{"id":10439,"date":"2017-09-20T07:51:14","date_gmt":"2017-09-20T11:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/?p=10439"},"modified":"2023-07-06T12:24:02","modified_gmt":"2023-07-06T10:24:02","slug":"usa-labor-unions-are-stepping-up-to-fight-deportations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/?p=10439","title":{"rendered":"USA: Labor Unions Are Stepping Up To Fight Deportations"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

…. HUMAN RIGHTS ….<\/p>\n

An article from the Huffington Post<\/a> (reprinted according to the principle of \u201cfair use\u201d)<\/p>\n

Organized labor is finding creative ways to protect immigrant members and families vulnerable in the Trump era.<\/p>\n

Yahaira Burgos was fearing the worst when her husband, Juan Vivares, reported to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in lower Manhattan in March. Vivares, who fled Colombia and entered the U.S. illegally in 2011, had recently been given a deportation order. Rather than hide, he showed up at the ICE office with Burgos and his lawyer to continue to press his case for asylum. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nUNITE HERE 631 out in force in Phoenix demanding that Motel 6 stop cooperating with ICE<\/a><\/center><\/p>\n

Vivares, 29, was detained for deportation. That\u2019s when Burgos\u2019 union sprang into action.<\/p>\n

Prepared for Vivares\u2019 detention, members of the Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ gathered for a rally outside the ICE office that afternoon, demanding his release. Union leadership appealed to New York\u2019s congressional delegation, enlisting Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D) to reach out to ICE leadership. The union president even disseminated the name and phone number for the ICE officer handling Vivares\u2019 deportation and urged allies to call him directly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was very lucky to have a union,\u201d said Burgos, a 39-year-old native of the Dominican Republic who works as a doorwoman on the Upper East Side. \u201cThey moved very fast. They moved every politician and every union member. … If it were not for the union he would be deported.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vivares is now at home with Burgos and their 19-month-old son, having been granted a stay of deportation as the court considers his motion to reopen his asylum case. Although he\u2019s far from being in the clear, his lawyer, Rebecca Press, says the union\u2019s quick response was critical to keeping Vivares in the U.S. for now. \u201cI do believe that their being able to reach the upper echelons of Congress gave us a window of time,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Vivares\u2019 case provides a vivid example of the gritty work unions are doing to protect immigrant members and their families vulnerable to deportation in the Trump era.<\/p>\n

Their efforts show the ways in which many unions \u2015 particularly those in the low-wage service sector \u2015 have become de facto immigrants rights groups advocating for their members. They also show how much organized labor on the whole has evolved on immigration issues. It wasn\u2019t so long ago that unions generally viewed undocumented workers as competitors who undercut wages (in fairness, some unions still see them that way).<\/p>\n

In recent months unions around the country have been hosting \u201cknow your rights\u201d workshops to teach workers how to handle encounters with ICE agents and where to turn when someone is detained. They\u2019ve provided legal assistance to and rallied around members and their families who have wound up in deportation proceedings. And they have made a concerted push to win language in union contracts aimed at avoiding deportations and helping workers who run into problems with their immigration papers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to make people realize that part of the power of being organized at work is you really do have the ability to get additional binding protections if you have the strength to win them at the bargaining table,\u201d said Shannon Lederer, the director of immigration policy at the AFL-CIO, a federation of 56 unions.<\/p>\n

Some unions have gotten employers to agree to notify a shop steward whenever ICE or the Department of Homeland Security reaches out to the company about employees\u2019 status. They have also succeeded in getting companies to agree not to allow immigration officials onto the worksite unless they have a warrant. In some contracts, employers have vowed not to conduct \u201cself audits\u201d of their employees\u2019 immigration paperwork unless the feds force them to.<\/p>\n

While these tactics predated Trump\u2019s election, unions are now making them a priority. The AFL-CIO recently distributed a nearly 200-page toolkit to its member unions that included contract language they could push for with respect to immigration. In many cases, companies and unions have a mutual self-interest in enacting the protections: Employers do not want to lose trained workers, and unions do not want their members deported.<\/p>\n

(Article continued in the right column)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Questions related to this article:\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n

\n

The post-election fightback for human rights, is it gathering force in the USA?<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

What is the contribution of trade unions to the culture of peace?<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

(Article continued from the left column)<\/p>\n

Ron Herrera, the secretary-treasurer at Teamsters Local 396 in Los Angeles, said it was a point of pride for his union to secure clauses in their sanitation contracts guaranteeing workers a grace period for dealing with any snags that come up with their work papers. The contract assures that, so long as they can eventually clear up the problem, the workers won\u2019t lose their jobs or their seniority while they deal with immigration officials.<\/p>\n

Herrera said he has received two phone calls in the past week from alarmed members who are working under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which was created by President Barack Obama. The program granted legal work status to an estimated 800,000 young undocumented immigrants who\u2019d come to the U.S. as children. Last week Trump said he would rescind DACA in six months, leaving it to Congress to pass legislation authorizing such a program.<\/p>\n

Herrera\u2019s union is a good example of the changing demographics of many labor groups. As a Latino, Herrera said, he was an affirmative action hire at UPS in the 1970s. Now, many of the workplaces his union represents are predominantly Latino. \u201cEven if somebody has legal residence, a lot of times there\u2019s a family member that doesn\u2019t,\u201d he said. \u201cWe need to step up and understand that this social issue is actually a work issue, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the most powerful things a union can do for an undocumented worker or family member is intervene politically on his or her behalf. Not all cases turn out like that of Juan Vivares. Eber Garcia Vasquez, a Long Island sanitation worker and father of three U.S.-born children, was detained by ICE last month. He had left Guatemala and entered the U.S. illegally 27 years ago. His union, Teamsters Local 813, rallied in lower Manhatta after he was detained, and the union\u2019s Washington lobbyists took his case directly to the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

Garcia Vasquez was nonetheless sent back to Guatemala last week, according to the Daily News. He hadn\u2019t been back since he left more than a quarter-century ago.<\/p>\n

Many unions have launched training programs aimed at helping members navigate run-ins with immigration agents. In Seattle, an immigrant rights group taught members of SEIU Local 775 how to run such workshops; the union\u2019s members in turn were able to fan out and teach colleagues.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s stuff that we\u2019ve always had on our radar but we kicked into high gear,\u201d said Heather Villanueva, one of the union\u2019s organizers. \u201cThe tone changed from generally talking about it to literally trying to protect families once Trump was elected.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Austin, Texas, the teachers union has been doling out Fifth Amendment rights cards and packets to help students\u2019 families plan for immigration raids. Many teachers sought out rights training from the union after seeing how frightened their students\u2019 families had become, according to Montserrat Garibay, the vice president of Education Austin. They have been partnering with pro bono immigration attorneys to host presentations for families after school hours.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel this is a crisis that the Latino immigrant community is going through right now,\u201d Garibay said. \u201cAs teachers we feel an ethical and moral responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hotel and hospitality union Unite Here, which is heavily immigrant, went so far as to create a ringtone in Spanish called \u201cNada Nada,\u201d with lyrics enumerating one\u2019s rights when la migra comes knocking: \u201cIf immigration comes to arrest you, keep calm \/ You have the right to not sign anything and not say anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maria Elena Durazo, Unite Here\u2019s general vice president, said the union redoubled its efforts on immigrant rights once it saw Trump\u2019s cabinet taking shape, with nominees such as Jeff Sessions, now attorney general, making clear that the deportation talk was more than campaign bluster. The union wants to insert more immigration safeguards into new contracts moving forward, like having employers contribute to assistance funds for undocumented workers who lose their jobs, she said. <\/p>\n

Part of the challenge unions face, Durazo said, is making all their members see the value of such investments, particularly those who have little sympathy for undocumented immigrants.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main thing is to understand the union as an organization of their fellow workers, that we\u2019re all in this together,\u201d she said. \u201cIn some places, that could be more difficult: Why are we doing this if they\u2019re here undocumented? It takes a lot of work to build that kind of clarity and solidarity.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

…. HUMAN RIGHTS …. An article from the Huffington Post (reprinted according to the principle of \u201cfair use\u201d) Organized labor is finding creative ways to protect immigrant members and families vulnerable in the Trump era. Yahaira Burgos was fearing the worst when her husband, Juan Vivares, reported to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in … Continue reading USA: Labor Unions Are Stepping Up To Fight Deportations<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91,14],"tags":[5],"class_list":["post-10439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-north-america","category-tolerance","tag-north-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10439\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}