May Ying Chen (born 1948) is an American

labor organizer A union organizer (or union organiser in Commonwealth spelling) is a specific type of trade union member (often elected) or an appointed union official. A majority of unions appoint rather than elect their organizers. In some unions, the orga ...

and advocate for immigrant workers. Before retiring in 2009, she was an officer and founding member of the

AFL–CIO The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL–CIO) is the largest federation of unions in the United States. It is made up of 56 national and international unions, together representing more than 12 million ac ...

Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance The Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA) is a nonprofit organization of Asian-Pacific American trade union members affiliated with the AFL–CIO. It was the "first and only national organization for Asian Pacific American union members ...

(APALA), and the International Vice President of

UNITE HERE UNITE HERE is a labor union in the United States and Canada with roughly 300,000 active members. The union's members work predominantly in the hotel, food service, laundry, warehouse, and casino gaming industries. The union was formed in 2004 by ...

Biography

Chen was born and raised in the suburbs of

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

. She earned a BA from

Radcliffe College Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and functioned as the female coordinate institution for the all-male Harvard College. Considered founded in 1879, it was one of the Seven Sisters colleges and h ...

and a master's degree in Education at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

. While living in California from 1970 to 1979, she taught high school and adult education classes, taught Asian and Asian-American studies at

California State University, Long Beach California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) is a public research university in Long Beach, California. The 322-acre campus is the second largest of the 23-school California State University system (CSU) and one of the largest universities ...

, and founded a daycare center in L.A.'s Chinatown. Chen moved to New York City with her husband and two children in 1979. She was working for the Chinese Committee of Local 6 (the Hotel, Restaurant, Club Employees and Bartenders Union) at the time of the 1982 garment workers' strike in New York's Chinatown. Inspired by the strike, she joined the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU) in 1983 and began working on the ILGWU Immigration Project in 1984. The Immigration Project, which helped thousands of ILGWU members apply for U.S. citizenship, was the first union-created legal advocacy department for immigrant members. She began working full-time for ILGWU's Education Department in 1989. She also worked with other labor organizations, serving on the Asian Labor Committee of the

New York City Central Labor Council New York City Central Labor Council (NYCCLC) is the largest local labor membership organization under the direction of the national AFL–CIO. Founded in 1959 the NYCCLC represents over 400 local New York City unions in both the public and private ...

, the National Executive Board of the Coalition of Labor Union Women, and as an officer and founding member of the

(APALA). She went on to become International Vice President of

, manager of the ILGWU Local 23-25, and secretary of the New York Metropolitan Area Joint Board.

References

External links

May Chen Papers
Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at New York University Special Collections {{DEFAULTSORT:Chen, May 1949 births Living people Activists from Boston Radcliffe College alumni UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies alumni Asian-American trade unionists Trade unionists from Massachusetts American women trade unionists