Labor

Undocumented immigrants in the state can own and register their vehicles, but they aren’t allowed to drive them, forcing many farmworkers to risk fines and arrest. “It’s a Catch-22 for a lot of folks,” advocates say.

Last week, hotel companies presented a new economic proposal amid waves of strikes by hotel workers in Los Angeles. After the groups failed to negotiate a wage increase, thousands of workers once again walked out in a third wave as part of the largest hotel strike California has seen to date.

Senior editor Hector Luis Alamo steps in as guest host to speak with Ada Briceño, co-president of Unite Here! Local 11, and Diana Rios Sanchez, a hotel worker, about the hotel workers’ strike in Los Angeles and its importance for other labor actions taking place across the country.

A group of civil rights organizations has filed a lawsuit against the DeSantis administration in Florida on behalf of the state’s farmworkers, among other affected parties, in hopes of reversing a recently implemented anti-immigrant law.

Amid a record-breaking heat wave throughout Texas that has led to several heat-related deaths, Gov. Greg Abbott has signed a bill eliminating mandatory water breaks for construction workers. Latino Rebels Radio host Julio Ricardo Varela welcomes Daniela Hernandez, state legislative coordinator for the Workers Defense Project, to discuss the cruel and punitive nature of the law and how they plan to fight back.

Hotel workers in Los Angeles are holding a second wave of strikes —the largest such strike in Southern California’s history— demanding fair, livable wages. The industry employs a largely immigrant workforce.

With three-quarters of the state’s domestic workforce identifying as Latino, a California bill would finally secure mandatory guidelines after decades of exclusion from workplace protections.

With the Writer’s Guild of America on strike and the entertainment industry ground to a halt, Latino Rebels Radio host Julio Ricardo Varela welcomes writer and producer Erick Galindo to discuss the importance of fighting for better working wages and fair representation in Hollywood.

Like many firsts of May in the past, this year’s May Day will see workers and activists around the world take to the streets to demand greater labor rights and protections. In Puerto Rico, they will also be condemning displacement and environmental destruction.

Latino Rebels Radio host Julio Ricardo Varela welcomes investigative journalist Jonah Owen Lamb from the San Francisco Standard to discuss a wild story out of San Jose, California, where the head of the police union was charged with smuggling fentanyl into the country.

In the second and last episode of “Head Down,” a two-part special from Futuro Investigates and Latino USA, in collaboration with Prism, we shift the focus to look at the systems put in place by the U.S. government and why they’re constantly failing workers in the H-2A visa program, even when they speak up.

Host Julio Ricardo Varela welcomes Roosevelt High School teacher Jason Torres-Rangel to explain the plight of service workers in L.A. schools that led them to strike last month and why educators followed their lead.

Following a series of reports on migrant children being exploited in the meatpacking industry, Latino Rebels Radio host Julio Ricardo Varela welcomes Rose Godinez, legal and policy counsel for the Nebraska chapter of the ACLU and the child of meatpacking workers herself, to break down an industry rife with exploitation and retaliation under unsafe conditions.

Last week a federal judge nullified Puerto Rico’s Labor Reform Law approved only months ago, saying that Gov. Pedro Pierluisi did not provide evidence that the law would not impact the oversight board’s fiscal plan.

After a short five-day strike that closed access to most campuses, the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) Workers’ Union reached an agreement with the administration that should see workers’ salaries match the archipelago’s minimum wage of $8.50 per hour, rising to $9.50 on July 1.

A roundup of the week’s top Latino news from around the world, written by Latino Rebels senior editor Hector Luis Alamo.

This week’s wrap-up comes to you from the cozy confines of quarantine, as senior editor Hector Luis Alamo has managed to catch COVID for only the second time this year.

Equal pay isn’t just about our paychecks, it’s about our economic security. And our ability to control our economic security is inextricably linked to our ability to decide whether and when to become a parent.

The announcement, made on Friday, is part of the Biden administration’s effort to directly address the disproportionate impacts of pollution that have existed for decades in many low-income communities and communities of color.

In this episode, we look at the types of jobs Latinos and Latinas are doing within the oil and gas industry, the struggles they face when they move to a place like North Dakota, and how some of them are trying to turn North Dakota into the place they want to see it become.

In this episode, we look at the politics of oil and gas, the types of jobs Latinos and Latinas are doing within this controversial industry and the impact that drilling is having on the environment and Indigenous communities in North Dakota.