Get to Know AFL-CIO’s Constituency Groups: Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance
This is the next post in our series that will take a deeper look at each of our constituency groups. Next up is the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA).
Name of Group: Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance
Mission: To develop a comprehensive strategy to organize Asian American/Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders into unions, and to promote the participation and leadership of Asian American/Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders within the labor movement. This organization is further dedicated to strengthening international labor solidarity, especially with labor unions of Asia and the Pacific.
Current Leadership: Mikayla Vu serves as president. She is a second-generation biracial Korean American who grew up in Michigan. Vu is currently a field representative for AFT Massachusetts and assists locals in organizing, grievance handling, contract negotiations and more to strengthen local unions and improve worker rights in the workplace. She began her time in the labor movement as a graduate student worker at Boston College, where she worked with her colleagues to organize and form the Boston College Graduate Employees Union-UAW. She helped organize and win a successful NLRB election at Boston College. Vu holds a Master’s degree in history with fields in U.S. immigration and Asian American history.
Katherine General serves as first vice president. Steven Moy serves as second vice president. Seung Lee serves as treasurer. Mary Lindie Entoma serves as secretary.
History: The role Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders (AANHPI) play in the labor history is rich, varied and powerful. Our nation’s history has not always been welcoming to AANHPI workers. Despite legalized exclusion—from barriers to enter the U.S. to restrictions from participating in acts like owning land—and efforts to stop AANHPI workers from joining the labor movement, our ancestors nonetheless knew the power of the collective and the importance of solidarity in winning justice at work. It was against this backdrop that AANHPI labor activists approached the AFL-CIO in 1990 with a historic proposal to form a national Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander labor group. A year later, the AFL-CIO executive council established a committee to explore the formation of what would become APALA. The steering committee included the three regional AANHPI labor groups, representatives from the Hawaii State AFL-CIO and representatives from the seven founding unions. In 1992, over 500 AANHPI labor activists from around the country gathered in Washington, D.C., for the founding convention of the APALA. At this convention, members marched to demand justice after the beating of Rodney King, signaling a deep commitment to racial solidarity that continues today. APALA remains the first and only national organization of AANHPI workers, most of whom are union members and allies, building power for AANHPI workers and communities. In 2011, it established the Institute for Asian Pacific American Leadership & Advancement (IAPALA), a 501(c)3 non-profit to handle broader education and civic engagement. Today, APALA is the voice of almost 1.1 million AANHPI union members and operates over twenty chapters across the country. APALA continues to advocate for worker rights, immigration reform, an end to anti-Asian racism, voter registration and racial justice. APALA works with their union partners to help AANHPI workers form their unions and to create pathways to leadership for AANHPI union members.
Current Campaigns/Policy Agenda: Sign up for membership, sign up to volunteer, voter guide, action alerts, conventions, publications, AANHPI worker stories and online store.