APALA's 15th Biennial Convention Highlights

Nearly 500 AAPI workers, organizers, advocates, and community members convened in Las Vegas, Nevada for our 15th Biennial Convention: Rights Under Attack: Rising up! Fighting Back! 

Together with our members and international guests from Japan, Malaysia, Cambodia, and Hong Kong, we: 
  • picketed Palms Casino Resort in solidarity with the workers who are fighting to win their first contract;
  • passed 22 progressive resolutions to shape the future of our work together;
  • celebrated six fierce AAPI labor leaders by honoring them with our APALA awards, including our newest award, the Tam Tran Freedom Fighter Award;
  • elected a diverse group of AAPI workers and labor leaders to lead us through 2021, including the re-election of Monica Thammarath from the National Education Association as APALA’s President;
  • co-conspired with others like us in regional, union, LGBTQ, formerly incarcerated and young worker caucuses;
  • learned from workers, organizers, and community members via workshops on the 2020 Census, relational organizing, achieving strike readiness, new sector organizing, detention and mass incarceration, and international solidarity. Check out the full list of workshops here;  
  • and heard from inspirational leaders including Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak, SEIU Local 1107 Executive Director Grace Vergara, Assemblyman for Nevada's 6th District William McCurdy II, AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Tefere Gebre, Congresswoman Dina Titus for Nevada’s 1st District, AFA-CWA International President Sara Nelson, and Political Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) and Executive Director of Care in Action Jess Morales Rocketto. 
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APALA Chapters at Convention
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Some of the unions that were represented at Convention

The Fight for Our Undocumented Community


​In November, the organizing and mobilization efforts of DC chapter members were integral to the AAPI Mobilization to Demand a Clean DREAM Act, where over 120 Asian American and Pacific Islander DREAMers and allies convened in DC for trainings, a rally, an action, and legislative visits. APALA National President Monica Thammarath, National Executive Board Members Johanna Puno Hester and Luisa Blue, Executive Director Alvina Yeh, APALA staffer Kenneth Gonzales, and former Executive Director Gregory Cendana were 6 of 19 participants in a civil disobedience action that ended up in their subsequent arrest and release. We also thank NEA President Lily Eskelsen Garcia and AFSCME Secretary Treasurer Elissa McBride for speaking at our rally earlier in the day, and we give a special shout out to our partners the National Korean American Service and Education Consortium (NAKASEC) and Asian Americans Advancing Justice. Check out the video of the civil disobedience to the above and more photos here. ​​