WSLC hosts third Labor & Immigration Summit

Union members gathered in Tacoma to foster community, learn strategies to defend immigrant workers, and build worker power

TACOMA, WA (April 20, 2026) — More than 200 union members from dozens of local unions came together for the Washington State Labor Council’s 2026 Labor & Immigration Summit in Tacoma on Saturday. Sponsored by more than 20 labor unions, councils, and immigrant advocacy partner organizations, the summit’s theme of The Fight for Solidarity Across Every Border guided a robust programming designed to ground participants in the current moment, expand skillsets for advocating or immigrant workers, and build connections and community to sustain movement work to build power for all working people.

State Representative Sharlett Mena (D-Tacoma) gave the summit keynote, sharing how her lived experience has influenced how she shows up to fight for immigrant workers, like her parents, in the state legislature.

State Rep. Sharlett Mena speaks at the 2026 WSLC Labor & Immigration Summit.

Along with a welcome from Pierce County Central Labor Council Secretary-Treasurer Nathe Lawver, WSLC President April Sims opened the summit with a message of solidarity, articulating labor’s fight for justice for immigrants and worker power for all as two sides of the same struggle.

From Sims’ remarks:

There’s no better way to spend a Saturday than in a packed room of labor siblings—building community, deepening knowledge, and strengthening power.

Since we last gathered in 2024, much has changed. We meet at a time when immigrant workers—and our entire labor movement—are under direct attack. The current federal administration has exposed the violence and injustice embedded in our immigration system. What we’ve seen over the past year and a half is an especially harmful escalation—but this system has always been unjust. 

And we know this: this country has always relied on immigrant labor. Immigrants build our homes and cities, pave our roads and power our grid. Immigrants care for our children and elders, treat our illnesses and teach our kids. Immigrants feed and clothe our nation. Yet for generations, immigrant and refugee workers have been forced into limbo: essential, but denied dignity and protection. Valued in our communities, disposable in their policy.

WSLC President April Sims speaks during the 2026 WSLC Labor & Immigration Summit.

That broken system is now being weaponized to maximize harm. A target has been placed on immigrant workers—and in doing so, on the entire working class. Let’s be clear: when they target immigrant workers, they target all of us.

But here’s what’s also clear: it’s a fight they will not win. Our movement was built to defend workers, even when the law did not. No matter where we were born, this is our fight.

We do not back down from fights that matter: fights for dignity, for justice, for the survival of our movement. That commitment brings us here today.

Sisters, brothers, and siblings—it is powerful to be in a room of labor family who understand this calling. And this commitment is not new.

For years, labor has demanded an end to deportations that tear families apart, an end to workplace raids that endanger all workers, an end to detention systems that profit from cruelty. Workers across this movement have built a clear understanding of our role—and how to use our power to defend immigrant workers.

And we’ve acted. Here in Washington state, we’ve changed laws to better protect immigrant and refugee workers. Nationally, even in gridlock, pressure is moving results—just 48 hours ago, the House passed legislation to preserve Temporary Protected Status for Haitian refugees.

This work continues. It reflects our commitment to make labor a true home for immigrant and refugee workers. And immigrant workers are not just part of this movement, they are leaders. Organizers. Strategists. Changemakers.

Today is about learning from that leadership. Through this morning’s program and afternoon workshops, we’ll focus on how we organize in real time, how we build practical skills, how we deepen understanding, and how we defend our coworkers and communities on the frontlines. And today, we also refill our cups, with the camaraderie and joy that sustain this movement, and carry that energy forward into the work ahead. When we leave this room, we don’t just carry ideas, we carry responsibility. And together, we will meet this moment and win.

From left: Raul Lopez, Eunice How, Edgar Franks, Patrice Tisdale, and Mohamud Adan.

Morning programming continued with a panel moderated by MLK Labor Deputy Executive Secretary-Treasurer Shaunie Wheeler. Union organizers and advocates shared how weaponized immigration enforcement is impacting workers — and what local unions are doing to defend, protect, and empower union members in this moment. Panelists included Mohamud Adan (Field Representative/Organizer, Drivers Union); Edgar Franks (Political Director, Familias Unidas por la Justicia); Eunice How (Community Organizer, Unite Here Local 8); Raul Lopez (President, Yakima CLC & Assistant Member Program Director, SEIU HEALTHCARE 1199NW); and Patrice Tisdale (Commissioner, SEATTLE Labor Standards Advisory Commission & Director of Legal Affairs, Washington State Nurses Association).

Participants spent the rest of Saturday’s Summit building connections in small groups, growing knowledge and skillsets in workshops, and sharing direct calls to action to support current fights for immigrant worker justice.