Yvonne Wheeler, AFL-CIO, explains the Employee Free Choice Act.

More than sixty union activists and community members attended the UCLA Downtown Labor Center’s Black History Month celebration, “Eyes on the Prize: The Employee Free Choice Act and Communities of Color.” The event provided an overview of the legislation and its potential impact on African American workers in particular. The night brought together a dynamic panel featuring María Elena Durazo, Secretary Treasurer of the Los Angeles Country Federation of Labor; UC Berkeley Labor Specialist Steven Pitts; and AFL-CIO National Representative Yvonne Wheeler.

The highlights of the panel were the incredible stories of new union members who shared their painful organizing experiences. “If we had the Employee Free Choice Act while organizing, we would not have had the outcomes we had in our campaign,” said Teri Brown-Jackson, a member of the Writers Guild of America West. She told her story of organizing with fellow writers who were fired when they sought to join the WGAW union last year. Many of them are still looking for work.

AnTony Young, a pressman for the Los Angeles Times and recent member of the graphic communications arm of the Teamsters union, explained how activists were targeted for reprimand during that hard-fought organizing campaign; “People who had been there for fifteen years were written up for the smallest things because they supported the union, while people who sided with the company could make huge mistakes, and nothing would happen to them.” Days after the pressroom won their contract, the Los Angeles Times filed bankruptcy. His department has received more pink slips than any other department.