'Moment of crisis': Unions are somber this Labor Day

California unions face pressure to protect members from Trump administration moves.

- BY SUHAUNA HUSSAIN

LISA COOK For The Times ALI Tweini, Teamsters Local 2010 political director, and UFW member Bacilio Panfilo at a picnic Sunday.

Thousands of workers and union organizers from across California gathered for picnics and marches this weekend to honor the contributions of the nation's working people.

But the Labor Day celebrations were tempered by a sobering reality: Unions face mounting pressure to protect their members from the Trump administration's immigration raids, cuts in Medicaid services and a weakened National Labor Relations Board.

From farm fields to car washes, labor groups have scrambled to support families of the hundreds detained and deported in numerous chaotic and violent raids that have resulted in the deaths of two people — a day laborer and a farm-worker - killed while fleeing federal agents.

The raids reverberated across the state's local labor community in June when David Huerta of SEIU California was injured and detained by law enforcement while documenting the first major immigration enforcement raids in Los Angeles.

"Farmworkers are afraid. They don’t know what’s going to happen from one day to the next with these raids, but they understand the only way we're going to have power is if we come together,” said Teresa Romero, president of United Farm Workers.

Romero and other union leaders said their focus remains on organizing more workplaces, while also working to educate people on their rights and staging legal and nonviolent protests against government policies.