Columnist Anita Chabria at The Los Angeles Times reports: Unions in California are different from those in other places. More than any State in our troubled country, their ranks are filled with People of Color and Immigrants. While Unions have always been tied closely with the struggles of Civil Rights, that has become even more pronounced in the years since George Floyd was killed by a Police Officer in Minneapolis. In the subsequent national soul-searching, Unions were forced to do a bit of their own. But where that conversation has largely broken down for general society under the pressure of President Donald Trump’s Right-Wing rage, it took hold inside of Unions to a much greater degree - leading to more leadership from People of Color, sometimes younger leadership and definitely an understanding from the Rank-and-File that these are organizations that fight far beyond the workplace. Which is why the arrest of David Huerta, the President of SEIU-USWW and SEIU California, by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Friday is going to have a major impact on the coming months as deportations continue. “They have woke us up,” Tia Orr told me. She’s the Executive Director of the 700,000-strong Service Employees International Union (SEIU) California, of which Huerta is a part, and the first African-American and Latina to lead the organization. “And I think they’ve woke people up across the Nation, certainly in California, and people are ready to get to action,” she added. “I haven’t seen that in a long time. I don’t know that I’ve seen something like that before, and so yes, it is going to result in action that I believe is going to be historical.”

To Continue Reading This Labor News Perspective, Go To: ICE arrested a California union leader. Does Trump understand what that means? - Los Angeles Times

Photo Courtesy Of The California AFL-CIO Labor Federation's Facebook Page.