Inland Empire Labor Council , AFL-CIO

Welcome to Labor of Love

Labor of Love started years ago, as an idea of the Inland Empire Labor Council to document the unique history of labor resistance in the Inland Empire.

In the Summer of 2024, following an office change and the rediscovery of hundreds of archival documents, Labor of Love was set into motion. In the past year, the IELC’s Chief-of-Staff Celene Perez proposed tackling this project which, at the time, was not supposed to start until she retired. With an ambitious goal to unveil the first phase of the project by Labor Day of 2024. Following a tight timeline, she assembled a team of local multi-media artists and started contacting union members to start capturing their stories right away.

Below you will find the labor leaders we interviewed and their stories.

Our Labor Leaders hold a special place in the local labor movement as they create change. Amongst them are history holders, labor organizers, retired union members, and new agitators that continue the fight for working class people.

Click on the people below to be taken to their profile page, where a short biography and a video of each will be present.

A massive thank you to all of our affiliated unions, all of those chronicled in this first phase and those who will be as we continue our work. We would like to express our deepest gratitude to all the interviewees and workers involved with this project. We’d like to also thank Creative Corps Inland Socal and the California Arts Council.

This project was a collaboration of many people all talented in their respective mediums. Bianca Gomez was brought on as the branding designer, DeNoche Films and Future First coordinated the videography and set for the interviews, Zefferin Llamas, the interviewer, researched and tailored questions for our members, and Efren Castro assisted in archiving and writing. And of course, all of the labor leaders who lent their time and shared their stories with us. Our former interns, Ximena Nieves, Natalie Cossios, Ashley Avila, and Jared Roman assisted with research and labeling the contents archival collections.

The broader Inland Empire Labor Council staff has supported the team every step of the way. Lastly, the IELC communications team, Frankie Aguilar and Eric Guerra have been instrumental in moving the project along.

Labor of Love would not have been possible without the crucial support of everyone mentioned above.