Jose Sierra

Mr. Sierra began his career at District Council 37 in 1979 as a clerk and worked his way up, being promoted to pension counselor in the union’s Health and Security Plan and later Council Rep in the Professional Division where he represented Health Service Workers in Local 768 and city Psychologists in Local 1189. In 1991 he was named assistant director of the Blue Collar Division and three years later he was promoted to division director. 

Jose A. Sierra retired in 2015 as the director of the Blue Collar Division at District Council 37,Mr. Sierra, through Council 37, has worked in New York, Puerto Rico, Florida and three other states as a key labor organizer and oversaw the day to day operations and administration of 19 local unions that represent over 10,000 city employees. 

He also organized and was the administrator of the Jobs Training Program (JTP), a federally- funded program that provides work experience and bargaining rights to welfare recipients employed in the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. Mr. Sierra also spearheads the JTP project in the city Department of Sanitation. 

Sierra was tapped as a key organizer by AFSCME, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, to help build unions through organizing heath care workers in Chicago, Illinois, and Indiana, and correction officers in Puerto Rico. Through the nonpartisan Get Out the Vote campaign in Reading, PA, Sierra coordinated Latino voter outreach and registered Spanish- speaking voters in the months leading to the 2004 general elections. 

Four years later AFSCME called on Sierra again to work for then-Senator Barak Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, where Sierra volunteered as an organizer in door-to-door outreach to Latino voters in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania. In 2011, Sierra hit the streets again for President Barak Obama, who won a historic second term in 2012. 

Sierra is the former chair and a proud member of the DC37 Latino Heritage Committee; former executive board member and a member of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA) New York City chapter; a member of the National Congress of Puerto Rican Rights, and a former member of the Hispanic Labor Council. 

Born in El Barrio, East Harlem, Mr. Sierra’s parents, and older brothers and sisters are from Arecibo, Puerto Rico. Mr. Sierra attended Central Commercial High School Class of 1974, LaGuardia Community College and the School of Visual Arts .He is an avid golfer and resides in Westchester County, New York.