Speaker Karen Bass.

Director Kent Wong captured the spirit of the 2008 Labor Center banquet in stating, “There is no better time and no better place to be working with the labor movement than here and now in Los Angeles.”

The banquet drew seven hundred attendees, making this the Labor Center’s largest annual fund-raising event, including friends and supporters representing workers from all walks of life, from elected leaders to ­community leaders, students to educators, labor leaders to clergy, and members of community-based organizations to employers.

Speaker of the Assembly Karen Bass kicked off the program, which celebrated outstanding leadership represented by the honorees: Senator Gilbert Cedillo, a

Banquet honorees Robert Balgenorth, Arlene Holt Baker, and Gilbert Cedillo, with Labor Center Director Kent Wong.

champion for working people and a leading immigrant-rights advocate in California; Arlene Holt Baker, a former union activist from Los Angeles who is now the first African American officer of the AFL-CIO as executive vice-president; and Robert Balgenorth, a progressive union leader who oversees building and trades unions throughout California.

The banquet also showcased two exciting new initiatives: The Miguel Contreras Worker Resource Center, which will focus on immigrant workers, and the California Construction Academy, led by David Sickler.

Thanks to all our friends for your continued support.