On Saturday, Teamsters Hispanic Caucus members were honored to hear from the legendary Dolores Huerta on the final day of this year’s Convention in Los Angeles, Calif. View more photos here.

Huerta, who cofounded the United Farm Workers union along with labor icon Cesar Chavez, drew from decades of wisdom as a community activist and union organizer as she talked about today’s attacks on workers and how to fight back.

“The most important thing for us to do is to educate our communities because a lot of people don’t understand what unions do,” she said.

“Without unions, we wouldn’t have Social Security or disability insurance or workers’ comp. Many people don’t know this and they won’t hear it from anyone but us.” 

Huerta told Hispanic Teamsters that labor needs to join together with women and LGBT groups and it needs to fight racism, which the 1 percent uses to divide working people. She also said Teamsters and Latinos need to get out the vote.

“Every worker needs to be an organizer. As workers and Latinos, we are in a war to defend our rights, and the only ammunition we have is our vote. Labor built the middle class and without the middle class you do not have a democracy.”

An 82-year-old veteran of labor and civil rights struggles, Huerta brought the crowd to its feet as she led the chant, “Si se puede!” (Yes we can!)

Getting out the vote among Hispanic Teamsters and all Latino workers is the main priority of the Caucus this year. International Vice President Steve Vairma told Teamsters in the audience that the time is now to mobilize for the upcoming election and labor battles ahead.

“We can’t afford to lose this vote,” he said. “Mitt Romney is the 1 percent. He is the token candidate of the Koch brothers and we have too much to lose in this election.”

The Caucus voted on and passed several resolutions pledging its commitment to be at the forefront of struggles for immigration reform, improving participation among Hispanic Teamsters in the Caucus, and staying active in the fight against the war on workers. The body also voted to work with the International on voter registration and get-out-the-vote efforts in support of President Barack Obama’s run for a second term.   

“Politics is extremely important and every politician is coming after us this year for our vote. Let’s make them earn it,” said Ron Herrera, who is the Executive Director of the Hispanic Caucus as well as an International Trustee and President of Local 396.

U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis sent a video message to Hispanic Teamsters and promised to continue to speak out against those who want to move the country backward. She also thanked the Teamsters for supporting her after the recent passing of her father who was a Teamster shop steward.

“The president and I know that having a strong America and a strong middle class depends on a strong and growing labor movement. And we know it’s also critical to the well-being of Latino families,” Solis said.

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) also sent his greetings to the Caucus and highlighted the importance of fighting for reforms like the DREAM Act so that Latino working families can send their kids to college without fear of deportation.

The plight of immigrant workers was a topic discussed often at the Convention on Saturday.

Dr. Jose Zapata Calderon, Emeritus Professor of Sociology and Chicano/Latino Studies, explained how the broken immigration system hurts all workers in America as employers exploit the undocumented, driving down everyone’s wages.

“Studies show that legalization would actually raise wages and working conditions for all workers – black, brown and white,” he said. Laws against undocumented workers like the error-prone E-Verify program could mean the loss of 168,000 Teamster jobs if it becomes mandatory, added Maria Elena Hincapie, an attorney with the National Immigration Law Center. 

Earlier workshops at the Convention hit on similar themes, sharing strategies for organizing immigrant workers like car wash employees in Los Angeles. Teamsters also learned about how to build coalitions with other groups and heard from organizers with the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE) and Don’t Waste LA, two coalitions formed in part by the Teamsters.

These alliances have been critical to the drive to organize port truck drivers like those at Toll Group whose recent victory in joining the Teamsters is a landmark win for workers in the industry. Toll drivers Eduardo Urrea, Orlando Ayala and Jose Ortega spoke at the Convention, as did Karla Campos, a sanitation worker and leader in the fight to organize at American Reclamation.

“Coming to a convention like this gives me strength,” Campos said. “It’s inspiring to know that when I go back to work, we have so much support from the Teamsters.”

Others who addressed the Caucus included labor supporter and Los Angeles City Controller Wendy Greul, along with Maria Elena Durazo of the LA County Federation of Labor. Durazo talked about the battle to defeat Proposition 32 in California, a law that would restrict unions from using dues money for political advocacy on behalf of workers while corporations continue to spend freely to buy off politicians.

“I keep hearing talk about leveling the playing field,” said Al Mixon, Chairman of the Teamsters National Black Caucus and International Vice President. “But we keep losing ground because corporate America keeps moving the goalposts.”

Delegates from Caucus chapters in New York, Chicago, Miami, Los Angeles and other cities voted unanimously to reelect the current team of officers and trustees of the Hispanic Caucus. They noted that the strong leadership of Hispanic Caucus President George Miranda and his team is needed to mobilize Latinos and beat back the war on workers.

“We still face a lot of discrimination as workers,” Herrera said. “The right wing is going to keep coming at us, but we’re Teamsters and we know how to fight. We’re members of the greatest union in the world.”

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