This is a cross-post from Huffington Post's Spanish-language site Voces by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. 

Christian Hurtado’s story shows the potential of the new workers' rights movement. It's a story worth telling this month, days after we celebrated Labor Day and as we prepare to celebrate Latino Heritage Month.  

When his father Angel died in a work-related accident in 2004, Christian's life took an unexpected turn. Christian, 29, and his family don’t know the exact details of the accident, which happened while his father, an independent construction worker, was doing work inside a small warehouse in Austin, Texas. Christian’s family was devastated, especially his mom Victoria. 

Christian says that he overheard an Occupational Safety and Health Administration representative, present at the warehouse soon after the accident, speculate that Angel probably slipped while working high in a small warehouse, hit his neck, and then fell about 20 feet to the ground below. Despite the uncertainty, Christian was determined to look for answers and to make sure that other families wouldn’t go through a similar tragedy.

“After the accident, I heard through my mom about this organization in Austin that defends workers and fights to get their wages back and things like that,” Christian says.

The organization his mother told him about was the Workers Defense Project (WDP), which since 2008 has teamed up with the Texas State Building and Construction Trades Council to improve conditions in the industry across Texas, developing a new, smart model for labor and community collaboration. Christian’s mom learned about them when WDP members gave a presentation at her church sometime after the accident.

“Through WDP, I learned that deadly work accidents happen all the time,” Christian says. “I learned that not only do they [WDP] help workers get paid what they’re owed, they inform workers about accidents and workplace safety.”

In states like Texas, where according to a recent WDP report, a construction worker dies every 2.5 days, making it the deadliest state in the country for construction workers, the WDP-Trades Council alliance has improved workplace safety by:

• Releasing this report on the death of construction workers which prompted a federal investigation into Texas’ deadly construction industry by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration that resulted in close to 1,500 citations and fines amounting to almost $2 million;
• Winning paid rest breaks for Austin’s 50,000 construction workers; and
• Winning changes in city contracts to require basic safety trainings for all construction workers on city-funded sites.

“Our partnership with unions belonging to the Building and Construction Trades Council has been mutually beneficial and through it, we have been able to build a stronger labor movement in Texas,” WDP Executive Director Cristina Tzintzún says. “Our members have learned about the benefits of unions in ensuring better working conditions and union members have learned about the challenges facing non-union workers.” 

However, none of these ground-breaking victories would have been possible without workers and community members like Christian, who was recently recognized as the WDP member of the year for his commitment and dedication to improving the lives of construction workers. He also recently graduated from a Laborers International Union of North America’s (LIUNA) training program with the intention to continue organizing construction workers and ensure safe work environments for them in a state where it’s estimated that 60 percent of the construction workforce is Latino.

“In Austin, Latinos provide the labor and they ought to be well taken care of,” Christian says. “Many people are being mistreated. Many people don’t know how to use their tools properly or how to be safe at work. WDP has helped change that.”

Like the WDP-Trades Council alliance in Austin, other worker center-organized labor alliances are making a difference in working people’s lives in other parts of the country as well. In Wisconsin, for example, striking factory workers at Palermo’s frozen pizza factory are seeking safety at work and a voice on the job with the combined support of Voces de La Frontera, a local worker center, and the United Steelworkers union.

These alliances provide much-needed relief to people in hostile work environments like the Texas construction industry, and ought to be fostered, not feared. And in that spirit we at the AFL-CIO maintain and seek to expand our active affiliations with worker centers around the country. With more than a dozen local worker center-organized labor affiliations across the United States, the AFL-CIO remains on the forefront of forging new partnerships to improve the lives of all working people.

“Had my dad known what I know now, the accident probably wouldn’t have happened,” Christian confides. “My way of honoring the memory of my dad is by educating other workers like him.”

The loss of Angel to a preventable work accident is a great tragedy. Christian and others like him are committed to preventing similar tragedies from happening in the future.

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