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Feb 8, 2022 - Economy & Business

In photos: Latino labor battles

Shoshana Gordon
A delivery worker raises their fist in the middle of a street.

A demonstrator raises a fist during a march for food delivery workers’ rights in New York on April 21, 2021. Photo: Paul Frangipane/Bloomberg via Getty Images

New York City delivery workers who call themselves "Los deliveristas" celebrated new protections and benefits last month, the latest development in the long history of Latinos in workers' rights movements.

Why it matters: Hispanics make up 18% of the US labor force, but are overrepresented as workers in food service (27%), cleaning and maintenance (37%), and farming (43%), occupations where workers have been protesting and striking since the pandemic’s onset — and for decades.

In photos:
A person wearing a safety vest and face mask points a finger while holding an American flag.
A fruit packing worker demonstrates in Naches, Wash., on May 16, 2020, joining striking workers from at least six local fruit packing facilities. Photo: David Ryder/Getty Images
People wearing purple tshirts and red hats link arms at the front of a crowd.
More than 1,000 janitors with the Service Employees International Union march ahead of a potential strike on Sept. 1, 2021, in Los Angeles. Photo: Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images
A person wears a face mask that reads: “#On Strike”.
A demonstrator protests McDonald's workplace conditions on Oct. 26, 2021 in Chicago. Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images
People lie on their backs on the grass, with paper signs covering their bodies.
Unemployed hospitality and service workers hold a die-in in Miami Beach on May 22, 2020, demanding Gov. Ron DeSantis fix the unemployment system and send out their benefits. Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
A woman holds a sign that reads "Please do not patronize."
Kim Cordova, president of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 and one of few Latinas in US union leadership positions, leads the rally during the strike against King Soopers in Glendale, Colo. on Jan. 13. Photo: Hyoung Chang/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images
A person smiles while wearing a feathered headdress.
Members of Grupo Tolteca Chichimeca, a Mexican indigenous-inspired group, join a march of excluded workers on Dec. 10, 2021 in New York City to demand Gov. Kathy Hochul increase the Excluded Workers Fund by $3 billion. Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images
People dressed in hotel and restaurant uniforms march down the Las Vegas Strip at sunset.
Union members and supporters march along the Strip during a Culinary Union “We Will Come Back Stronger!” rally in Las Vegas on Sept. 24, 2021. Photo: Bridget Bennett/Bloomberg via Getty Images

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