A sitdown with Dianna Zamora-Marroquin

Just in time for the frenzy of the 2020 election, Silicon Valley’s most powerful labor coalition has a new political director — Dianna Zamora-Marroquin, who previously handled communications for the South Bay Labor Council.

Zamora-Marroquin told San José Spotlight that her new focus will be on activating young voters and marginalized communities of color to get involved and exercise their civic duty in next year’s consequential election. The new director said every vote matters in Silicon Valley’s tight local races.

Ahead of the 2020 elections, Zamora-Marroquin said she’s hoping to engage more people “to participate, and actively claim their voice and use it in a way that perhaps they haven’t in the past.”

“We have won and lost elections in San Jose by 150 — and fewer — votes,” Zamora-Marroquin said. “Our democracy is better and is more reflective of who we are as a society and a region the more folks that we have involved.”

Zamora-Marroquin said her goal is to inspire voters use their voices in ways they haven’t before. Her group will back measures and candidates who engage working families and others who need support, she added, and voters can expect to receive phone calls, texts and emails to advocate for such measures.

“We still have to continue working on prevailing wages for our construction workers” she said. “We still have to keep fighting for our janitorial staff that often times have a very high rate of being sexually assaulted at the workplace. We have folks that don’t have a voice at all in their workplace.”

The labor council helps more than 100,000 union members through grassroots organizing, she said. Zamora-Marroquin added that any labor movement is stronger when people engage each other across boundaries like socioeconomic status, ethnicity or union affiliation.

“We have to be constantly expressing that we are here, that we are part of this community, that we are instrumental in making this community successful,” Zamora-Marroquin said. “A vote is a voice. We want you to vote.”