“As union members, we must come together, stand together, and unite to defend the freedoms that are central to our country and to our union – for Alex, for our members, and for all working people”

Washington, D.C. (Jan. 27, 2026) — Brent Booker, General President of the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA), made the following statement on the recent deaths and harassment in Minneapolis at the hands of federal agents.

LIUNA, like our nation, was formed by men and women - many of them immigrants - who organized and struggled for dignity, freedom, and a better way of life.

 

We are saddened, outraged, and deeply disturbed by the ongoing violence in Minnesota and other parts of our country. We join the labor movement in mourning our brother and AFGE member, Alex Pretti. Alex was exercising his fundamental right to organize and protest when he was slain by agents working for the federal government. This is part of a pattern of violence that has claimed lives and turned our communities upside down – and has made no one safer as a result.

 

This must not be the America we believe in. No one should fear for their life for exercising their constitutional rights. Free speech and the right to protest are fundamental to our democracy, and death must never be the price of such freedoms.

 

LIUNA stands with all our members – whether native born or immigrant – and we will fiercely defend their rights, their dignity, and their lives. Solidarity is the core of the labor movement and the foundation of our union family. We know from experience that if authority is allowed to go unchecked, workers and their rights are the first to suffer. As union members, we must come together, stand together, and unite to defend the freedoms that are central to our country and to our union – for Alex, for our members, and for all working people.

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The more than a half-million members of LIUNA – the Laborers’ International Union of North America – are on the forefront of the construction industry, a powerhouse of workers who are proud to build the U.S. and Canada.