Arturo Rodriguez (born June 23, 1949) is a former American labor union leader.
Born in San Antonio, Rodriguez was educated at St. Mary's University, Texas and the University of Michigan. While at college, he became involved in the United Farm Workers' grape boycott. After graduating, he worked for the union full-time. He met and married Linda Chavez, daughter of the union's president, Cesar Chavez. In 1981, he was elected to the union's executive board, and in 1992 he became first vice-president. [1]
In 1993, Rodriguez became president of the union. [2] In the post, he led a major organizing and contract negotiating drive, which increased the union's membership. In 1994, he led a 343-mile march to highlight the union's campaigns. As leader, he was paid only a low wage, similar to that of the union's members. [1] In later years, the union spent more time focusing on securing positive legislation, and while attempts to organize strawberry workers failed, it continued to win some other recognition votes. [3]
Rodriguez served as a vice-president of the AFL-CIO, but in 2005 he led the union out of the federation and into the new Change to Win Coalition. [4] He retired in 2018. [3]
Cesar Chavez was an American labor leader and civil rights activist. Along with Dolores Huerta, he co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA), which later merged with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) to become the United Farm Workers (UFW) labor union. Ideologically, his world-view combined leftist politics with Catholic social teachings.
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL–CIO) is the largest federation of unions in the United States. It is made up of 60 national and international unions, together representing more than 12 million active and retired workers. The AFL–CIO engages in substantial political spending and activism, typically in support of progressive and pro-labor policies.
The United Farm Workers of America, or more commonly just United Farm Workers (UFW), is a labor union for farmworkers in the United States. It originated from the merger of two workers' rights organizations, the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) led by organizer Larry Itliong, and the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) led by César Chávez and Dolores Huerta. They became allied and transformed from workers' rights organizations into a union as a result of a series of strikes in 1965, when the mostly Filipino farmworkers of the AWOC in Delano, California, initiated a grape strike, and the NFWA went on strike in support. As a result of the commonality in goals and methods, the NFWA and the AWOC formed the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee on August 22, 1966. This organization was accepted into the AFL–CIO in 1972 and changed its name to the United Farm Workers Union.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), also known as the Teamsters Union, is a labor union in the United States and Canada. Formed in 1903 by the merger of the Team Drivers International Union and the Teamsters National Union, the union now represents a diverse membership of blue-collar and professional workers in both the public and private sectors, totalling about 1.3 million in 2015. The union was formerly called the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America.
The nature and power of organized labor in the United States is the outcome of historical tensions among counter-acting forces involving workplace rights, wages, working hours, political expression, labor laws, and other working conditions. Organized unions and their umbrella labor federations such as the AFL–CIO and citywide federations have competed, evolved, merged, and split against a backdrop of changing values and priorities, and periodic federal government intervention.
John Joseph Sweeney was an American labor leader who served as president of the AFL–CIO from 1995 to 2009.
Linda Chavez-Thompson is a second-generation Mexican-American and union leader. She was elected the executive vice-president of the AFL-CIO in 1995 and served until September 21, 2007. She was also a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee from 1997 to 2012 and served as a member of the board of trustees of United Way of America. She was the Democratic nominee for Lieutenant Governor of Texas in the 2010 election.
Frank Edward Fitzsimmons was an American labor leader. He was acting president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters from 1967 to 1971, and president from 1971 to 1981.
Thomas Reilly Donahue Jr. was an American trade union leader who served as Secretary-Treasurer of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations from 1979 to 1995, interim president for several months in 1995, and was President Emeritus from 1996 until his death. He was considered one of the most influential leaders of the post-World War II American trade union movement.
The Texas Farm Workers Union (TFWU) was established by Antonio Orendain and farmworker leaders of the Rio Grande Valley active with the United Farm Workers after a disagreement with UFW leadership over direction of a melon strike in south McAllen, Texas, in 1975.
Philip Villamin Vera Cruz was a Filipino American labor leader, farmworker, and leader in the Asian American movement. He helped found the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC), which later merged with the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) to become the United Farm Workers (UFW). As the union's long-time second vice president, he worked to improve the working conditions of migrant workers.
The Delano grape strike was a labor strike organized by the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC), a predominantly Filipino and AFL-CIO-sponsored labor organization, against table grape growers in Delano, California to fight against the exploitation of farm workers. The strike began on September 8, 1965, and one week later, the predominantly Mexican National Farmworkers Association (NFWA) joined the cause. In August 1966, the AWOC and the NFWA merged to create the United Farm Workers (UFW) Organizing Committee.
María Elena Durazo is an American politician serving in the California State Senate. A Democrat, From 2018 to 2022 she represented the 24th State Senatorial district and has been representing the 26th district since 2022 which encompasses Central Los Angeles, East Los Angeles, and Vernon.
Eliseo Vasquez Medina is a Mexican-American labor union activist and leader, and advocate for immigration reform in the United States. From 1973 to 1978, he was a board member of the United Farm Workers. He is currently secretary-treasurer of the Service Employees International Union. He was previously an international executive vice president, the first Mexican American to serve on the union's executive board. Medina announced his resignation as an SEIU executive vice president effective October 1, 2013.
Emil Rieve was an American labor leader. He was president of the Textile Workers Union of America (TWUA) from 1939 to 1956, a vice president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) from 1939 to 1955, and a vice president of the AFL-CIO from 1955 to 1960.
Arlene Holt Baker is an American trade union activist and labor leader. A staff assistant with the AFL-CIO since 1995, she was appointed executive vice-president of the labor federation by the AFL-CIO Executive Council in 2007 and won re-election in 2009. She became the first African American in the federation's history to serve as an officer.
The California Agricultural Labor Relations Act (CALRA) is a landmark statute in United States labor law that was enacted by the state of California in 1975, establishing the right to collective bargaining for farmworkers in that state, a first in U.S. history.
Labor unions in the United States, since their early beginnings, have held various viewpoints on immigration. There were differences among the labor unions and occasionally opposition to contemporary majority opinions and public policies.
Richard Estrada Chavez was an American labor leader, organizer and activist. Chavez was the younger brother of labor leader César Chávez, who co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, now known as the United Farm Workers (UFW). Richard Chavez is credited with building the UFW into a major California agricultural and political organization.
Modesto "Larry" Dulay Itliong, also known as "Seven Fingers", was a Filipino American labor organizer. He organized West Coast agricultural workers starting in the 1930s, and rose to national prominence in 1965, when he, Philip Vera Cruz, Benjamin Gines and Pete Velasco, walked off the farms of area table-grape growers, demanding wages equal to the federal minimum wage, that became known as the Delano grape strike. He has been described as "one of the fathers of the West Coast labor movement." He is regarded as a key figure of the Asian American movement.