Labor Spearheads Push For Immigrant Rights
Organizers of the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride want to tap the emotional and political ballast of the movement that brought civil rights gains to African-Americans to bring civil rights to the laborers who toil in some of the nation's least-sought jobs.
Buses taking off from Minneapolis this week, among some 18 crossing the nation, are scheduled to arrive in Madison on Sunday. After picking up local riders, the buses will continue to Washington, D.C., for meetings with members of Congress on Oct. 1, then on to New York for a rally on Oct. 4.
The Freedom Ride is a call to action, said Debbie Timko, president of
statewide Local 150 of the Service International Employees Union, whose members
include home care workers in Dane County.
"The '60s strategy was to get people in the North to support the civil
rights movement," Timko said. This time, the goal is get white, non-union
members to see that corporate greed is eroding their economic status as surely
as it is enslaving vulnerable immigrant workers, she said.
Policies making it difficult for workers to legally enter and work in the United States haven't stopped immigration, but instead trigger a chain of events that result in workplace abuse for undocumented immigrants and lower wages for everyone, advocates of reform say.
"We need to bring public attention to the kinds of conditions immigrants are facing," said David Newby, president of the state AFL-CIO. "This is becoming another civil rights issue."
Working at dirty jobs in sometimes dangerous conditions, immigrant workers without papers are routinely deprived of benefits and often such legally protected rights as overtime pay, reform advocates say. Estimates put the number of undocumented workers as high as 8 million, although the number is debated.
Immigrant workers who try to organize for collective bargaining often are threatened with deportation because many of them may be working outside the law, reformers say.
Making work dependent on immigration status creates abuse and discrimination in the workplace, said Patrick Hickey, a member of the board of directors of the Interfaith Coalition for Worker Justice of South Central Wisconsin.
Even with tripling the money spent to patrol the U.S.-Mexico border, the number of illegal crossings has increased, he said.
"There needs to be recognition that what we're doing now doesn't work," Hickey said.
The Freedom Riders are seeking:
Amnesty for undocumented workers living in the United States;
Family reunification, or reducing the lag time before immigrants here can bring in family members;
Protection of worker rights on the job without regard to legal status.
Current law already extends workplace rights to all workers, regardless of immigration status, said Sarah Shatz, coordinator of the local Interfaith Coalition for Worker Justice. But that doesn't stop discrimination against workers afraid to exert their rights.
As many immigrants opt to stay in the United States, rather than risk another crossing of a more policed border, what used to be temporary immigration often is now permanent.
And wealth flows out of the country as immigrant workers send much of earnings back to family in their homelands, said Shatz. "They don't invest in something that could be taken away," she said.
Reform appeared near at hand in 2001, but on Sept. 11, all talk of loosening immigration laws halted with fears of terrorist infiltration of U.S. shores.
There could hardly be a worse time to be seeking immigration reform, said Benjamin Marquez, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
"Something needs to be done, and it's not easy even in the best of times," Marquez said.
Not only have terrorist threats increased hostility and suspicion toward immigrants, but a slumped economy stirs fears of competition for what work there is, he said.
Job insecurity is very real for blue collar workers who can no longer sell their skills at a price that allows them to support families, Marquez said.
But it is politically dangerous to pretend that the problems growing out of current immigration policy don't exist, he said.
"A large number of people in the United States are in a permanent pariah class with few legal rights -- that's a great dilemma," Marquez said.
Two years after the attacks that shook U.S. notions of security, immigration reform legislation is beginning to emerge again. Both Democrats and Republicans in Congress have proposed guest-worker programs and granting legal status to workers already in the United States.
But immigrant fears are deeply ingrained in the United States, a nation of immigrants: From the anti-Chinese movement that barred their entry in the 1800s to nativist movements against the Irish and the Zoot Suit riots targeting Mexican-Americans in the 1940s and current fears of Middle Eastern immigrants.
"Every 20 or 30 years, there's a wave of anti-immigrant sentiment," said Hickey. "It's not rooted in terrorism. It's an overall unease for people who are different taking away jobs."
Newby said, "Immigrant workers are among the most exploited. We have an obligation to help them organize and gain civil rights. That's what the labor movement is all about."
SEND-OFF
Sunday: The Interfaith Coalition for Worker Justice of South Central Wisconsin will host a luncheon and send-off Sunday for riders in the Immigrant Workers Freedom Rides at 12:30 p.m. at the Madison Labor Temple, 1602 S. Park St. Suggested donation is $10. Spanish interpretations available. For more information and to RSVP, call 255-0376 or www.iwfr.org.