In a historic move to strengthen advocacy and mobilization efforts for day laborers, domestic workers and all working people, the Graton Day Labor Center today formally affiliated with the North Bay Labor Council, AFL-CIO.

The partnership announcement fittingly comes on May Day, International Workers’ Day, when working people across the country and around the world are highlighting and celebrating the contributions of workers every day and the role immigrants play in our economy.

North Bay Labor Council Executive Director Lisa Maldonado describes the partnership this way:

Day labor centers and unions share a common goal and vision—we’re advocating for the enforcement of wage and hour laws, oppose misclassification of workers and fight for immigrant rights. This partnership is a way to ensure that the rights of all workers—union and nonunion, immigrant and native born—are protected and can organize to build a collective voice.

The Graton Day Labor Center is a community-based, worker-led center that organizes and empowers workers through civic participation and public policy campaigns, including raising wage and labor standards for workers in their communities. The Day Laborer Center and the North Bay Labor Council have worked closely together on minimum wage advocacy efforts and the California Domestic Workers Bill of Rights.

By joining together, the day laborers and union members are helping to build a more inclusive labor movement to improve the lives of working people.

“With this affiliation, we will have the increased ability to come together to advocate for all working people who are being abused or silenced by employers,” says Christy Lubin, board president of the Graton Day Labor Center.

As part of the AFL-CIO union movement’s efforts to improve the lives of all people who work—not just those who have the benefits of union membership—the AFL-CIO continues to form partnerships with groups excluded from coverage by U.S. labor laws—such as the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, and other workers who do not have the benefit of a union contract.

Check out the Graton Day Labor Center at: www.gratondaylabor.org.