The Immigrant Rights’ Movement

1. The Immigrant Rights’ Movement Students: Kevin Clardy, Jason Damian, Andres Guzman, Laura Harris, Jean Lefor, Nicole Narong, Alex Nielsen, Pam Oliver, Kristopher Perry, Amy Taber, Daniel Tratz, Sean Walter, and Jovan Woodfox Mentor: Johanna Brenner

2. Introduction • Challenges and What Causes Them • Poor working conditions • Lack of living wages • Government harassment / Fear • Action and Change • Campaigns and coalitions • Different kinds of organizations and advocacy groups • Avenues for achieving social change • Education and empowerment for workers • Educating the public/raising awareness

3. Unions Alex Nielsen Pamela Oliver Daniel Tratz

4. History of the Meatpacking Industry • Industry closes urban unionized plants • Relocation to South: largely non-unionized and rural • Jobs considered “last resort” • Wages steadily declined

5. Practices at Smithfield Meatpacking Plant • Poor working conditions: • Low wages • Lack of benefits • Chronic injuries • Employees are fired • Segregated workplace • Racial divide between Black and Latino workers

6. Video: Smithfield • NOW: “A Day at the Plant” • PBS special: Dec 16, 2006 • NOW's Senior Correspondent Maria Hinojosa takes us inside the world's largest pork processing plant, located in Tar Heel, North Carolina. As the first TV journalist ever allowed to film inside… • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdyCFsS9rwM

7. Smithfield Tactics • Raids of the plant by ICE agents • Firings union organizers and sympathizers • Economic dependence of community on the Smithfield plant • Filing legal suits against workers

8. Union Tactics • Organizing: • Walkouts • Marches • Rallies • Local stores to boycott • Worker Centers

9. Union Success • After 15 years, Smithfield unionized • Court ruling of Smithfield • Committed “egregious and pervasive” labor law violations • Workers fired unjustly • Reinstated workers and given back pay • Workers felt better about speaking up and supporting a union

10. Resources • Bacon, David: “The Story of the Smithfield Raid” • Fears, Darryl: “Union Tries to Unite Blacks, Latinos” • Greenhouse, Steven: “After 15 Years, North Carolina Plant Unionizes” • Kutalik, Chris: “Immigrant Workers Buck Long Slide in Meatpacking Raids Follow as Backlash” • Sack, Kevin: “Judge Finds Labor Law Broken at Meat-Packing Plant” • Slaughter, Jane: “Blood, Cold, Heat, Gore…Organizing Meatpacking Hell,” “Is Fighting for Justice at Smithfield Racketeering?”

11. Worker Centers This category can be broken into: Domestic Workers Day Laborers

12. Introduction to Worker Centers • Worker centers are organizations that provide information and training in: • Workers rights • Legal services • The English language • Typically for people whom it would be difficult to organize • Worker centers are located in specific geographic areas • They are community-based unlike unions • Worker centers are also connected with workers in other countries to maintain solidarity

13. Domestic Workers Laura Harris Nicole Narong Amy Taber Sean Walter

14. Why Are They Organizing? • Social recognition • Improved pay • Respect from employers • Equality • Job terms • Benefits similar to those found in other lines of work • To get domestic labor viewed as real work with the same legal requirements and protection as other forms of paid labor

15. How Are They Organizing? • The U.S. Social Forum was held June 27- July 1, 2007  • June 30, 2007 — The U.S. Social Forum, the National Domestic Workers Alliance was formed. • This is an alliance of 13 groups. The two major groups are: • DWU — New York • CHIRLA — L.A. • Most of these organizations fight for the same cause, and all have a main goal in common. They also help the same demographic of people.

16. What Types of Services Do They Provide? • The Nanny training program • English as a second language • Basic computer literacy • Leadership training program • Advanced leadership training program • DWU also provides resources for workers and potential employers so that there is a clear understanding of what is truly fair and equal

17. What Gains Have They Made? • Raising awareness: • Novellas called “You know What?” • Super Doméstica • Getting their message in the media

18. What Gains Have They Made, Cont. • Legal work: • Back pay in missing wages amongst immigrant workers • The case of YuniMuliyono • Working towards a New York State Domestic Workers Bill of Rights

19. Conclusion • Why they have been successful in areas with large immigrant populations • Similar problems and goals • Uniting of individuals creates a stronger group • Groups can push for changes within their state • Groups can unite and work toward national, federal, and possibly even global changes

20. Resources • CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities — Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence • www.caaav.org • Domestic Workers United • www.domesticworkersunited.org • “Cleaning up a Dirty Business” Domestica: Immigrant Workers Cleaning and Caring in the Shadows of Affluence By Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo

21. Day Laborers Kristopher Perry Jean Lefor Jason Damian

22. Day Laborers • Who are they? • Low Socio-Economic Class • Often undocumented Latino workers • In Portland: • 200-300 workers line the streets of 6th Ave / East Burnside Street and MLK / I-84 daily.

23. Day Labor • What does day labor consist of? • Difficult and dangerous work, includes: • fixing roofs, digging foundations, dry-walling, debris moving, construction, painting, etc. • How do Day Laborers get paid? • Laborers negotiate terms with employers on the spot and have little/no say in the conditions or pay.

24. Problems Day Laborers Pose • Devalue general area • Garbage / trash and public urination • Increase level of visible impoverishment / poor public image • Increase local crime rates • Prostitution and drug trafficking

25. Obstacles Day Laborers Face • Day Laborers get scammed • Receive no or substandard pay for their work • Vulnerable to Irregular and Strenuous Work • As consequence of their low class day laborers face unsafe working conditions and illegitimate employers. • Immigrant Day Laborers Face Strong Opposition • ICE, FAIR & other vigilante groups.

26. Solutions • Hiring Centers: • Designated areas for employers and day laborers to connect • Provide public facilities and management / oversight • $200K recently approved from city council in 2008 to establish hiring center • VOZ Workers’ Rights Education Project • Developed to help curb increasing incidence of discrimination and repression

27. Problems Hiring Centers Face • Opposition from Immigration Reform Groups • Hiring centers often do not perform background checks on laborers • Day laborers are predominantly undocumented workers. • Lack Funding (city and private investors) • City council members are reluctant to provide support because of association with illegal immigrants is implied.

28. Students as Allies Andres Guzman Kevin Clardy Jovan R. Woodfox

29. United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) • Main Goals: • Relationship buildingto achieve global justice for working people. • Building of a “grassroots student movement that challenges corporate power and that fights for economic justice.” • Actions based on democratic principles to “strive to empower one another as individuals and as a collective through trust, patience, and an open spirit.”

30. United Students Against Sweatshops, Cont. • Actions: • Creation and advocacy for minimum standards through Codes of Conduct (CoCs). • Worker’s Rights Consortium partnership • Sweat-Free Campus Campaign • Campus Worker Solidarity & Sweat-Free Collegiate Apparel

31. Student Farmworker Alliance (SFA) and Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) • Main Goals: • Eliminating “sweatshop conditions and modern-day slavery in the fields” • To work in conjunction with larger movements dedicate towards economic and social justice. • Awareness-raising through education

32. Student Farmworker Alliance (SFA) and Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), Cont. • Actions: • Similar to the USAS, the SFA advocates for CoCs • McDonalds, Burger King, and Taco Bell campaigns • Petitions and delivery thereof

33. CIW Worker — Video Testimony Testimony

34. Resources • Student Farmworker Alliance • http://www.sfalliance.org • Coalition of Immokalee Workers • http://www.ciw-online.org • United Students Against Workshops • http://www.studentsagainstsweatshops.org