La Unión

La Unión was founded in 2006 organizing low-wage immigrant workers who were suffering abuses in the supermarket industry, and soon after won the passage of Local Law 629A - ending the practice of locking-in janitors in supermarkets. On the heels of this victory, the workers began organizing around other issues such as immigration and education that... deeply impacted their lives. La Unión became a formal non-profit , 501c3, in 2009 helping hundreds of community members to understand their experience of migration in the transnational and global context, mobilizing thousands of people to take action for immigration reform, and justice in education, housing, and in the remittances industry. La Unión has created and sustains an intergenerational model of social change work that elevates our members voices as experts of their own experiences and creates opportunities for taking action in transforming the policies that oppress them. Here is a collection of our past victories: -Passage of Local Law 629A which ended the practice of locking in janitors in supermarkets. -Through a combination of legal advocacy and community organizing, La Unión has forced employers to pay back wages and respect minimum wage and over time laws. More than 200 workers have joined in picket lines with our organizing resulting in more than $100,000 in claims for back wages. -Participated in Transnational Economic Justice Campaign in which La Unión members' targeted Western Union and the larger money transfer industry for their irresponsible remittance policies that profit off the backs of low-income immigrant communities. -Conducted a community study on the impact of housing conditions on the health of immigrant communities; the community report "Nowhere To Turn" turning a spotlight on the failure of public schools to provide a good education for Mexican-American students. -Incubated the Women's Leadership Collective, which organized immigrant women leaders to come together in study groups to develop their analysis on issues of transnational ...Read More