AFL-CIO backs amnesty, labor rights for undocumented
workers
By Mary
Owen
In a landmark policy change hailed in immigrant
communities from coast to coast, on Feb. 16 the AFL-CIO
Executive Council unanimously called for amnesty for some 6
million undocumented workers and their families in the United
States--and called on Congress to repeal a 1986 law that has
victimized these immigrants.
The resolution also calls for whistleblower protection for
undocumented immigrants who report labor-law violations. It
calls for job-training programs for immigrants and opposes
expanding the guest-worker policy--the super-exploitative
"bracero" program.
"With this resolution, the AFL-CIO proudly stands on the
side of immigrant workers," said Linda Chavez-Thompson,
executive vice president of the 13-million-member
AFL-CIO.
The resolution commits the federation to push for new
immigration laws that would protect undocumented workers from
firing or deportation if they try to unionize or complain to
the government about violations of labor laws, including
minimum wage and safety requirements. The AFL-CIO will hold
four forums across the United States, including one in Los
Angeles on May 10, to hear testimony from immigrants and
consider legislative strategies.
"The present system doesn't work and is used as a weapon
against workers," said John Wilhelm, chair of the
federation's Committee on Immigration Policy and president of
the Hotel and Restaurant Employees union.
The AFL-CIO is expected to advocate new laws to replace
the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act. That law was
supposed to sanction employers for hiring undocumented
workers. But in practice, as immigrant-rights activists
warned the AFL-CIO at the time, IRCA only served to drive
undocumented workers further into the exploitative
underground economy.
Crucial to organizing
This AFL-CIO policy change was brought about by a number
of factors: steady changes in the composition of the work
force, a new turn to organizing that brought labor
face-to-face with anti-worker Immigration and Naturalization
Service raids and deportations, and mounting pressure from
Latino, Asian and other immigrant-rights activists within the
union movement for labor to take a stand in defense of
undocumented workers.
"We in the labor movement have to put ourselves in a
leadership position on immigrant rights," said Farm Workers
President Arturo Rodriguez. "This is a way to help low-wage
immigrant workers."
With unemployment at its lowest rate in 30 years, a wave
of undocumented workers is filling many service and
manufacturing jobs across the United States. They work as
janitors and meat cutters, in hotels and restaurants, on
farms and in garment factories, and at countless other work
places. As unions have begun organizing these immigrant
workers, they repeatedly run up against bosses who react by
using the workers' undocumented status to intimidate and fire
them, or have them deported.
The case of nine Mexicana Holiday Inn workers in
Minneapolis showed the need for a policy change. These
workers--all women--face deportation after organizing a union
and winning $72,000 in back pay from the National Labor
Relations Board and the Equal Employment Opportunities
Commission.
"That really brought to the forefront what the problem
was," said Service Employees Vice President Eliseo Medina, an
early proponent of the new policy. "That showed in a very
stark way what the situation is today, and helped bring a
sense of urgency to the matter."
With the changes in immigration law the AFL-CIO is now
supporting, immigrant workers would be freer to fight for
their rights and strengthen the ranks of labor.
Unfortunately, the AFL-CIO fell short of full support for
the estimated 275,000 undocumented immigrants who enter this
country every year. By calling on the federal government to
maintain efforts to keep them out, the federation objectively
sided with the brutal border patrol. These thugs are hated by
the poor immigrants who make their way here at great personal
risk to seek work--many of them fleeing the results of U.S.
imperialism's economic, political and military policies
abroad.
Nevertheless, undocumented workers will continue to arrive
from all parts of the globe. And as those who came before
them gain amnesty, continue to organize and raise their
voices in the house of labor, the AFL-CIO policy will have to
change as well.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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