Latino workers represent a large and growing share of the U.S. workforce. But even with the highest employment rates in the United States, Latinos face a number of barriers to accessing good jobs and economic security. Their median earnings are lower than those of their Black, White, and Asian American counterparts. And along with Black workers, Latino workers tend to be especially vulnerable to losing their jobs amid economic contractions.
What’s more, insufficient bargaining power, gaps in legal protections, discrimination, and social norms all can cluster Latino workers into jobs that pay low wages, offer little in terms of employer-sponsored benefits, and rank high in labor law violations. Unions and labor organizers, however, have long pushed back against these obstacles, delivering important gains for both Latino and non-Latino workers.
In the mid-20th century, for example, the late union activist Emma Tenayuca fought for fair wages, advocated for workers’ right to unionize, and led what continues to be one of the largest strikes in U.S. history. In the early 1960s, civil rights activists and organizers Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez co-founded what is now the United Farm Workers. As one of the first and longest-lasting farmworkers unions in the country, the UFW played an important role in securing better working conditions in the agricultural sector—in which Latinos disproportionately are employed—including regulations that protect workers against the harms of...
You are reading the second issue of the Disinformation Monitor. It is published on a monthly basis and provides an overview of developments on the disinformation scenes on NATO’s eastern frontier....