About

The Asian Canadian Labour Alliance (ACLA) is a grassroots collective of community and labour activists.  Our goals are to:

  • Develop an Asian Canadian Labour identity.

  • Generate a Labour-positive presence in Asian communities.

  • Work within the Labour movement and within Asian communities to raise the profile of Asian Canadian labour issues.

  • Encourage and support Asian Canadian workers to participate more fully in the Labour movement.

  • Promote and support Asian Canadian activists in leadership roles within the Labour movement and within their communities.

  • Challenge racism, systemic discrimination and internalized racism.

  • Reach out to Asian communities in different languages.

  • Work in solidarity with international workers.

  • Link with migrant and temporary workers.

Asian workers have a rich, proud and active history in the struggle for worker justice and human rights in Canada.

From building the railroads to the garment factories, from working in the healthcare sector to the fruit fields, we helped build Canada.

In May 2000, a group of Asian Canadian labour activists met to talk about setting up an alliance representing the voice of Asian Canadian trade union members, Asian Canadian workers and the Asian community at large.

The Asian Canadian Labour Alliance is the fruit of those meetings.  Through educational events, organizing and strike support, we hope to establish a wide network of labour and community activists in Canada.

The Asian Canadian Labour Alliance is a national organization that has existed for two decades. In 2020, with the spike in Anti-Asian racist incidents in British Columbia, a small group of Asian Canadian activists began to reach out to get ACLA active again in B.C. to further ACLA’s goals and advance anti-racism actions in our communities and in the labour movement. We welcome all Asian Canadian workers in B.C. (unionized or not, union staff or member) to join our efforts, please connect at ACLAinBC@gmail.com

To learn more about ACLA, check out Our Times Magazine feature on ACLA: Our Times_ACLA 2002