Connie M. Leyva, 43, serves as President of the California Labor Federation and as President of Local 1428 (Pomona/Claremont) of the UFCW, the first woman to hold either of these positions. Leyva is also serves on the International Executive Board of the UFCW.

During the 2008 Presidential Election campaign, Leyva was one of 20 national leaders chosen by then Senator Obama as a member to the Democratic Platform Drafting Committee where she worked alongside other notable democrats to author the Democratic Platform that is being used as a ruling guideline by President Barack Obama within his current administration.

 As the chief executive of UFCW Local 1428, Leyva performed a critical role during the 2003-2004 grocery strike and lockouts in Southern California, participating in high-level negotiations and serving as a spokeswoman for the seven UFCW locals involved in the epic labor dispute.

 Leyva stands at the forefront of a new generation of leaders of Organized Labor that is forcefully bringing the needs and legitimate aspirations of working Americans back to the national agenda. She testified before a congressional panel on the need for affordable health care, coordinated the UFCW Region 8 Women’s Network and took prominent roles in the UFCW International Conventions in 1998, 2003 and 2008.

 UFCW International President Joe Hansen appointed Leyva to co-chair the International Union’s Committee on the Future. In addition, she is a senior officer of the UFCW Western States Council.

This year Leyva has been honored by The Latina and Latino Roundtable of the Pomona and San Gabriel Valley, The UCLA Labor Center, SOL (Strengthening our Lives) and the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor all for outstanding leadership.

 Leyva’s roots in the Labor Movement are deep. Her father was a supermarket worker who belonged to UFCW Local 1428 and her mother was a member of CSEA (California State Employees Association) for 35 years. She met her husband, Albert, when both were working at an Alpha Beta supermarket.

 Connie Leyva joined Local 1428 in 1985, her senior year in high school, while working for Alpha Beta. She worked her way through college, graduating in 1991 from the University of Redlands with a bachelor’s degree in communicative disorders. She started working at Local 1428 in 1994 as a temporary employee in the Benefits Department.

 She was appointed a Union Representative in 1995 by the then president of the Local, the late Joe Barragan, whom she was elected to succeed after his sudden and untimely death. In early 2002, she became the first woman president of a UFCW local in Southern California.

 On May 8, 2004, the California Teachers Association saluted Leyva as one of its Thirteen Amazing Women.

 An activist in all aspects of her life, Leyva has worked to elect friends of working people to office in many federal, state and local political campaigns.

 Leyva and her husband have twin 18-year-old girls, Allie and Jessie. They live in Chino.