The Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA), AFL-CIO condemns the Supreme Court’s decision in Janus v. AFSCME, a ruling that will destroy workers’ ability to have a seat at the table to negotiate fair wages and benefits.

APALA National President Monica Thammarath of the National Education Association stated: “When working people stand together, we have more power. The entire case was a political maneuver to attack our freedoms and rig our economy in favor of the corporate interests. Instead of protecting working people’s ability to negotiate on the job, especially with an administration that has already betrayed workers in favor of corporate greed, this ruling will rollback progress that helped level the playing field for working families, including Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) workers and families.”

APALA Executive Director, Alvina Yeh, added: “This is a huge blow to the labor movement. Workers deserve to have the freedom to stand together in their unions and have a voice on the job. Today, the same dark web of corporations and wealthy elite that has attacked the LGBTQ community, women, and immigrants has won again and trampled on our rights as well as the voices of working people. We will not back down on the fight for our rights to organize and collectively bargain nor will we stop building power for our immigrant families and communities.”

Johanna Puno Hester, APALA 2nd Vice President and International Vice President of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), concluded: “The list of benefits that unions provide and have provided is long. From raising wages to ensuring workers health insurance and other benefits, unions continue to improve the working place for workers everywhere. Despite today’s decision, we will continue to organize and fight back against this decision, and we demand that our elected officials now recommit to working people today by making it easier to join together in unions.”
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In response to the Supreme Court's recent rulings, the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA), AFL-CIO issued the following statements:

APALA National President Monica Thammarath of the National Education Association commented on Trump v. Hawai’i: "We are outraged and refuse to allow history to repeat itself. This ruling is a stain on the wrong side of history during Trump's white supremacist, right wing era. As an Asian American and Pacific Islander community, we understand the pain of xenophobia – from the heightened surveillance of Muslim- or perceived-to-be-Muslim communities after 9/11 to the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. Our fight for a world free from discrimination and hate has just become that much more difficult, and we join together with thousands across the country to denounce this ruling that will have disastrous consequences on our communities and our nation's values and moral fabric. We will not be banned."
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APALA Executive Director Alvina Yeh commented on the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Husted v. A. Philip Randolph Institute, et al.: "The SCOTUS ruling that validated Ohio's 'use it or lose it' practice to purge voter rolls is deeply disappointing and problematic. This aggressive practice is especially harmful for communities of color and workers who might face a variety of obstacles to voting, from language barriers to transportation issues to inflexible work schedules. In other words, there are many reasons contributing to low voter turnout, but that should not mean that voters should be removed from the rolls. States should be making it easier to vote, not creating more barriers to it. We are outraged that such blatant voter suppression continues to happen and remain resolute to registering and turning out the vote for our communities."

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