Passing of John Delloro

APALA Mourns Loss of National President John Delloro

Monday, June 7, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Malcolm Amado Uno
Phone: 202-508-3733
Email: muno@apalanet.org


APALA Mourns Loss of National President John Delloro

Washington D.C. - The Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA), AFL-CIO mourns the unexpected loss of its National President, John Delloro, who passed away from a heart attack. Elected in 2009 as one of the youngest leaders to this position, Delloro also served as Executive Director of the Dolores Huerta Labor Institute, where he was a member of the American Federation of Teachers.

"We are all saddened by the sudden passing of John Delloro, a brilliant young labor leader, who made incredible contributions to APALA and to the U.S. labor movement," said Luisa Blue, APALA First Vice President.

Although Delloro was recently elected as the APALA National President, his dedication and commitment to serving working people dates back almost two decades. He was a student leader and activist at UCLA, where he received his B.A. in Psychology in 1994, and his M.A. in Asian American Studies in 1996. Soon after, Delloro was introduced to APALA as a participant in the APALA Organizing Institute, a program that has trained the next generation of Asian Pacific American union organizers and community activists.

Delloro's first position in the labor movement was organizing hotel workers in Las Vegas, Nevada with the Culinary Workers Union 226. He went on to organize clerical workers with AFSCME, and health care workers with SEIU 399 in Los Angeles, California. While at SEIU 399, he created a member organizing program that trained hundreds of rank and file members that actively participated in external organizing campaigns. In 2003, he was promoted to the Southwest Area Manager of SEIU 1000, the largest state workers union in the country at the time, with close to 100,000 members.

In 2006, he was hired as the first Executive Director of the Dolores Huerta Labor Institute, an organization that is expanding labor studies curriculum within the Los Angeles Community College District, which has over 130,000 students. Under his leadership, the program has strengthened labor studies on all nine campuses, and has exposed thousands of community college students to unions. Since 2007, he has also taught Asian American Studies at UCLA, and has inspired and mentored hundreds of students.

Delloro also served as President of the APALA Los Angeles chapter where he played a leadership role in expanding labor, community and student partnerships. Under his leadership as National President, APALA and the AFL-CIO convened the first National Asian Pacific American Workers' Rights Hearing in Washington D.C. in November 2009. Following the hearing, Delloro was a principal author in Breaking Ground, Breaking Silence: a report from the first National Asian Pacific American Workers' Rights Hearing. In 2009, Delloro received the Unsung Hero Award by Asian Pacific Americans for Progress.

"As a nationally recognized union leader, labor educator, organizer, teacher and mentor, John Delloro touched the lives of many and will be remembered for his compassion, his generosity of spirit, and for his visionary leadership," said Kent Wong, APALA Founding President.

John Delloro is survived by his wife Dr. Susan Suh, a sociologist and community activist, and their two young children, Mina and Malcolm.

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The Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA), AFL-CIO was founded in 1992 as the first and only national organization for Asian Pacific American union members to advance worker, immigrant and civil rights.