Latest / The Lawtino™ / Fighting for Fair Wages and Workers' Rights
Transcript
- 0:01SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Latino podcast, where we discuss the intersection of law and our Latino communities with legal, political, and community leaders and visionaries.
- 0:09SPEAKER_00: Let's get started.
- 0:14SPEAKER_02: Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of the Law Tino, where we discuss the intersection of law and the Latino community.
- 0:23SPEAKER_02: This episode, as always, is brought to you by our title sponsor, Gomez Trial Attorneys.
- 0:30SPEAKER_02: One of our nation's largest Latino founded law firms.
- 0:34SPEAKER_02: Gomez Trial Attorneys offers premier legal services in English and Spanish to consumers that have suffered personal injury, adverse employment action, or consumer uh rights violations.
- 0:48SPEAKER_02: We also uh represent those whose civil rights have been violated.
- 0:54SPEAKER_02: Uh today uh we have a very special guest um and we have a special guest host.
- 1:03SPEAKER_02: And so my um uh guest host uh what it what it who are you?
- 1:10SPEAKER_01: Hi everyone.
- 1:11SPEAKER_01: My name is Vanessa Felix Corona.
- 1:13SPEAKER_01: I am a law student at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, and I will be co-hosting today's podcast with John Gomez.
- 1:18SPEAKER_02: I love it.
- 1:19SPEAKER_02: And so um we actually have Lorena uh here.
- 1:23SPEAKER_02: Um Lorena Gonzalez is the political is the president of the California Labor Federation, AFL CIO.
- 1:34SPEAKER_02: In other words, she represents the interest and we were talking about this a little bit before of every worker in the state of California formerly served with um distinction in our California assembly, where she again did that work um for workers.
- 1:53SPEAKER_02: And so thank you so much for being here.
- 1:55SPEAKER_02: I can't think of a more suitable guest than you.
- 1:57SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
- 1:58SPEAKER_02: Well, thank you for having me.
- 2:00SPEAKER_02: Um and so, you know, as a prior guest, we had on Dolores Huerta, and I read um that at your swearing in, sh you talked to her and she told you that she was proud of you.
- 2:17SPEAKER_02: And so um, like just to loop in that prior episode and her and her work for this community, tell us about that experience.
- 2:25SPEAKER_03: Well, I uh I was in organized labor before I went to the assembly and of course back in it now.
- 2:31SPEAKER_03: And so just growing up, um, when you think I want to work on behalf of workers, you know, when I was young, there was one woman in particular, Dolores Huerta, who of course had done dedicated her life to that.
- 2:44SPEAKER_03: Um and I, in fact, wrote my college essay to get into Stanford about Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta.
- 2:51SPEAKER_03: I tell her that now.
- 2:52SPEAKER_03: And every time I tell her, she's like, no, that's not true.
- 2:55SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, absolutely, my biggest hero in life.
- 2:58SPEAKER_03: And so I had gotten to work with her um a lot throughout the past few years or decade, I guess.
- 3:06SPEAKER_03: Um, but she's tough.
- 3:08SPEAKER_03: She's a tough cookie, right?
- 3:09SPEAKER_03: Like, she doesn't give out praise that easily or often, at least to me.
- 3:16SPEAKER_03: And so I was really excited.
- 3:17SPEAKER_03: Um, I didn't know she was coming to my uh my swearing in to to head the California Federation of Labor Unions.
- 3:25SPEAKER_03: Um, and I actually was speaking and I look, and there she is in the front row.
- 3:28SPEAKER_03: And I was so excited.
- 3:30SPEAKER_03: And then after she came up afterwards, and she said, I just want to tell you how proud I am of you.
- 3:35SPEAKER_03: And to me, because, you know, in a way, she's not effusive with praise, and that's a good thing.
- 3:40SPEAKER_03: She has high expectations of everybody, everybody around her.
- 3:43SPEAKER_03: But I knew for me in particular, as a labor leader, as a Latina, um, standing on her shoulders by all means, for her to tell me that she was proud of me, I think um probably was one of what one of the kind of most exciting things that had happened to me.
- 3:58SPEAKER_03: Um, and we continue to work together, you know.
- 4:01SPEAKER_03: Uh I guess later that same year, a couple of years ago, we walked for miles.
- 4:06SPEAKER_03: I walked for 37 miles, but um, there was like a 500-mile march with farm workers.
- 4:11SPEAKER_03: And and she she walked, you know, she's in her mid-90s now, but she walked for a good mile.
- 4:17SPEAKER_03: And I just thought, oh my gosh, if you know, 15-year-old Lorena had known that one day you would do everything you set out to do and be standing next to Dolores Huerto, walking on behalf of farm workers throughout California to get a bill signed.
- 4:30SPEAKER_03: Like that would be the ultimate.
- 4:31SPEAKER_03: Like, I couldn't even believe that that would someday be my future.
- 4:35SPEAKER_03: And um, so it's pretty exciting when you know your real life living hero says something like that to you.
- 4:43SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think, you know, what a moment.
- 4:45SPEAKER_02: And I think her words uh, you know, are the words of many of us.
- 4:51SPEAKER_02: You know, I think many of us are proud of you and your leadership and the work that you've done.
- 4:57SPEAKER_02: Um, in terms of being the the president and leader of this organization, how many how many workers are we talking about?
- 5:06SPEAKER_03: So in California, um, there are about 2.3 million union workers who are not um solely members of uh the teachers union.
- 5:16SPEAKER_03: The teachers union, there there are members of the teachers union who are part of our federation, but some of them are outside.
- 5:22SPEAKER_03: So there's about 2.5 million altogether, but within the federation, there are 2.3 million workers.
- 5:28SPEAKER_03: They represent 1,300 different small or large um local unions.
- 5:34SPEAKER_03: So everything from plumbers and pipe fitters and um construction workers, laborers to pilots, to nurses, firefighters, uh janitors, custodians at schools, you name it, we probably represent them.
- 5:48SPEAKER_03: If they have a union or or have ever tried to have a union, there's uh there's workers that we represent in California.
- 5:55SPEAKER_03: Um so we represent the 2.3 million, and of course, we spend a lot of our time trying to ensure that the millions of others who want a union in California have the opportunity to do that.
- 6:04SPEAKER_02: Amazing.
- 6:06SPEAKER_02: And so, you know, when we had Dolores in here, I was um, you know, just kind of scratching my head about you know the idea that she was able to coalesce this support around, you know, her as a leader with Cesar.
- 6:23SPEAKER_02: Um, as in that time, you know, um a real pioneer um as a Latina, really leading, you know, these, you know, this group and this movement.
- 6:35SPEAKER_02: And here you are, right, as a Latina, I think the first one in this position, right?
- 6:41SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I mean, it's funny um when I say that, it I I'm always a little remiss to say that because unfortunately or fortunately in my life, I've always been the first Latina.
- 6:51SPEAKER_03: So when I led the labor movement in um San Diego, I was the first Latina to do that.
- 6:56SPEAKER_03: Um, went to the assembly.
- 6:58SPEAKER_03: Of course, there's been Latinas, but there weren't many.
- 7:00SPEAKER_03: Um, I was the first Latina to chair the appropriations committee in California, and now the first Latina to head the California Labor Federation, AFL CIO.
- 7:09SPEAKER_03: Um, and one of only two Latinas um in the nation, the the head of the Nevada uh AFL CIO, Susie Martinez, is also Latina.
- 7:17SPEAKER_03: But um it's rare.
- 7:19SPEAKER_03: And I think that's okay.
- 7:20SPEAKER_03: We should celebrate that.
- 7:22SPEAKER_03: But most importantly, I I plan to not be the last.
- 7:25SPEAKER_03: That's what what matters the most.
- 7:27SPEAKER_02: Love it.
- 7:28SPEAKER_02: And so um we have here with us, you know, uh uh a rising leader um in-law, uh a proud and strong Latina who's active in her community.
- 7:42SPEAKER_02: Um, why don't you ask a few questions and jump in here?
- 7:45SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
- 7:46SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so as the first Latina or the first of many more to come, uh what advice do you have for young Latinas that are looking to whether get into politics or in other leadership roles?
- 7:58SPEAKER_03: So I have a ton of advice and I'm always here.
- 8:01SPEAKER_03: The other thing is I will always give you advice, whether you ask for it or not.
- 8:05SPEAKER_03: But really, um, when Latina, especially young Latinas, reach out about career advice or about advice in a professional setting in law.
- 8:12SPEAKER_03: Um, of course, we didn't discuss this, but I am an attorney.
- 8:15SPEAKER_03: Um, I just kind of went a different way with my law degree.
- 8:19SPEAKER_03: But I think there's a couple things.
- 8:21SPEAKER_03: One, be who you are.
- 8:23SPEAKER_03: I think this took me a long time to understand.
- 8:26SPEAKER_03: I thought um, partially because I was going to be the first in so many ways, though, to be the first.
- 8:33SPEAKER_03: You're like, well, how do I acclimate myself to what is expected?
- 8:37SPEAKER_03: And it took me a while.
- 8:39SPEAKER_03: And now, of course, I'm, you know, older, more mature, I understand.
- 8:42SPEAKER_03: No, what actually made me special is who I was, not trying to be something that I wasn't.
- 8:48SPEAKER_03: And that may sound, oh, catchy and cute, and like, of course, be yourself.
- 8:53SPEAKER_03: That's what's important.
- 8:54SPEAKER_03: But it's really important.
- 8:55SPEAKER_03: I'll give you a couple examples.
- 8:56SPEAKER_03: I'll remember when I first went to the legislature, I tell the story all the time, but it absolutely happened.
- 9:01SPEAKER_03: I had to make the decision.
- 9:02SPEAKER_03: Am I coming to the legislature as, you know, a woman, as uh the the the same, all these legislators, these assembly members who have been here, or myself, right?
- 9:13SPEAKER_03: And I got there and people would tell me, like, you can't do that.
- 9:17SPEAKER_03: I was like, is there rules?
- 9:18SPEAKER_03: Are they written?
- 9:19SPEAKER_03: Where are these rules?
- 9:20SPEAKER_03: Like, what can I can't do?
- 9:22SPEAKER_03: I will follow if there's workplace rules, laws, whatever, tell me those.
- 9:27SPEAKER_03: No, there's norms because we were in an institution that had been founded, you know, 150 years beforehand and run by old white men.
- 9:36SPEAKER_03: And let's be honest, right?
- 9:37SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, oh, okay, so these are somebody else's rules, but they're not real rules.
- 9:41SPEAKER_03: Like we didn't vote on them or we didn't agree to these.
- 9:44SPEAKER_03: These are what the rules, if you will, with quotes, you know, this is how you're supposed to act.
- 9:49SPEAKER_03: And I just thought, that's if I do that, that won't work for me.
- 9:53SPEAKER_03: And so I said, I'm just gonna be myself.
- 9:55SPEAKER_03: But I remember the first time I had another legislator and I was talking about a bill I really believed in.
- 10:02SPEAKER_03: And I, I, he was like, I'm not sure what I'm gonna do.
- 10:04SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, in his face, and I'm like, you don't understand.
- 10:07SPEAKER_03: I got to tell you about my constituents, and I'm just getting very passionate.
- 10:11SPEAKER_03: And he's like, hold up, hold up.
- 10:13SPEAKER_03: He's like, why are you yelling at me?
- 10:14SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, I'm not yelling.
- 10:16SPEAKER_03: This is just, I don't have an inside voice.
- 10:19SPEAKER_03: You know, this is what happens when I really care about something.
- 10:22SPEAKER_03: And um, and I think they got used to it, you know.
- 10:25SPEAKER_03: I just decided this is gonna be me.
- 10:28SPEAKER_03: If I'm I I have a lot of emotion, a lot of passion, it comes out, and that's what makes me effective to advocate on behalf of the people who I advocate on behalf.
- 10:36SPEAKER_03: And that's what I'm gonna do.
- 10:38SPEAKER_03: And it's okay.
- 10:38SPEAKER_03: So being yourself sometimes, yes, we say that, but sometimes in those situations, it's uncomfortable, right?
- 10:45SPEAKER_03: Because you have to challenge the norms.
- 10:46SPEAKER_03: But I think that that's what makes us good representatives of our community.
- 10:50SPEAKER_03: I think that's what makes us relatable to our community, and I think that that's what gives us the edge in any kind of profession.
- 10:57SPEAKER_01: Great.
- 10:58SPEAKER_01: Yeah, great answer.
- 10:59SPEAKER_01: That was amazing.
- 11:01SPEAKER_01: Um, do you feel like you ever went through imposter syndrome in this entire process?
- 11:06SPEAKER_01: And how did you overcome that?
- 11:08SPEAKER_03: Oh my gosh, I still suffer from imposter syndrome.
- 11:12SPEAKER_03: So I think this is really important because um we say something my household a lot, like, you know, you're you're projecting something on somebody else.
- 11:24SPEAKER_03: It's about you, right?
- 11:25SPEAKER_03: Imposter syndrome is always right about us.
- 11:28SPEAKER_03: So there are times even now, um, I went to the White House uh just recently for Hispanic Heritage Month, you know, big celebration, Biden.
- 11:37SPEAKER_03: There's important people everywhere.
- 11:39SPEAKER_03: I brought my son actually.
- 11:40SPEAKER_03: He didn't want to go with me before finally, he's 21, graduating from UC Santa Barbara, decides like, oh yeah, maybe I should go to some of these things.
- 11:48SPEAKER_03: Um and we're walking in and he's like, so is it weird to be this important?
- 11:53SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, oh, I'm not like, you know, I just ended up on somebody's list.
- 11:58SPEAKER_03: And then I thought, that's really dumb.
- 12:00SPEAKER_03: Why am I telling why am I putting this my own imposter syndrome?
- 12:03SPEAKER_03: And that's what it is.
- 12:04SPEAKER_03: Like, well, I don't really belong in the White House on Hispanic Heritage Month.
- 12:08SPEAKER_03: Of course I do, you know, but I was like, oh no, no, this is just, you know, kind of I'm just the background.
- 12:16SPEAKER_03: Um, and it's important that we recognize that when we vocalize imposter syndrome, when we accept it, we are ensuring that the next generation is also gonna go through that.
- 12:29SPEAKER_03: So it is a requirement for us as sometimes the first or in a surrounding where we feel like, well, I don't belong here.
- 12:36SPEAKER_03: You know, I don't know.
- 12:37SPEAKER_03: My parents could have never imagined this, or how did this happen?
- 12:41SPEAKER_03: If we want to pave the way for that next generation, we've got to get over ourselves.
- 12:45SPEAKER_03: And so that's what I try to remind myself.
- 12:47SPEAKER_01: It's not always successful, still suffer, but and what inspired you to pursue this career?
- 12:55SPEAKER_03: So I often tell my story, and a lot of people get hung up on half of it.
- 13:00SPEAKER_03: So it's important for me to tell the whole story.
- 13:02SPEAKER_03: So my father came to this country, and this is the half that, especially in our community, everybody's like, oh, the daughter of a farm worker.
- 13:08SPEAKER_03: So my father, like so many others, came to this country um to try to make a better life.
- 13:14SPEAKER_03: Uh, him and a lot of his brothers and sisters um at different times.
- 13:19SPEAKER_03: My grandfather had been a brassetto.
- 13:21SPEAKER_03: So when my father came across, he um first worked in the strawberry fields in North San Diego County.
- 13:26SPEAKER_03: Um, he later moved to packing houses and then to small business.
- 13:30SPEAKER_03: And so, of course, that had a profound effect on how I thought about immigration, what I think about farm workers and and the whatnot.
- 13:38SPEAKER_03: But the truth is that my parents got divorced when I was super young, like before I can even remember, I think under one, probably or 16 months or something.
- 13:46SPEAKER_03: So I was raised primarily by my mother.
- 13:49SPEAKER_03: See, everybody loves the daughter of a farm worker story, and it's important.
- 13:52SPEAKER_03: My dad still lives in Oceanside.
- 13:54SPEAKER_03: He, you know, and he taught me a lot of things, but it was my mom who really made me who I was.
- 14:00SPEAKER_03: My mom was a single mom of three.
- 14:02SPEAKER_03: Um, I have two older brothers, and she was a nurse.
- 14:06SPEAKER_03: She was a nurse uh who had only done two years of community college.
- 14:11SPEAKER_03: She went to East LA College and became a nurse at Tri-City Hospital, and she just worked her butt off, you know, and everything was about us.
- 14:21SPEAKER_03: We had everything we needed, definitely not everything we wanted, but it's like the basics.
- 14:26SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna buy a house, I'm gonna have a car and run it into the ground for 20 years, but I'm going to make sure that you go to school, you go to a college.
- 14:35SPEAKER_03: I know nothing about college, so wherever you choose to go was fine.
- 14:37SPEAKER_03: And we all went to different kinds of paths, but she, you know, she was just kind of like, I don't know.
- 14:42SPEAKER_03: I'm just gonna do what I can do.
- 14:44SPEAKER_03: And my mom worked, you know, often two jobs, sometimes three jobs.
- 14:48SPEAKER_03: She'd work all the calls she could, everything she could do in a at that time really pink-collar career.
- 14:54SPEAKER_03: Um, at that time, a non-union career.
- 14:57SPEAKER_03: She worked hard to get the union in her workplace.
- 14:59SPEAKER_03: Um, but that didn't happen until the very end of her working at Tri-City after um 40 years.
- 15:05SPEAKER_03: And she just her commitment to helping people and helping others.
- 15:10SPEAKER_03: And one of the things she taught us, I think about this sometimes because we were so, so working class, right?
- 15:16SPEAKER_03: It was like she made sure we were fed, often being burritos, but we were fed every night.
- 15:22SPEAKER_03: Um, we had a house that was wonderful.
- 15:24SPEAKER_03: She bought a house.
- 15:25SPEAKER_03: It was really important to her.
- 15:26SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, we we were clothed, everything was fine, but it there weren't a lot of money for extras.
- 15:32SPEAKER_03: And I remember Christmas time, um, she would say, okay, well, what we're gonna do is we're gonna go buy toys for kids in um the orphanage in Tijuana.
- 15:41SPEAKER_03: And I was like, what about toys for me?
- 15:44SPEAKER_03: You know, but she was very much on like, no, you don't complain because no matter what you have, first of all, she'd say, no matter what you have in the United States, it's it's better than what other people don't have, and often in Mexico, because that's where our our connections are from.
- 15:58SPEAKER_03: But she would also say, like, even here, um, there are always people who need more, right?
- 16:03SPEAKER_03: You're doing fine as long as we you're well fed and and clothed and you have a house, you're fine.
- 16:09SPEAKER_03: And so that that just total commitment to serve others and to give everybody a chance and fairness and and trying to raise people up, that's really um why I do what I do now.
- 16:21SPEAKER_03: Hard work and and being fair.
- 16:24SPEAKER_03: I think that's what my mom taught me and compassion.
- 16:28SPEAKER_02: Those are good lessons.
- 16:30SPEAKER_03: She was quite a woman.
- 16:32SPEAKER_02: Amazing.
- 16:32SPEAKER_02: And so um I did, you know, I did want to, for the benefit of our listeners, give credit to your um educational pedigree, um, a proud graduate of Stanford University, and then on to Georgetown, uh, where she uh uh received a master's degree.
- 16:53SPEAKER_02: What was the master's in?
- 16:55SPEAKER_03: American government.
- 16:56SPEAKER_02: Amazing, of course, fitting.
- 16:58SPEAKER_03: Totally useless, but yeah, it sounds good.
- 17:00SPEAKER_02: And then on to uh UCLA Law School and actually um practiced law for a period of time.
- 17:08SPEAKER_02: Um, do you still have your license active or do you let that one go?
- 17:12SPEAKER_03: I um today, my license, I'm an active attorney.
- 17:17SPEAKER_03: Um, when I came back to labor, it's kind of funny.
- 17:20SPEAKER_03: I've kind of bounced back and forth.
- 17:22SPEAKER_03: The reason I'm inactive is I like to tell my unions, I'm an attorney, I'm not your attorney.
- 17:27SPEAKER_03: So I want to make sure it's very clear, even though I'm an attorney in my position, that um, number one, I'm not giving them legal advice or um somehow they think something they tell me uh is necessarily confidential.
- 17:41SPEAKER_03: You know, I so it was just easier to go inactive.
- 17:44SPEAKER_03: When I was in the legislature, um, I went active, which just means you pay more money.
- 17:48SPEAKER_03: That's the only thing it means, especially in the legislature, because I know this is shocking.
- 17:54SPEAKER_03: Somewhere along the line, the legislature exempted themselves from MCLEs.
- 17:59SPEAKER_03: So the two benefits of being an inactive attorney is the cost you pay every year and not having to do MCLEs, right?
- 18:06SPEAKER_03: But in the legislature, you didn't have to do MCLEs.
- 18:10SPEAKER_03: We can talk about that a different time.
- 18:12SPEAKER_03: Rules for, you know, different folks.
- 18:14SPEAKER_03: However, um, I became active because it was a lot of the children separation, um, chill children immigrants and being separated from parents and dealing with children.
- 18:24SPEAKER_03: So I really wanted to spend some extra time by going and helping out with some of the legal questions.
- 18:30SPEAKER_03: So that's why I became active.
- 18:31SPEAKER_03: And then I realized like I didn't really have extra time.
- 18:34SPEAKER_03: So that was a um pipe dream that I, you know, was just gonna support the bar more with more bar dues.
- 18:41SPEAKER_03: And so when I came back to labor, I was like, forget this.
- 18:43SPEAKER_03: I'm not gonna actually go into a courtroom, at least in this, in this time, you know, maybe in the future.
- 18:49SPEAKER_02: And so that's interesting that really, you know, you do act as, you know, a counselor, an advocate, an attorney, you know, without practicing law per se.
- 19:01SPEAKER_02: And I wonder, like, I wonder if we could talk about your clients real quick, if we can call them that.
- 19:07SPEAKER_02: And I imagine, you know, the the face of labor and workers in California today maybe is um looking a little different than maybe, you know, 50 years ago or even 20 years ago.
- 19:22SPEAKER_02: And then I imagine you like us, you kind of look at the demographics about what's about to happen.
- 19:28SPEAKER_02: You know, so how how I'll just ask it just straight out, how Latino are your clients?
- 19:34SPEAKER_02: Like what percent, what's the demographics?
- 19:36SPEAKER_03: That's a good question.
- 19:37SPEAKER_03: Um, and and things have changed a lot, and we can talk about why.
- 19:41SPEAKER_03: In California in particular, um, public employment adds to our robust numbers.
- 19:47SPEAKER_03: We we are highly unionized in the public, um, in the public sphere.
- 19:51SPEAKER_03: So that's like city and county government, state government, school districts, um, all of those types of jobs.
- 19:58SPEAKER_03: Uh some states allow organizing the public sector, some do not.
- 20:02SPEAKER_03: California obviously does, and that helps.
- 20:05SPEAKER_03: But if you think about it for a long time though, um, in the public sector, Latinos were left out of the public sector.
- 20:11SPEAKER_03: It had a lot to do with some lawsuits and things that had to do with immigration status and citizenship status, actually.
- 20:18SPEAKER_03: Um, and so it took longer for the labor movement, I feel like, to catch up to society and our numbers in society.
- 20:26SPEAKER_03: But we're pretty close now.
- 20:27SPEAKER_03: You know, we're obviously um almost I mean, 90% of our farm workers are Latinos and they're union the unionized farm workers.
- 20:37SPEAKER_03: Um, 99% of our janitors, I would say, um, are our union, uh, union janitors are Latino.
- 20:45SPEAKER_03: In San Diego, at least, our hotel workers are often um Latino.
- 20:49SPEAKER_03: In different parts of the state, it's interesting because there are immigrants from other places.
- 20:52SPEAKER_03: So we have hotel workers who might be like Russian or Eastern European.
- 20:56SPEAKER_03: Um, we have Asian uh folks, Haitian now.
- 20:59SPEAKER_03: Um, so it's usually kind of the newest immigrant who are doing the uh, I don't want to say the hardest work, the most backbreaking work almost.
- 21:07SPEAKER_03: Um, and of course, in the construction industry, that's changed considerably.
- 21:11SPEAKER_03: Uh, we're over 50%, I believe, in the construction industry.
- 21:15SPEAKER_03: So we're almost reflective, I think, of um the workforce.
- 21:19SPEAKER_03: And we're quickly um, we're click quickly becoming reflective of uh society as a whole as young people start to enter the workforce and we know that they're predominantly Latino.
- 21:30SPEAKER_03: They um also tend to be more uh pro-union than um some other groups.
- 21:36SPEAKER_02: So that's interesting.
- 21:38SPEAKER_02: And like I I just gotta ask, you know, like if I drive like through the Imperial Valley on a hot day and I'm looking out there at those, you know, workers, um and you know, I learned from reading a little bit that you actually um pioneered legislation to get.
- 22:00SPEAKER_02: them overtime pay and like which to me like is is hard to imagine you know like them going up to the I don't know what they call it the boss and be like hey I worked I worked eight and a half today like um like what and you work with what what particular struggles does that community you know face in terms of employment and and how are you and the others in your group fighting for them and people like them?
- 22:30SPEAKER_03: So that's a great question and it's broader than just California.
- 22:35SPEAKER_03: In fact California like on everything to do with um labor law and law in general is a little different.
- 22:41SPEAKER_03: But it goes to kind of the intersectionality we have with other people of color.
- 22:46SPEAKER_03: So if you take it all the way backers were left out of national labor law.
- 22:54SPEAKER_03: And the reason for that is because when um President Roosevelt who I thought was a great president but they were trying to get you know minimum wage and some basic labor protections for workers, there were Southern um Democrats at the time who were like that's fine just can't be for my agricultural workers or for my domestic workers.
- 23:14SPEAKER_03: So those two were left out of the National Labor Relations Act because they were vestiges of slavery.
- 23:20SPEAKER_03: So at the time those workers in the early 1900s were actually black and former slaves often or descendants of former slaves um and these in order to get enough votes to pass we cut out those workers from um basic labor laws to be honest child labor laws I mean so many in some states they're still cut out.
- 23:42SPEAKER_03: So luckily we're in California demographics have changed but those vestiges exist.
- 23:47SPEAKER_03: So now in domestic work and farm work you often see um we went through a time when you saw a lot of uh uh Asian immigrants and then kind of settled on Latino immigrants although there's some others but mainly Latino immigrants um newest immigrants almost always in those professions still without the same basic labor standards that you would have in other jobs so in California with farm workers in the 1980s um 70s and 80s actually under Jerry Brown the first time we got the right of farm workers to organize the ALRB is a standalone entity in California that gives them the right to organize.
- 24:22SPEAKER_03: They can only organize in two or three states to this day.
- 24:26SPEAKER_03: Then um and we were able to do that because we're not preempted um from federal law because they were just left out of the federal law.
- 24:32SPEAKER_03: So we had um minimum wage for farm workers get enacted in California so that they they have the same minimum wage as everybody else.
- 24:40SPEAKER_03: All right so we're slowly getting there.
- 24:42SPEAKER_03: Well when I was in the legislature one of the big things of course is there's no we we pride ourselves on the eight hour day in California but for farm workers there is no eight hour day there was a 10 hour day and um we have all kinds of complex of course anyone listening to this uh you know overtime rules 40 hours a week you know at 60 you get double time if you if you work six days in a row on the seventh day you got to get double time we have these rules for everybody except farm workers so um the the United Farm workers came to me and said will you try to this bill it's been tried half a dozen times over the last 40 years but we think like your story you what you've done for farm workers understanding how the demographics have changed we think you could possibly get this through so we did we fought hard um to get overtime farm workers now you think that people would be embarrassed to be like yeah no not them no it was the craziest fight you ever saw you saw people even some Democrats but mainly Republicans standing up on the floor of the assembly reading from the Bible to justify not giving you know overtime I was like let me get my Bible I'll show you where it says you pay workers correctly you know um we had straight out fights it died the first time on the assembly floor the year that it passed and then um we kind of did this procedural gimmick to re-get it back out.
- 26:08SPEAKER_03: We luckily had two Latino led legislators who were the head of the assembly and the head of the Senate and we brought it back and it barely passed and then um Governor Brown again signed it.
- 26:17SPEAKER_03: So I'm really excited about but I do have to say this is really important.
- 26:21SPEAKER_03: We're never done domestic workers still aren't treated um the same as as every other worker that's still something that that's missing mainly agricultural workers are but there's some exemptions and this is crazy.
- 26:34SPEAKER_03: Never he thinks I'm crazy to care about, you know, there's like 70 goat herders in California.
- 26:40SPEAKER_03: Sheep herders and goat herders actually are exempt from overtime rules.
- 26:44SPEAKER_03: And in California it's a very isolating job right you have goats they're out way in a pasture by themselves they get a trailer they bring in some indigenous uh basically guest worker from Peru um almost always from Peru and stick them in this trailer where they're completely isolated from everybody.
- 27:04SPEAKER_03: They don't get overtime but in California law they're okay because they have housing and they work for basically three years and then they're sent home for a month and then they reapply for their visa.
- 27:15SPEAKER_03: So someday I will make sure that goat herders also have the same rights as everybody else but this is what it comes down to.
- 27:22SPEAKER_03: It's always like making sure nobody's excluded from um what we assume and accept is common practice for everybody.
- 27:31SPEAKER_01: Amazing work you got some more stuff I do I have a few questions.
- 27:37SPEAKER_01: So like you said you've been a you've long been a voice for workers and um union rights and economic justice.
- 27:45SPEAKER_01: How did you get started in that I did read online that your first summer job was handing out bags of food to workers.
- 27:52SPEAKER_03: So how did you get there and what brought you to here now so I grew up in North San Diego County in Oceanside and um Vista.
- 28:00SPEAKER_03: I went to high school and middle school in Vista high school I went to Vista high school yes sir um it was not a pleasant time to go to Vista high school uh it's funny no you got cred now like my my middle school teacher she she reached out not too long ago and she said how were you designated gate you know how they did gate designation whatever gifted um she's like because at that time in Vista we didn't test any Latinos let alone a Latina and I was like oh no they found me an ocean side I just kind of grandfathered in she said yeah I didn't have another Latina in Gate for 12 years after you think about that it was a different world.
- 28:40SPEAKER_03: So but I grew up in in um kind of this craziness in Vista and had met um Jerry Buckowitz who was then uh working in organized labor he he actually uh was my predecessor at the San Diego labor council um but his daughter and I uh were were very close friends uh best friends in high school and so he said you want to come for the summer and work at um what we call labor participation or kind of the the food bank the um the the community services for for labor unions um the summer before I went to Stanford and I said yes and that's when um I handed out in fact food banks uh bags to striking um carpenters at the time uh but really seeing what people had to do to put themselves out in order to to force an employer to pay them more and it was just amazing when you talk to striking workers and that's kind of your first I mean it wasn't organizing workers although I watched my mom try to organize it wasn't you know people that are happy it was people who were coming together empowering themselves against their employer withholding their labor in order to do more for themselves in the next generation of workers it was so inspiring that um I was sure that in my life I would do something with labor.
- 30:00SPEAKER_03: I never imagined I would be the head of the labor federation.
- 30:04SPEAKER_01: Yeah wow and how do you how do you balance the needs of workers as well as while considering the issues involved with like corporations and business businesses and things like that in the community I think that corporations in um big business have plenty of people who worry about them.
- 30:21SPEAKER_03: In fact a disproportionate amount of people in power worry about stock prices and um and entrepreneurship and innovation and how big and powerful and how much money these folks can make they have they have their advocates.
- 30:38SPEAKER_03: And in fact I'd argue that they have way too many of them.
- 30:42SPEAKER_03: And so I don't think of my job as being a balance obviously we want companies to exist right workers don't exist if corporations don't exist if if businesses don't exist.
- 30:52SPEAKER_03: However we want to make sure that the people who are enriching that business the people who are doing the work for that corporation the people who ensure that that CEO gets to make now ridiculous amounts close to you know hundreds of millions of dollars that they're taking care of too there is no world in which somebody in a corporation should be making a billion dollars or even a million dollars and their workers can't afford the rent or healthcare that is unconscionable immoral and so for me I don't think it's a balance it's a you just need to exist yes we don't want to run you out of existence I do get that but you need to ensure that the people who are doing the work the people who are making you wealthy also get to benefit from that it sounds like you've thought about this growing disparity in wealth and um resources and so um you know I feel like back in the day you know it wasn't quite as much like that.
- 31:55SPEAKER_02: You know I feel like the man was kind of more I don't know voluntarily or by force of law looking out for the people that got him or back then him there.
- 32:08SPEAKER_02: And like that's we're kind of getting away from that how like from your perspective how did that happen?
- 32:13SPEAKER_03: Well I mean it's not just my perspective you can look at a historical kind of uh change in what happened so in the United States with everything that was wrong in the 1950s and 60s I'm not suggesting um going back.
- 32:26SPEAKER_03: However union density and union strength was very high.
- 32:30SPEAKER_03: So you had a third basically one of every three workers was a member of a union.
- 32:35SPEAKER_03: And with that strength there was balance.
- 32:37SPEAKER_03: You also had a taxation system that um after a certain level taxed the very rich a lot and it made sense they're they're not getting rich on their own.
- 32:47SPEAKER_03: Even if it's driving on a street to get to their work, you know, they're they're using the resources of the whole and so taxing those who are very wealthy was acceptable.
- 32:58SPEAKER_03: Then we kind of had the um we'll put it the Reagan years I almost wore my hat today because my hair was kind of crazy and it says um blame it all on Reagan.
- 33:08SPEAKER_03: Uh although he did do amnesty let's remember that I have a lot of uh family members and friends uh parents who are here legally now thanks to Ronald Reagan but um he really did destroy our economy long term he destroyed the power of unions um he was helped along by my favorite president terrible for labor but a good person Jimmy Carter you know I mean um not favorite he's my favorite right now because he's gonna die but um I Joe Biden's my favorite labor president let's be honest but uh we had a series of um of things that happened that continued to push away uh working people and their power from those who had the most and so we lowered taxation we made it almost impossible to enforce labor laws we've made it almost impossible to join a union we've destroyed unions like Reagan actually went in and blackballed every air traffic controller who went on strike that took that had a such a chilling effect on on um unionization so as we kind of went through that what we are seeing now is the effects of that um rigged economy if you will where we now are accepting that um I saw somewhere and there were like 60 plus billionaires are giving to Donald Trump.
- 34:24SPEAKER_03: Okay, whatever they're giving to Donald Trump why are there over 60 billionaires in the United States like billionaires?
- 34:31SPEAKER_03: Now we're talking about maybe there's going to be a trillionaire that would be fine if every person in the United States could afford to live in a house could feed their children could um you know have health care then maybe I would worry about how much the very top is making but when we know people are making that much and the people who are doing the work are are stuck and and falling into homelessness and having these issues, I, you know, that's just not right.
- 34:58SPEAKER_03: So yeah it it took a long time to get here and it's going to take a long time um to to really unrig um the economy so I didn't say a bad word I usually say something else but I'll I'll be family friendly for this podcast.
- 35:11SPEAKER_02: That was all appropriate for general G-rated consumption.
- 35:15SPEAKER_02: And so like um do you feel like I I mean my sense is that I don't know you tell me are are unions on the comeback?
- 35:25SPEAKER_02: I feel like you know you're getting a little mow back.
- 35:28SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
- 35:29SPEAKER_03: Yeah I mean things are really exciting.
- 35:31SPEAKER_03: I actually talk about this a lot because when I um headed the San Diego in Imperial Counties labor council when I started I started actually as a political director but when I got elected to head San Diego labor it was in some of the toughest times in San Diego.
- 35:45SPEAKER_03: We were in the middle of pension wars, outsourcing wars, the Union Tribune was headed by this crazy Republican and every day there'd be like bad editorials about me, about our workers about how we were causing all these things and I said I used to get on a plane and somebody would say what do you do for a living and I'd be like lawyer you know I I'd just be like I'm not getting into this conversation.
- 36:10SPEAKER_03: And now I mean having I went to the legislature for eight and a half years I'm back in labor it is a different world that's one of the reasons I wanted to come back.
- 36:20SPEAKER_03: I was so excited and I will give most of the credit to young people who are just not willing to accept what so many of us were willing to accept in in former generations and really started standing up and it really um the Starbucks workers were so inspiring when you see these workers who are like yeah I know that everybody says Starbucks is a good employer but let me tell you the truth about what they're doing to my life and this is not okay.
- 36:46SPEAKER_03: And it's not okay to tell me to go find a new job.
- 36:48SPEAKER_03: I want to make this job better.
- 36:50SPEAKER_03: They really kind of um just started embracing unions as the hope to really be in a different financial position.
- 36:58SPEAKER_03: You have young people who are like have no hope of having what their parents had.
- 37:02SPEAKER_03: So they're like okay there is one organization that wants to fight for me in this workplace.
- 37:06SPEAKER_03: And so there is I mean it's documented the change in in attitudes towards unions um we are you know we have 60 to 70% approval ratings that's higher than any institution that exists.
- 37:18SPEAKER_02: That's a lot higher than lawyers.
- 37:20SPEAKER_03: A lot higher I know I'm not saying I'm a lawyer anymore right I'm a labor leader.
- 37:23SPEAKER_03: Now I get on that plane I'm like what do you do?
- 37:25SPEAKER_03: I'm a labor leader.
- 37:27SPEAKER_03: No, but uh with young people this is shocking to me.
- 37:30SPEAKER_03: With young people under the age of 30 we have approval ratings of about 90% that I'm like I always tell our folks like we're more popular than God.
- 37:38SPEAKER_03: I mean that's scary.
- 37:40SPEAKER_03: That's a lot of responsibility it's a lot of responsibility could to continue with this excitement to give people that hope to not cut bad deals to not sell out to not just give in to politics it is our responsibility to provide an institution that really does fight for every worker and that's what we hope to do in California.
- 37:59SPEAKER_02: Love it got anything else?
- 38:01SPEAKER_01: Yeah yeah so clearly a very passionate on this topic and I think me and John can both say that we feel the passion in the room and so with that what what kind of goals are you guys focusing on right now with the California Federation?
- 38:13SPEAKER_03: There's a lot going on.
- 38:15SPEAKER_03: So obviously we do a lot of support for organizing workers that's continue to go right now we're in the middle of election season I don't like to talk too much about politics but um the truth is uh how things go nationally both with Congress and the presidency couldn't can affect um our rights we've seen under President Biden how much can be done to help and actually um contribute to workers organizing he has done everything in his power even without a Congress who's gone along with it to really get a national labor relations board that is aggressive that is for us.
- 38:49SPEAKER_03: So that's important as well.
- 38:51SPEAKER_03: But the one thing I think that we're going to be talking about in the next year or two that is really important is the future of workers.
- 38:57SPEAKER_03: So there's so much kind of hoopla around automation and AI, artificial intelligence and technology and people are excited and scared.
- 39:09SPEAKER_03: People are very scared and they should be and our goal is to say technology is good.
- 39:15SPEAKER_03: Technology has always existed right it can be good, it can be bad but it definitely could be good for workers.
- 39:22SPEAKER_03: That only happens if workers have a voice on how technology is used in the workplace we do not think it's important for AI to come in and reduce labor costs by getting rid of workers.
- 39:33SPEAKER_03: Artificial intelligence should make every workplace safer, more productive better operated and provide um better resources for everybody.
- 39:44SPEAKER_03: That does not mean it should replace actual human beings so our fight is about making sure yes have automation in cars and trucks and and um big rigs, but have a human operator too because at the end of the day the the robot cannot make the same decisions the same moral, ethical life changing decisions, no matter how much information they have a computer is not a person.
- 40:08SPEAKER_03: And we know and and you all of course doing personal injury um know that we have a lot of room to to make workplaces safer, to make society safer.
- 40:18SPEAKER_03: You don't do it by just reducing labor costs with a computer you do it by combining the best of innovation the best of technology changes with the best workers in the world and that's what we have in America.
- 40:30SPEAKER_03: So we have an opportunity and it is are we going to push aside the needs of working class and middle class Californians who who need a job, want a job, can make our jobs better in in in some push or our view for like innovation and technology Silicon Valley without thinking about what that does to workers, to safety, to our workplaces.
- 40:54SPEAKER_03: So that I think is going to be the big issue in the next few years.
- 40:58SPEAKER_02: Amazing I had I had not thought about that um but for sure like that's uh super heavy.
- 41:09SPEAKER_03: You should think about it because let me tell you why it matters to trial attorneys in particular consumer attorneys of any sort and this is something that I'm really disappointed our governor vetoed what I thought was almost an easy AI regulation bill.
- 41:23SPEAKER_03: One of the big problems we have in in I'll break it down to an actual workplace, right?
- 41:28SPEAKER_03: Let's say in a hospital you now have artificial intelligence telling you what should be done to a patient, right?
- 41:34SPEAKER_03: Sometimes it's so strong that it's hard for the human being the nurse who went to nursing school who passed all the boards to override the computer right we don't know who programs that computer did the person who programmed that computer are they qualified to practice medicine in California?
- 41:52SPEAKER_03: Where's the liability if that computer's wrong is it on the nurse because she couldn't override it in time is it on the hospital is it on the tech company that provided the you know there's a lot of questions about liability and technology um and I think the technology community and this governor unfortunately have been kind of like well we don't want to slow down innovation why are we going to uh attach blame we have the same thing going on with um with driverless vehicles in like the Bay Area that these taxis are going on who's liable when that doesn't work out um if there's if you're using a computer in that for civil rights kind of litigation if you're using some kind of algorithm or computer AI to decide who to hire or who to promote if there's bias in that computer program number one, how do you know about that?
- 42:40SPEAKER_03: Where's the transparency?
- 42:42SPEAKER_03: How do we ever find out hey they're pushing out everybody with a black or Latino name and you know except for we got I mean that's some real work to go see who all applied for a job.
- 42:51SPEAKER_03: We don't even have the right to that what where are the protections that we have built in for civil rights and for individual rights and then who's liable when those are broken?
- 43:02SPEAKER_03: And that is going to be a big legal question I think over the next few years.
- 43:06SPEAKER_02: Agree.
- 43:08SPEAKER_02: You're you're the a better lawyer than than me.
- 43:12SPEAKER_02: I mean Vanessa probably had already seen all this coming but you know um well um I I think we're about to wrap up um you know I would say I let I'm gonna do a throwaway question to you.
- 43:27SPEAKER_02: I know you got to meet uh Dolores Huerta if you could um you know have dinner with any other hero that you haven't had the pleasure of meeting yet who would you pick and why that's so hard because I've had um such an opportunity to meet so many of my heroes right and that that's one thing I feel so blessed between um organized labor and being a legislator the new
- 44:00SPEAKER_03: Female, first female president of Mexico.
- 44:02SPEAKER_03: I I got to meet a few years ago.
- 44:04SPEAKER_03: Um yeah.
- 44:05SPEAKER_03: I and so I'm trying to think of like who is out there that I haven't met.
- 44:09SPEAKER_02: I mean go back as far as you want in history.
- 44:12SPEAKER_03: Oh, history.
- 44:13SPEAKER_02: Yeah, like it doesn't, they don't have to be here live.
- 44:16SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 44:18SPEAKER_03: Uh-oh.
- 44:19SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
- 44:22SPEAKER_03: It's like, okay, um, I'm gonna say this, and I'm sorry, it's the truth.
- 44:27SPEAKER_03: Uh sometimes he I get sad at some of the things he says, but for the most part, I'd love to meet the Pope.
- 44:34SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah, yeah, of course.
- 44:36SPEAKER_03: You know, I obviously um I'm not obviously uh like most Latinos, I was born Catholic, I am Catholic.
- 44:45SPEAKER_03: Um, and the Pope, this Pope has just like kind of unions give young people hope.
- 44:51SPEAKER_03: This Pope's given a lot of young people in Catholicism some hope and changing kind of the direction of um how we see people, how we see unions, by the way, is very pro-union, um, how we see the economy, how we see um some things that have been taboo for our church that I think have driven a lot a lot of young people away, like LGBTQ rights.
- 45:11SPEAKER_03: Um, and so I think it's exciting.
- 45:14SPEAKER_03: He doesn't go as far, of course, as I would hope, but he is the Pope, so I'm not allowed to question that.
- 45:19SPEAKER_03: Um, so I'd love to have dinner with the Pope.
- 45:22SPEAKER_03: I think if it's somebody living in the past, I mean there's a million people, right?
- 45:27SPEAKER_03: Like there, there's, I mean, my true hero, like long past hero.
- 45:32SPEAKER_03: And this is just about being so damn brave that nobody can stop you.
- 45:36SPEAKER_03: I have to say, is Harriet Tubman.
- 45:37SPEAKER_03: I love reading.
- 45:39SPEAKER_02: You go over your left shoulder.
- 45:41SPEAKER_03: Well, it's oh oh yes.
- 45:43SPEAKER_03: Oh my God.
- 45:45SPEAKER_03: Um partially because there's something I think about women in certain times, um, and and just being a woman, even now today, where we're like still looked at differently, and being so brave, so brave to take on anything or anyone or any challenge, and still moving forward when no like people just try to tear that down.
- 46:07SPEAKER_03: And where does that strength come from?
- 46:09SPEAKER_03: I think is always the question I want to ask brave women, in particular women of color, who who are willing to be like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 46:16SPEAKER_03: I'm not irrational, I'm not stupid, I know I'm taking a risk, but this risk is worth it.
- 46:22SPEAKER_03: And it's something you see sometimes in um, I think in history with women in general that uh really does change the world.
- 46:29SPEAKER_02: And I think that would be cool too.
- 46:31SPEAKER_02: I love it.
- 46:32SPEAKER_02: Any closing remarks from you?
- 46:34SPEAKER_01: Other than I think you're very inspiring and like what you just said right now about the bravery, I think you exemplify that great.
- 46:41SPEAKER_01: And like when I asked you, like how do you come over imposter syndrome and like your answer reflected what you just said?
- 46:48SPEAKER_01: Aw.
- 46:49SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you, Vanessa.
- 46:50SPEAKER_03: I think you're gonna do big things.
- 46:51SPEAKER_03: I'm I'm inspired by you.
- 46:53SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
- 46:54SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so um I want to thank my special co-host for today and a past um guest on the podcast, Vanessa Felix Corona, who is the president of the uh La Rassa uh Students Association at Thomas Jefferson Law School.
- 47:09SPEAKER_02: We're very proud of her and the work that she's doing.
- 47:12SPEAKER_02: She's actually um is is now planning a three school mixer of all the La Raza students.
- 47:21SPEAKER_02: And I'll tell you, you these parties, if you've been to a gathering lately, they just get bigger and bigger and bigger.
- 47:28SPEAKER_02: It appears that um there's gonna be more and more Latinos and Latinas, you know, within the legal and you know public policy world.
- 47:38SPEAKER_02: Um and so um I think it's really important, you know, for leaders like you, you know, like she said, you're inspiring a ton of you know people out there, including not only younger people, but people like me.
- 47:51SPEAKER_02: And so um, if our uh listeners and viewers want to learn more about the work that you're doing, uh support it, you know, where would you direct them to look?
- 48:03SPEAKER_03: So um the californial.org is our website.
- 48:08SPEAKER_03: I had to look.
- 48:09SPEAKER_03: I'm on social media, I'm easy to find on social media, and then I can direct you right place because I never know.
- 48:14SPEAKER_03: Um, but we obviously are on all the platforms.
- 48:17SPEAKER_03: California labor, basically, if you put in California Labor, it is our organization.
- 48:21SPEAKER_03: Um, and our official title, of course, is the California Federation of Labor Unions.
- 48:26SPEAKER_03: Um, that is the umbrella organization for all the unions, and you can always find Lorena Gonzalez um pretty much.
- 48:34SPEAKER_02: Are you on the gram?
- 48:35SPEAKER_03: I I am.
- 48:36SPEAKER_03: I'm getting really good at it.
- 48:39SPEAKER_03: I get myself in a lot of trouble on Twitter.
- 48:41SPEAKER_03: In fact, that's so funny.
- 48:42SPEAKER_03: This morning I was like, you know what?
- 48:44SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna shift to Instagram because I have all the Elon Musk people hating on me right now, and so I was like, maybe they're not on Instagram, but like Instagram requires pictures.
- 48:54SPEAKER_03: I'm real picky and I don't know, but I am on Instagram.
- 48:59SPEAKER_03: You you find me my you you find me on Facebook.
- 49:03SPEAKER_03: I I'm on them all.
- 49:05SPEAKER_03: No, no new ones.
- 49:06SPEAKER_03: If there's new ones, you guys, I I I ask my kids all the time, what am I missing?
- 49:09SPEAKER_03: They're like, we don't want to tell you.
- 49:11SPEAKER_03: Okay.
- 49:11SPEAKER_03: So we we try to be um very approachable though.
- 49:14SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 49:15SPEAKER_02: Well, thank you so much for you know um being approachable, for spending time with us.
- 49:20SPEAKER_02: We're very, very honored and grateful to Lorraine Gonzalez for the work that she's done for workers and their families.
- 49:26SPEAKER_02: If you think about it, you know, she's doing work for millions of workers, and then each of those workers, or or many of them, have families.
- 49:34SPEAKER_02: And so you're thinking about, you know, kids.
- 49:37SPEAKER_02: Can these can these children have, you know, educational opportunities?
- 49:42SPEAKER_02: Can these kids have, you know, safe and affordable housing?
- 49:44SPEAKER_02: Can these kids have good nutrition?
- 49:47SPEAKER_02: And that all comes from you know uh a fair and just you know, uh system of compensation and employment.
- 49:54SPEAKER_02: So the work you're doing is touching so many people.
- 49:57SPEAKER_02: And so thank you on behalf of all Californians.
- 50:00SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
- 50:01SPEAKER_03: I appreciate it, John.
- 50:02SPEAKER_03: Keep doing the good work.
- 50:03SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yes, ma'am, that's our intent.
- 50:05SPEAKER_02: So uh thank you so much, everyone, uh, for joining us for this issue of the Latino.
- 50:11SPEAKER_02: We look forward to uh our next podcast, and please uh tune in, uh Spotify, Apple, wherever you can find podcasts, that's where we're at.
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- 50:23SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to the Latino podcast.
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