Sacramento, California: State Labor Building Named for Dolores Huerta Two Days After Her Death

California's state labor headquarters in downtown Sacramento will formally carry the name of Dolores Huerta, Governor Gavin Newsom announced on Friday, October 30, 2026, two days after the farmworker organizer died at 96.

The Labor and Workforce Development Agency Building opened on January 21, 2026, after a full renovation. It stands 17 stories tall, covers 650,000 square feet, and houses about 2,500 state employees from the Labor and Workforce Development Agency, the Employment Development Department, the Department of Industrial Relations, and the California Workforce Development Board. Those agencies run the state's unemployment insurance system, enforce workplace rules, and fund job training programs.

"She stood shoulder to shoulder with farmworkers, helped build powerful unions, and fought to make sure working people had a voice, a seat at the table, and the dignity they deserved," Newsom said. "Naming California's Labor and Workforce Development Agency Building in her honor is a lasting tribute to that legacy and a reminder that we have a responsibility to carry forward the progress she helped win for workers across this state. Every person who walks through those doors should be reminded of the standard she set: stand up for workers, expand opportunity, and keep pushing until people get the respect they deserve."

California Secretary of Labor Stewart Knox said Huerta "lived a life of service with an unrelenting commitment to justice and the dignity of all people." He added: "We owe her an immeasurable debt of gratitude for her tireless advocacy on behalf of farmworkers and working families across the nation."

The organizer the building now names

Huerta co-founded the National Farm Workers Association with Cesar Chavez in 1962. The group became the United Farm Workers, and Huerta served as its chief negotiator, a strike organizer, and a lobbyist for more than six decades. She coined the slogan "Si, se puede," received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and was inducted into the California Hall of Fame.

She died of cancer on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, at her home in Bakersfield, surrounded by her family. Her family announced the death through the Dolores Huerta Foundation. Newsom and First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom issued a statement on her passing the same week.

Why this building

The naming puts Huerta's name on the one state building whose daily work matches her life's work. The Employment Development Department pays unemployment claims for workers across California. The Department of Industrial Relations enforces the wage, safety, and labor rules that farmworker organizing helped create. The Workforce Development Board funds the training programs meant to move workers into better jobs.

Knox said every person who walks through the doors of the building will be reminded of her legacy and of the mission she left behind, "to continue to build a more just and equitable future."

The governor's office did not announce a date for a formal naming ceremony. The building has been open since January, and state workers have used it through the year while Huerta's name will now be attached to it permanently.