Outreach and Engagement: Building Solidarity Across Long Beach

The LA Fed’s Outreach and Civic Engagement Team has been dedicated and diligent in supporting our community members in need. As part of our ongoing support of our Day Laborer siblings, the Outreach Team joined the Long Beach local nonprofit, ORALE, and the Teachers Association of Long Beach in a rally at the Signal Hill Home Depot. The team made it their priority to also partner with Labor Community Services and the Miguel Contreras Foundation alongside the LA/OC Building Trades Apprenticeship Readiness Fund, Cement Masons Local 500, LiUNA 1309, USW California Oilworkers Readiness Program, and the Western States Regional Council of Carpenters at three job sites that were closing down: Grief Paper and two Phillips 66 refineries to aid in finding of new jobs.

The Outreach Team continued their programming in pairing graduating high school students with apprenticeship opportunities. They partnered with the Young Workers Education Project, Miguel Contreras Foundation, and the UCLA and LBCC Labor Centers to facilitate a trade education program that simulated a real union election. Over the two-day program, students had the opportunity to understand the process of holding a union election and to become the advocates needed to make an election possible. The students role-played as NLRB agents, organizing workers, unionized workers, and community members, ultimately furthering their understanding of the complex operations involved in a union election. This program enabled students to engage in a soul-stirring experience, expanding their knowledge beyond the surface. And by the way, they won their election!