Immigrants and Unions Make America Great
JULY 6, 2018
And they’re
fighting back against Trump’s onslaught
(Doug Strickland/Chattanooga Times Free Press via AP)
Alondra
Gomez, left, leads a chant with demonstrators during a United We Dream march on
March 3, 2018, in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Clara spends
her days cleaning Miami office buildings on her hands and knees. Most days her
back screams with pain, but the 47-year-old mother of a teenage son keeps
working. She knows that her family depends on the union wages and benefits that
she brings home. While Clara worries about her son getting into college and
whether her car will make it to work, she does not have to worry that her
employer will steal her wages, that she will lose her job for reporting sexual
harassment, or that she could have her hours cut due to favoritism or
prejudice.
That’s
because she has a union job that provides protection against the worst abuses
many immigrant workers face. Clara and 400 of her Miami co-workers fought to
join their union, 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union, even
though it entailed a 17-day hunger strike.
As so many institutions have failed or outright scapegoated
them—including Congress, the White House, their employers, local law
enforcement, and ICE—immigrant workers have come to rely more than ever on
unions and grassroots organizations to protect the few rights they cling to.
Immigrant
workers like Clara and the unions that protect them face unprecedented attacks
under the Trump administration. The JanusSupreme Court
decision, which upended decades of precedent in order to cripple unions, adds
to the threats confronting immigrant workers who are already grappling with the
horrors of family separations and mass deportations. As so many institutions have failed or outright scapegoated
them—including Congress, the White House, their employers, local law
enforcement, and ICE—immigrant workers have come to rely more than ever on
unions and grassroots organizations to protect the few rights they cling to.
Unions
like 32BJ, which represents tens of thousands of building-service workers, many
of them immigrants, up and down the East Coast, and organizations like United
We Dream, which represents hundreds of thousands of Dreamers, understand all
too well the double jeopardy in which President Trump and the Supreme Court
have placed immigrant workers. We know that when Trump killed the Deferred
Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and Temporary Protected Status
(TPS) for immigrants from many countries, he not only put more than one million
people at risk of deportation, he also took away their ability to work, provide
for their families, and live a life of dignity out of the shadows. We know that
Supreme Court decisions have weakened workers’ rights to class-action lawsuits,
even as the administration has issued a number of anti-union executive orders
and stacked the National Labor Relations Board with anti-worker members.
American
labor has always been a movement in which immigrants, often in the most
thankless and dangerous jobs, have played leading roles—often stopping the race
to the bottom that employers entered them in. The young immigrant women who
worked in the clothing and garment industries of New York and other cities in
the early 20th century—not least, those who died in the Triangle Shirtwaist
Fire—paved the way for the reforms that led in time to the New Deal,
minimum-wage laws, the eight-hour day, and the weekend.
The momentum keeps growing.
In more
recent times, from the grape strikes of the 1960s to the Justice for Janitors
movement of the past quarter-century, immigrant workers have made significant
gains by organizing into unions. The momentum keeps growing. Most
recently, immigrant airport workers in New York have joined with 32BJ SEIU and
are on a path to an historic wage raise to $19 that benefits all workers,
immigrants and non-immigrants alike. The same drive and fortitude that led
these immigrant workers to risk everything for a better life for their family
by coming here led them on a path to a wage raise that was unimaginable just a
decade ago.
The
organizing among immigrant workers continues. There is hope that we can stem
the tide that threatens our core American values. We’re seeing inspiring
popular movements spreading like wildfire, new allies speaking up, and
political leaders who are willing to tell the truth and stand for justice.
The
Trump administration has waged war on the values that most Americans share:
that hard work should be honored, that justice is for all, and that human
dignity comes before political ideology and profit, and families belong
together. We must resist the attacks on the most vulnerable among us—and
the organizations that protect them—in order to truly live up to the promise of
America.
The American Prospect, 1225 Eye Street NW, Suite 60, WDC
20005
Ballad of Joe Hill by ‘The
Young Wolfe Tones’ & Featuring Singer Derek Warfield
By Bill Hughes
· July 5, 2018 ·
·
·
On
June 19, 2018, an award celebration was held at the H/Q of the AFL-CIO in
Washington, D.C. The honoree was the current President of the AFL-CIO, Richard
L. Trumka. He received a “World Peace Prize for Labor Leadership” from the
World Peace Prize Awarding Council.
To
mark the occasion, “The Young Wolfe Tones” ensemble, with singer, Derek
Warfield, performed the “Ballad of Joe Hill.” Hill was a legendary fighter for
the working class and a martyr for the cause of Labor. Special thanks to Father
Sean McManus, Chief Judge of the World Peace Prize for putting this event together.
To
review President Trumka’s acceptance speech, go to vimeo.com/275953504.
To learn more about the event itself check out baltimorepostexaminer.com/trumka-gets-world-peace-prize-for-labor-leadership/2018/06/20.
As for background on singer Derek Warfield and “The Young Wolfe Tones,” go
to theyoungwolfetones.com
Ballad of Joe
Hill by “The Young Wolfe Tones” & Featuring Singer Derek Warfield
from Bill
Hughes on Vimeo.
Donations can be sent
to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD
21218. Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their
lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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