Curtis Hierro

Background

About Curtis Hierro

Organizing is not just a career for me; it's a deeply held passion. My commitment to the craft is based on my life experiences. I was born in Miami, Florida into a single-mother household where we faced immense economic challenges and poverty. Through a strong work ethic and commitment to education passed on by my mother and grandmother I was able to be the first person in my family to go to college. When I found organizing as a student leader at UCF I became hooked. It gave me the sense of family and community I have been looking for as well as an outlet for righteous anger on the decision makers who make things worse for our communities. From 2012-2016 I helped build Dream Defenders, a community organization in Florida led by young people of color building power; organizing local and statewide campaigns on poverty, prisons, and police brutality. We passed for-profit prison reforms through a conservative state legislature and successfully won a community benefits agreement campaign for Overtown residents in Miami ensuring good jobs, possibilities for formerly incarcerated residents and a pathway out of poverty. Moving on to the Central Florida AFL-CIO, I worked to directly support labor organizing campaigns with our affiliates and community-labor partner campaigns that put power in the hands of the working class, communities of color and immigrants rather then the 1%. This included making Orlando the first city in the southeast United States to adopt a Trust Act safeguarding immigrant communities. I'm now working my craft with the Communications Workers of America, developing working class leaders through strategic political battles.