Community Engagement & Labor Relations
in 2018, I had the vision of elevating the moral, intellectual, social, and economic conditions of ALL Working Texans and bringing that message to a broader audience. This vision was rooted in the objects of my labor union’s constitution. I helped form the Community Engagement Committee under the Tarrant County Central Labor Council with a fellow alumni from the Ruth Ellinger Labor Leaders School. The purpose of this committee was to educate the public through community service, providing education about labor unions to students in high school and college, and serving the community through projects. My civic service includes:
Tarrant County Democratic Party State House District Coordinator for HD93
Democratic Neighborhood leader for precinct 1197 and 1701
Sponsor of LatinX Vote Outreach Committee formed in 2019
Sponsor and Co-Chair of Labor Relations Advisory Committee Founded Aug 2019
Member of Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA)
Trustee and Member of Coalition Labor Union Women (CLUW)
Some of those activities I helped organize as part of the Labor Relations Committee include:
During the Federal Government Shutdown during December 2018 and early 2019, the Community Engagement Committee made the push for all ISDs in North Texas to ensure every child had access to food. We worked with the United Way of Tarrant County to send truckloads of food to the airport and gas cards to cover the 800+ parents that were still working without pay for months. We worked with attorneys to ensure the federal employees were protected when they were threatened with lawsuits for accepting help from the public. We did this for both Union members and Non Union members alike. The outcome of this initiative highlighted the need for a formal advisory committee.
Tarrant County Democratic Party Labor Relations committee was created to centralize advocacy efforts across progressive community organizations and Democratic clubs. This is the second labor committee created under a County Democratic Party in the United States.
When the GM strikes happened at the Tarrant and Denton plants, the Tarrant County Democratic Party Labor Relations team took shifts to ensure we had people organized and fed for the entire duration of the strike. The strike lasted 45 days. Due to our earlier work we were ready with fundraising infrastructure and able to provide thousands of meals to striking workers on the front lines of a labor dispute almost unheard of in Tarrant County. We also organized a legal advisory team to help striking workers with eviction proceedings and repossession orders, worked with financial partners for low interest loan programs and gathered food for families. We supported both union and non-union contractors at that plant.
My team was called when Fort Worth ISD decided to move forward with a vendor contract replacing 900 cafeteria workers including limiting their current retirement benefits they spent decades earning, eliminating their health insurance and removing federal employment protections. By organizing a public education campaign on the negative long term implications of this new contract, we effectively reversed the decision to award the contract by a unanimous vote of the Fort Worth ISD School Board.
We organize every opportunity to assist in the community including food drives, community cleanups, citizenship drives, clothing and food assistance to the homeless, community revitalization projects such as Habitat for Humanity, and and assisting with labor issues affecting working families outside the Union organizations I represent.
In 2020, I spoke about the history of the labor union movement and the importance of organizing at Collin County Community College for their Texas Working Class conference,the Cesar Chavez- Dolores Huerta Day of Action with Fort Worth ISD and Peaster ISD in their common sense economics class for their AP student body.
In 2019, I helped organize the first joint Labor Day Picnic for Tarrant County where an estimated 1,000 people showed up with music, food, and speeches from elected officials and candidates.
In February of 2020, I organized a panel of about 10 Young Latino Activists in North Texas to speak to an international reporter about how the current political situation affects their daily lives.
