The Platform adopted at the September 2017 ILC Convention was to focus the work of the Caucus around 5 areas of work:

1)     Immigration

2)     Puerto Rico

3)     Racial Justice

4)     Latino Leadership Development

5)     Our Work in the Americas

In order to do any of this work, first our Board had to come up with a work plan and in rebuilding our Caucus’ membership, finances. To do that we agreed to do a two-day retreat in Chicago where we agreed to do monthly calls on the third Monday of the month and quarterly in person meetings rotating the meetings amongst the four regions (East, West, Central and Puerto Rico). Here are some of the activities we have done so far in our first year with this current board:

PUERTO RICO:

Because of the existing Economic Crisis in Puerto Rico and then Hurricane Maria, the main focus of the Latino Caucus has been helping our members in Puerto Rico. At the SEIU ILC Conference in NYC, the Latino Caucus was able to raise over $400,000 for the SEIU Disaster Relief Fund from the Locals and represented at the Conference to be distributed equally between the two locals in PR (UGT and SPT). In 2018 the East, West and Central Regions did several fundraisers where we raised over $13,000 which was distributed equally among the two locals in PR. I addition to this the ILC has donated money to $5000 to the SEIU Relief Fund, $2500 for 5 UGT and SPT Families on February 2018 and $1000 to COPI, an organization in PR helping with relief efforts.

We have also participated in several public activities and lobby visits to politicians and other efforts in support of Puerto Rico in all of our regions. Finally, 1199 and 32BJ did another fundraiser later last year where we raised $4000 which will be distributed February 2019 amongst 10 UGT and SPT families in need in PR. This is only a brief summary to give the International a sense of our work on behalf of Puerto Rico and our members in the Island.

IMMIGRATION:

All the ILC Locals and Caucus regions have been fully active on Immigration events and other lobbying efforts on behalf of immigrants with a focus on DACA, TPS and the 11 Million undocumented immigrants. We will be working closely with EVP Saenz on helping drive the immigration work of the International. We will have a discussion on the state of play and changing the immigration narrative at the ILC Board meeting in Puerto Rico on February 19th and 20th, 2019. Based on the trip EVP Saenz, David Huerta and others took to Mexico last Fall and, new opportunities with the Mexican Government, we will also have a discussion about the locals and regions in the ILC getting more involved with the Consulates in our states, in particular the Mexican Consulates.  More to come……

RACIAL JUSTICE:

The ILC is fully committed to the fight for Racial Justice and dismantling structural racism. We will schedule a discussion with AFRAM and others at the International to discuss what’s the best way for the ILC to play a role in our work on Racial Justice. We will strive to schedule a meeting with AFRAM’s Leadership to see what they’re doing and how we can plug in.

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT:

The ILC will hold a first of its kind in the life of the ILC Latino Leadership Summit in Orlando, FL on October 9th, 10th and 11th 2020. The idea is to have a one-day training and then spend a day and a half knocking on doors to get out the vote in Spanish speaking communities in Orlando. There is also interest in doing something similar in Arizona. We will discuss this on February 19th and 20th in Puerto Rico. Apart from this, the ILC has been working to get SEIU members in our regions to become members of the ILC. We started with Zero. We now have over 350 members in the ILC. This year there will be a bid focus on growing this membership.  Our goal is to get to 5000 members before the end of 2021.

OUR WORK IN THE AMERICAS

The ILC has been supporting efforts to pass the NICA Act to put financial pressure on President Daniel Ortega’s regime attacks on his people. The NICA Act passed and was signed into law by 45. We will be working with EVP Rocio and others in our efforts to work with Mexico on Border and Immigration Issues, Engaging and Organizing the Mexican community in the USA, connect with Organized Labor in Mexico and encourage the Mexican Consulates to take a leadership role in organizing the Central American consulates to work together with them. We will have a discussion on this in our meeting in Puerto Rico on the 19th and 20th of February.

This report doesn’t capture the totality of our work and there is still a lot to figure out as we get started with this new board on strengthening the SEIU Latino Caucus. All of our leaders are deeply involved in these efforts in their locals as they carry our Together We Rise work and other SEIU priorities. We are just getting started but and more to come as we continue to develop the Caucus.