Provides View to Next Chapter of Immigrant Workers' Struggle for Justice

Today, the Santa Fe Film Festival will screen Tribute to Eliseo Medina, a short film documenting SEIU Executive Vice President Eliseo Medina's remarkable career. From a 19-year-old grape picker to his leadership today as one of the most important labor and immigrant rights leaders in the country, Medina's story shows us the power of "yes we can" thinking and reminds us how grassroots campaigns can change the course of history.

Watch the film:

Starting with Medina's early work alongside Cesar Chavez in the historic United Farm Workers (UFW) strike and ending with his leadership in the immigrant rights marches of 2006, the film documents the growth of unionization among Latino workers and the evolution of the immigrant rights movement.

Rooted in the struggle for workers' rights, the immigrant workers' movement began with pockets of activism in California and the southwest. Under leaders like Medina and through commitment by SEIU, other unions and immigrant rights groups, the movement stretched across the nation. Over the past 40 years, unionization rates among immigrant workers have soared. At the same time, citizenship and voter registration rates have jumped by historic numbers.

Today--as demonstrated during the 2008 election--the immigrant rights movement has transformed its strength and numbers into unprecedented political power.

In this way, Tribute to Eliseo Medina is the perfect prologue to our current moment. Thanks in large part to the record turnout of Latino and other immigrant voters in this election, a new progressive Administration and Congress stand to move the policies that Eliseo Medina has been fighting for over decades. Comprehensive immigration reform, health care reform, and expansion of worker protections are all hanging in the balance.

• More about Eliseo Medina.
• Background on SEIU's work to pass comprehensive immigration reform.
• Learn more about Latinos in the labor movement and the role Latino voters played in the 2008 Election.
• More information on SEIU's two-year campaign to help millions of immigrants become U.S. citizens and vote in time for the 2008 election
• Watch SEIU immigrant members talk about their fight for justice and share personal stories (Digital stories)

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About the film: This film was produced by Lucia Duncan for SEIU to commemorate Eliseo's 40 years of work in the labor movement.

*** For those of you reading this at SEIU HQ in Washington, DC, please join us for a special lunch-hour screening of the 13-minute film tomorrow, Friday, Dec. 5, promptly at 12:30 p.m. EST in Room 1026/28. ***