National Hispanic Heritage Month Profiles: Carlos Padilla

Throughout National Hispanic Heritage Month, the AFL-CIO will be profiling labor leaders and activists to spotlight the diverse contributions Hispanics and Latinos have made to our movement. Today’s profile features Carlos Padilla.

Carlos Padilla has been a member of the Culinary Workers Union Local 226 since 1993. He works as a pastry baker at Treasure Island Las Vegas. Over the years, Padilla saw co-workers harassed and hassled, and decided to step up and take a more active role in his union, a lesson he’s been teaching his son: “I’ve brought my 17-year-old son to about six or seven union picket lines so far. He has been a line marshal and operated the bullhorn. To hear him on the bullhorn, I felt really proud of him. He wears a union button on his backpack when he goes to school every day, and his classmates ask him what it’s all about. He tells them: ‘The Culinary Union is the union that my dad belongs to, and they fight for me and my future.'”