The final count is in! More than 550 union members from 32 different unions in the Los Angeles along with several leaders from L.A.’s community and faith organizations will travel to Phoenix on July 29. We will travel “without papers” or identification the day SB 1070, Arizona’s anti-immigrant law, is scheduled to go into effect. Eleven chartered buses will depart from Dodger Stadium at 5 a.m. following a union rally and program. Union members are invited to attend the bus send-off at Dodger Stadium between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m.

The buses will be filled with L.A. letter carriers, teachers, city and county employees, truck drivers, stagehands, carwash workers, construction employees, nurses, homecare workers, hotel workers, grocery workers and steelworkers, among others. A full listing of local unions and organizations with members who are participating is available here. Among the 550 participants who oppose SB 1070 are immigrants and non-immigrants, U.S. born and foreign born, African Americans, Asians, Latinos and Anglos. All of the buses bound for Phoenix will be driven by local shop stewards of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1700. We will all be wearing “Somos iguales” (“We are equal”) signs around our necks.

Matt Kozlo, a letter carrier from San Dimas and U.S. veteran who will ride the bus on July 29:

No one will be able to tell from looking at us who is illegal and who is not. Whether we are white, black, Asian, or Hispanic, we all came here at some point from somewhere else. Our immigration system does need to be fixed, but not the way Arizona is doing it.

L.A. labor’s goal is not only to oppose SB 1070, but to participate in activities in Phoenix where we will pledge to support efforts to register and turn out Arizona’s Latino vote. We will also kick off a new campaign joining Los Angeles and Arizona working families around issues of workers’ rights, good jobs and sensible solutions for national immigration reform.

Maria Elena Durazo, executive secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO:

We faced the same racial profiling law masquerading as immigration reform back in 1994 with Pete Wilson and Prop. 187. It sparked major political change in California for the Latino community and workers issues. We want to support the Latino families of Arizona in defeating SB 1070 and the anti-worker agenda behind it.

Come to the rally to send off the buses to Phoenix, Arizona from Dodger Stadium!

WHEN: Thursday, July 29, 2010, from 4 a.m. to 5 a.m.

WHERE: Dodger Stadium, Lot 13, Stadium Way.

Click here for more information, or contact Caroline O’Connor at 213-400-8401 or coconnor@launionaflcio.org.