History
LCLAA was founded in 1973 as part of a wave of constituency group organizing within the AFL-CIO. The AFL-CIO had chartered its first retiree organization, the National Council of Senior Citizens (NCSC), in 1962 and its first civil rights organization, the A. Philip Randolph Institute, in 1965. The Coalition of Black Trade Unionists followed in 1972 to give a broader, more effective voice within the AFL-CIO to black workers, and the Coalition of Labor Union Women was chartered in 1974. But it was the large influx of Latino workers brought about by the chartering of the United Farm Workers in 1966 that led to a push by Latino labor union activists for a separate organization of their own.
Several years passed, however, before the growing militancy and political muscle of the emerging Latino movement moved AFL-CIO president George Meany to agree to a Latino constituency group. In 1972 the AFL-CIO brought together hundreds of Latino labor activists and members of local Latino labor committees to form LCLAA. The organization's founding conference was held in Washington, D.C., on November 16, 1973. LCLAA's first president was Ray Mendoza, a member of the Laborers' International Union of North America.
Read more about this topic: Labor Council For Latin American Advancement
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