Alec Desbordes
Alec Desbordes was born from an American mother and a French father in the rural Jura mountains of eastern France, overlooking Switzerland. I moved to the United States to attend the Industrial and Labor Relations School at Cornell University in upstate New York. There, I studied the fundamentals of labor law, history and economic theory. I worked as a cook in a campus cafeteria where full-time workers were unionized with UAW local 2300 but part-time workers like myself were excluded from membership. We did the same work, on the same assembly line, for a fraction of the pay and no benefits. I experienced first hand the injustices and division caused by a tiered workforce.
I moved to New Orleans, Louisiana where I started organizing as a server in a French Quarter restaurant. The workforce was angered by the lack of employee meals, leaving us hungry during long and exhausting shifts. Our campaign escalated to a full confrontation with management involving a majority petition, a march on the boss, a public action during a busy shift and the successful settlement of an Unfair Labor Practice, all without formal union support. I got fired, but the company was nonetheless forced to change its meal policy in all of its restaurants in a significant victory for hundreds of workers. I became an apprentice glazier and a member of the Painter’s Union (IUPAT). I organized apprentices and journeymen to actively participate in contract negotiation for our master agreement. Members gained considerable wage increases in our contract despite initial pessimism from the leadership. I became an organizer with the union in Atlanta, Georgia where I organized workers to be active union members, fought wage theft and misclassification cases, and overcame attempts by the federal government to deregulate our apprenticeship programs.
In New Orleans I served as co-chair of the Democratic Socialists of America labor committee. During my tenure we planned and executed outward facing labor events such as a labor movie screening with director Anne Lewis and a comprehensive labor organizer training led by committee members. We solidified the labor organizing skills of our own worker-members by implementing workplace reports and a collective study of Secrets of A Successful Organizer to develop a strong culture where each of our members could be leaders in their own workplaces, despite unionization status. A member reclaimed wages that were stolen by her restaurant while another organized his co-workers in his warehouse to win significant raises. Under my leadership, the labor committee assisted taxi drivers organizing in response to the rise of unregulated competition. Meanwhile I supported a DSA member working in a water treatment plant in Thibodeaux, Louisiana to organize his workplace when management was ignoring dangerous chemical levels in the water distribution system. These many efforts and victories have been raising expectations for workers throughout Southeastern Louisiana.[1]
DSA
In 2020 Micheal Madden and Alec Desbordes were co-chairs of the Labor subcommitee of the Democratic Socialists of America International Committee.[2]
Toward Workers Power Slate
In 2020 Alec Desbordes, Mindy Isser, Daniel Dominguez, Michael Ifeoma Esealuka, Dennis Prater, Dario Sulzman, Emmanuel Segura ran on the Toward Workers Power Slate for Democratic Socialist Labor Commission.[3]
DSA At-Large Delegate list
DSA At-Large Delegates, 2019 Convention included Alec Desbordes New Orleans.