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UDW Director of Organizing and Field Services Johanna Hester
UDW has been honored twice by the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, AFL-CIO (APALA), the nation’s first and only organization of Asian Pacific American union members.
At the alliance’s national convention in Oakland July 21-24, UDW Director of Organizing and Field Services Johanna Hester was elected APALA’s national president. Ms. Hester had previously served as the organization’s treasurer.
UDW was also the recipient of APALA’s Vincent Foo Award. Mr. Foo was a labor pioneer who won collective bargaining rights for the first time for thousands of Maryland’s school employees some 40 years ago.
Accepting the award, UDW Executive Director Doug Moore noted that, as the first union in the nation to solely represent home care providers, our union was also a pioneer. “Today, we are proud to represent more than 65,000 members across California, at least one fourth of whom are Asian or Pacific American,” Moore said.
Among the other speakers at the convention was U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, AFSCME Secretary Treasurer Lee Saunders, AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer Liz Shuler, and SEIU President Mary K. Henry.
Click here for convention coverage from the Oakland Tribune and ABC News.
Founded in 1992, APALA has played a unique role in addressing the workplace issues of the 660,000 APA union members and as the bridge between the broader labor movement and the APA community. Backed with strong support of the AFL-CIO, APALA has 13 chapters and pre-chapters and a national office in Washington, D.C.
One of the alliance’s major goals is to defend and advocate for the civil and human rights of Asians and Pacific Americans, immigrants and people of color and to develop ties within national and international labor organizations.
Johanna Hester began her career in 1990 as a part-time clerical assistant for SEIU Local 250. In 1993, the union moved to organize hospitals in San Jose and she was recruited to help organize a growing core of Filipino nurses. In 1995, she decided to continue to pursue her degree in higher education and was later awarded the Minority Leaders Fellowship Program from the Washington Center in 1996. This program allowed her to gain exposure to several national movements, working primarily with local voter registration efforts in the DC area and raising awareness about civil rights issues nationally. It was a time that she witnessed the convergence of a national student movement and civil rights movement of community, labor and student activists from the Philippines and in the United States. This experience ignited her political consciousness and she learned to develop the principles that would guide her work for years to come. Johanna is now championing the home care cause and is one of the most respected labor leaders in AFSCME and throughout California
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