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Press Releases

APALA Supports Julie Su for Secretary of Labor

12/14/2020

 
For Immediate Release: November 27, 2020
Contact:
apala@apalanet.org

Washington, DC - APALA sent a letter (link) to the Biden transition team supporting Julie Su for U.S. Secretary of Labor and calling for 7% of cabinet-level and other appointed positions to be Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs), mirroring the diversity of the U.S. population. APALA called on the transition team to especially consider Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders (NHPIs) as that community is especially underrepresented at all levels of government.
APALA National President and NEA Appointee, Monica Thammarath, said: “The selection of a strong U.S. Secretary of Labor with experience fighting for immigrant workers, workers of color, and women workers is critical to ensuring that our communities aren’t left behind as we ‘build back better’ and recover from the health and economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.” 
APALA Founding President, California Federation of Labor Vice President,and Director of the UCLA Labor Center, Kent Wong, said: “I can think of no one better to serve as the U.S. Secretary of Labor than Julie Su. Her entire career has been spent advocating for working people. She has directly supported workforce development, health, safety, and wage theft enforcement that has benefited millions of workers. Ms. Su was staff attorney for the Asian Americans Advancing Justice who represented the Thai garment workers from El Monte, California, who were held in slavery.  Alongside working with other community partners like the Thai Community Development Center, the effort resulted in a major breakthrough in California to demand that manufacturers and retailers are held liable for the sweatshop conditions in the garment factories that produce their clothes.”

AAPI Workers Organized and Elected Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States

11/7/2020

 
For Immediate Release: November 7, 2020
Contact: Michelle Loo, apala@apalanet.org

Washington, DC - APALA is proud of the robust community outreach that resulted in the election of Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States and Kamala Harris as the first South Asian and Black Vice President of the United States. Thank you poll workers, election officials, and advocates for ensuring that every vote got counted. The will of the people have spoken and now to continue advancing the working people's agenda! 

APALA Pittsburgh Chapter member and University of Pittsburgh student Naeem Aziz shares, “This was the first year I became eligible to vote and I spent months outreaching to AAPI voters in my swing state. I am invigorated because my generation has made it clear that our fight is for universal access to health care; full funding for public resources like education and transportation, COVID-19 plans that prioritizes our elders, disabled community members, caretakers and essential workers; the right to organize for all workers; and so much more. I intend to continue to fight to change America for the better.” 

APALA Alameda Chapter Leader and National Executive Board member Leon Chow states, “This win truly speaks to the decades of AAPI community organizing and campaigns against voter suppression. Across the nation our communities have relied on each other for language access and have organized against an array of voter suppression tactics, such as physical intimidation at the polls, closing-down early vote locations in communities of color, and flat out spreading disinformation to voters. As someone who has been voting since 1996, I am proud of how much the power of the AAPI electorate has grown!”

APALA Michigan Chapter Leader and UAW Appointee to the National Executive Board, Sandra Engle states, “We’ve been able to connect with folks in their language and about the issues that matter most to them. AAPIs support workers’ rights; they want healthcare for all and they are some of the strongest environmental advocates we’ve got. APALA members from all across the country lended a hand to support Michigan, and we sure made it swing. These conversations, relationships, and connections have shown me just how powerful this generation of AAPI activism is. We will take root in these victories and keep building toward that better future we’re all fighting for.”

​Polls are showing that Asian voters in some states have cast more ballots than they did in the 2016 election. APALA chapters and volunteers have reached out to voters more than 1 million times this year alone. 

With Polls Showing Record AAPI Voter Turnout, We Demand a Full Count of Votes for the 46th Presidential Election

11/4/2020

 
​Washington, DC - APALA commends Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) workers, organizers, and community members for their robust outreach in the 2020 elections. Polls are showing that Asian voters in some states have cast more ballots than they did in the 2016  election. APALA chapters and volunteers have reached out to voters more than 1 million times this year alone. Already Joe Biden has received the most votes ever received by a candidate in a US Presidential Election. The will of the people will be confirmed once every single vote gets counted. 

Let us allow election officials to complete their jobs as they have in every previous election. They track each ballot from start to finish and verify the identity of each of them in order to ensure each eligible voter casts one ballot and that every vote is counted accurately. 
APALA has pledged with the labor movement to take action to defend democracy if President Trump and his GOP enablers attempt to obstruct, subvert, sabotage, overturn, or reject a fair and complete count of ballots. Every single one of these votes must get counted because democracy only works if it includes all of us. 

We’ve always had to defend our right to vote and this year is no different. We will take to the streets if Donald Trump attempts to undermine our democratic process. We are so proud of the political power we have cultivated in our communities and we will not be silenced! 

Below are helpful resources to continue organizing our communities and defending our democracy: 
  • Read our Protest + Organizing Tips for Black Lives, including detailed information on staying safe while exercising your constitutional right to protest. 
  • Please refer to this scenario messaging from the Leadership Conference and their messaging for the post-election waiting period.
  • If you see disinformation about voting and elections, it is important not to amplify or spread the disinformation. If you encounter a piece of disinformation on the platforms, please send a link or a screenshot to common-cause@tips.junkipedia.org so that we can track it and determine how/whether we need to respond or address it.
  • Amplify the message that counting every vote is more important than knowing the final election results tonight. Your vote matters. Your vote is important. You deserve to be heard. Retweet! Here are sample graphics and hashtags — #AndStillIVote, #CountEveryVote, #EveryVoteCounts, and #DemocracyRising.
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    apala[at]apalanet.org
    (202) 508-3733

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Founded in 1992, the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA), AFL-CIO, is the first and only national organization of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) workers, most of whom are union members and our allies, building power for AAPI workers and communities.
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