Date and Time: October 16, 2026, 10-11:30 PDT
Location: Virtual
Part 2 of the “Meeting the Moment” series brings together three leaders at the forefront of labor and community responses to the current militarized federal immigration in cities across the U.S. Facing the largest deportation campaign since the 1950s, labor unions and their members, alongside allies in the immigrant rights movement, are taking creative, nonviolent action to defend communities.
The virtual panel will welcome David Huerta, President of SEIU California and SEIU-United Service Workers West (USWW), Bernie Burnham, President of the Minnesota AFL-CIO, and Kurt Petersen, Vice President of UNITE HERE Local 11, to share their insights as leaders of the movement.
Speakers
David Huerta, President, SEIU California and SEIU-United Service Workers West (USWW): David Huerta is a veteran labor organizer and the president of SEIU California and SEIU–United Service Workers West, representing hundreds of thousands of janitors, security officers and service workers. He began his career in the 1990s as an organizer with Justice for Janitors in Los Angeles and has been recognized for his leadership in immigrant integration and worker empowerment. In June 2025, while serving as a peaceful community observer during an ICE raid in downtown Los Angeles, Huerta was injured and arrested on felony charges of conspiring to impede a federal officer. After protests by union members, civil rights groups and Democratic leaders, he was released three days later after posting a $50,000 bond. This moment cemented his reputation as a steadfast advocate for labor and immigrant rights, and as a symbol of resistance to federal overreach.
Bernie Burnham, President, MN AFL-CIO:Bernie Burnham became President of the Minnesota AFL-CIO in 2021 in a history-making election. As a Pacific-Islander, she is the first person of color to head the state’s labor federation. During Operation Metro Surge, she led Minnesota’s labor movement in coalition with community and religious organizations in the fight against ICE’s brutal assault on immigrant rights, worker rights, and the deaths of innocent Minnesotans. The struggle is ongoing as labor stands up to the administration’s continued weaponization of the federal government to intimidate unions, communities, and anyone who peacefully opposes its radical authoritarian agenda.
Kurt Petersen, Co-president, UNITE HERE Local 11: Kurt Petersen is a Co-President of UNITE HERE Local 11, which represents 35,000 hotel and food service workers in Southern California and Arizona. Petersen studied Theology/Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame and attended Yale Law School. He went on to win the first union contract for farm workers in Washington State history at Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery with the United Farm Workers. Since moving to Los Angeles in 1995, he has organized more than 25,000 workers into UNITE HERE. Most recently, Petersen led the largest hotel strike in the nation’s history, and won a life-changing contract with 50% wage increases, including groundbreaking language that gave workers the right to strike if the activity of ICE or Border Control threatened worker safety during the 2026 World Cup. Local 11’s hotel and stadium contracts will expire in January 2028, months before the Olympics. Petersen, along with his Co-Presidents Ada Briceno and Susan Minato, was recently named in the Los Angeles Times 2024 LA Influential list.
Moderator
Gaspar Rivera-Salgado: Gaspar Rivera-Salgado is currently project director at UCLA Labor Center and labor studies lecturer at the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment. He is also the Director of the UCLA Center for Mexican Studies. He teaches classes on work, labor and social justice in the US and immigration issues. Among his publications include the volume (with J. Fox) Indigenous Mexican Migration in the United States (UCSD 2005); and the recently published volume (with E. Telles, and M. Sawyer) Just Neighbors: Research on African American and Latino Relations in the United States (Russell Sage, 2011). He received his doctorate in sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
