Cheylynda is the perfect example of a go-getter, as the former SEIU 721 Vice President, Mayor Pro Tem of Moreno Valley and now Executive Director of the Inland Empire Labor and Community Center at UC Riverside. The center was created to educate prospective labor organizers and help them in their careers. Their “Labor Summer” fellows program gives students the opportunity to work in labor and community organizations via grants. In fact, the IE LaborCouncil’s own Gabriela Clatenco came into her position from the program.
They also conduct research with the help of faculty, student researchers, and the Inland Empire Labor Institute. They release their findings on IE labor and state of logistics through the “State of the Work” report. Research is focused on who is working what positions in the IE, their pay rate, educational background, and median income. This information brings to light trends in different fields to determine if there is equity in wages across the region. Data is also sorted by the density of union members in various locations across the IE which helps determine where a union can aid in creating livable wages.
“And this report is used through-out California now from Los Angeles to up north. People are using this data in this report to discuss what’s happening in the Inland Empire, but not just here, but other locations where the logistics industry is seeing this boom of these warehousing jobs for people.”
“I had the luxury and the privilege and the honor of being a social worker in the same community that I lived in.”
Before being the Executive Director of the IELCC, Cheylynda was a social worker in addition to being the Vice President of SEIU 721. In this position, she was part of contract negotiations for the workers who made up SEIU 721 and was able to secure concrete improvements for them. Cheylynda speaks proudly of the contracts that she has been a part of negotiating. She has also been a delegate to the Inland Empire Labor Council, representing her union in that capacity as well.
“I’m happy to report that over the course of the four years of that contract, they are going to get a 15 % increase, an increase to their premiums for medical insurance. And although I wasn’t able to actually finish signing that one on the data line, I felt good knowing that when I left that contract was in place, that contract was voted on and approved.”
This year has been Cheylynda’s first as part of the IELCC, and it has been a landmark one. In partnership with the IELC, the Center has had its first recipients of the BillPerez Scholarship this year. Three students who showed a passion for labor organizing and working class power were given scholarships to go towards their studies. In addition, the IELCC has entered into its second year of the “Labor Summer” fellows program, welcoming a new cohort of students and workers into the labor movement. Fellows and Bill Perez scholars were recently recognized at the IELCC’s “Year in Review”and received certificates from the IELCC as well as key local politicians as well. Under her tenure, the IELCC has continued to advocate for the working class of the Inland Empire, as has always been Cheylynda’s goal.
