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In 1972, leaders from three grassroots workers' organizations came together in Seattle to work for racial and economic justice. One year later, the Northwest Labor and Employment Law Office (LELO) was formed when those workers of color, many whom continue to be active on LELO's board of directors today, decided that a worker-governed law office would allow them to control the legal work that was central to their struggle for equality in the workplace.
Later in the decade, LELO's lawyers successfully challenged racial segregation in housing and employment in the Alaska salmon canneries; race discrimination in the Seattle building and construction trades; and obstacles that prevented farm workers from organizing for better conditions in the fields of Eastern Washington. The combination of organizing and class action lawsuits, as well as the fact that workers -not lawyers - governed the organization gave LELO its strength.
In 1981, two of LELO's founders, Silme Domingo and Gene Viernes, were assassinated in their Seattle union office. For 10 years, LELO leaders organized nationally to call attention the murders and lay blame on the dictatorship of Philippines...