For immediate release April 27, 2012
Contact: Caroline O’Connor, Communications Director, LA County Federation of Labor, 213-400-8401 or coconnor@launionaflcio•org
Dolores Huerta, labor and civil rights leader and one of 13 new recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, will speak at the Los Angeles May Day protest in support of trash sorters and haulers who want basic workers’ rights at American Reclamation Trash & Recycling*.
Dolores Huerta co-founded the United Farm Workers with Cesar Chavez in 1962. She led the UFW’s national grape boycott to a victory for farm workers and was instrumental in the passage of the 1975 California Agricultural Labor Relations Act. Huerta has been arrested 22 times in nonviolent peaceful demonstrations for farmworkers’ rights.
She is the founder and president of the Dolores Huerta Foundation, a grassroots community organization to develop young leaders. At almost 82 years old, Huerta continues to be active in organizing, political and community campaigns to advance labor, immigrants and women’s rights.
Dolores Huerta will join more than 500 Angelinos who will stand up for trash sorters and haulers rights on May Day, including several elected officials, labor, faith, immigrants’ rights and community leaders.
The May Day protest will take place on May 1, 2012 at 11:00AM in front of the American Reclamation facility located at 4560 Doran Street in Los Angeles.
*American Reclamation, an L.A. based waste and recycling company, has public contracts to sort commercial trash for recyclable materials. Employing a primarily immigrant workforce, American Reclamation treats its workers worse than the garbage they haul and sort. The company pays poverty wages with no benefits, exposes employees to health and safety hazards on a regular basis and fired workers who filed a complaint with CalOSHA.
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