 1960s civil rights movement, the IWFR brings together nearly a thousand unionists and immigrant rights advocates from across the country to demonstrate in Washington, DC and New York City.

LCLAA is the leading national organization for Latinx workers and their families. LCLAA was born out of the need to educate, organize and mobilize Latinxs in the labor movement and has expanded its influence to organize Latinxs in an effort to impact workers’ rights and their influence in the political process. LCLAA represents the interest of more than 2 million Latinx workers in the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), The Change to Win Federation, independent unions, and all their affiliate unions.

(Source: https://www.lclaa.org/about-us)

Join us on November 9th for more information on LCLAA in Milwaukee!