Can you understand the reality of her death?

Today, I am haunted by Eli’s death. I think about how it could have been me in those tomato fields that day. I am a 66 year old Haitian man, I am a U.S. citizen, and I have spent nearly 30 years working in this country. Like Eli, I have great hope in my heart that sacrificing today will bring a greater tomorrow, but also like Eli, I have limited options.

Eli is a famrworker from Haiti who spent her life working in support industries throughout Florida. Her death brings to light everything that is wrong with America’s low-wage work industries. I can’t say more about it, because the piece written by her friend says it all. I’ll let you read the post and see for yourself.

One question that comes to mind as I read the post, is what would a mainstream American reader think about this story. What would they take away?

I take away sadness, anger. I have a vision of her hands, a vision of her children, tomatoes. I harbor a deep hurt as I realize, slowly, that she is not the first nor the last, but just a nother victim in a line of thousands of death due to poor wages, poor working conditions, and little access to care.

But part of this understanding comes from the fact that I’ve opend my eyes to the lives of those who suffer around me and next to me and under me. I wonder how someone who’s been sheltered all their lives thinks about these things.

I wonder how the young man who works as a policy analyst for a Congressman I visited yesterday would process her story (see previous post about congressional visits with UFW workers). Fresh out of college, gold rings on his fingers, ready for happy hour, being forced to meet with a bunch of migrant workers talking about their problems. I wonder if he has to shut them out to get through his day. I wonder if he has to stop reading articles like the one above, in order to maintain his little cruise up the ladder of power on the Hill.

And as I dit here, I reposition the lens on myself. Do I really understand the reality of eli’s life and death? And what am I willing to give up for her?

No more US produce

I spent all of yesterday walking the halls of the capitol with a group of amazing people. These four indivdiuals build the backbone of American agriculture. They keep my economy up, my farms staffed, and food on my table. They were four mexican migrant farmworkers from upstate New York. And they deserved every minute of my time.

The United Farmworkers Union, in coalition with 10 other groups from 15 states brought farmworkers to the capitol to continue to fight for AgJobs, the legislation that has been in the works for over 7 years. This legislation is an attempt to keep our  farms afloat. Period. It’s not about undocumented, it’s not about amnesty. It’s about keep american farms running.

Have you taken a walk in a field lately? Like me, you’ve probably admired the walden like serenity, and not seen the dynamo that keeps those fields planted, harvested and healthy: Migrant farmworkers. You take a walk through florida citrus fields and all you see are migrants, New York, Idaho, it’s all the same. There aren’t American workers to do these jobs, and with the increase of raids and scare tactics by our government, migrant workers aren’t coming to the fields.

I sat down yesterday and spoke with one grower who said he lost 28 acres of GORGEOUS Oregon strawberries (have you had one? if so, you know what I’m talking about) because he didn’t have enough workers to harvest the crop in time. This is a story multiplied by the hundreds across the country. Migrant workers aren’t coming to a place they are in danger, with low wages, no worker rights.  For some reason, many on the right have believed that they could treat migrant workers like dirt and still reap their labor (pogrom-style). Well, that isn’t the case. Workers are leaving, worker’s arent’ retunring, and our fields are in danger.

I heard a woman put it like this- “It is a fact that our food will be picked by foreigners, it just depends on if that happens here or there.”

The AgJobs bill is a COMPROMISE between growers and workers, democrats and republicans. By no means does this give migrant workers a free ride. It gives them a temporary visa for which they must PROMISE to work for five more years on the field, before being given a chance to become a citizen. Some workers have already been waiting for this legislation for 7 to 10 years. If you’ve ever picked a vegetable even for an hour- you know that’s no free ride.

The fight for migrant worker rights comes at exactly the same time that GM is resigning it’s contract with thousands of workers. How has the coverage of that worker’s rights fight differed from this? Hugely. For one, most people don’t even know how many migrant workers actually exist, nor do they understand the life they lead. No matter the difference in coverage, the struggle is exactly the same: rights for those that build the strength of our industries.

I wonder if next year I’ll be reading a recipe for awesome Oregon strawberry shortcake, or if instead I’ll lamenting the loss of US strawberries altogether. No more US produce, it’s not just a nightmare, it could be a reality. 

They Got Walter – A new, younger face of fear

Thanks to Elana at DMI for pointing me to this great post at Firedoglake. The author really captures the heart of so many struggles in communities across the country:

My daughter told me when I dropped her off at work at Market Basket last week: “They got Walter.” The police, or the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), had come to the supermarket and picked up “Walter.” He was a young Latino who had worked his way up to full-time. Nobody on the job knew where he was taken, and nobody knew why he was taken. In the following days it was said he had a false Social Security number. The large-scale raids were supposed to be aimed at the MS-13 gang, but others, including a union organizer, were caught up, and terror spread through the “New Immigrant” communities like a thunderstorm across the Kansas plains.

White neighborhoods didn’t even know about the raids. But the Latino neighborhoods were deserted. Around the corner from my union hall in Lynn, Mass., Union Street has been transformed in the past 20 years from an abandoned district inhabited largely by drug dealers into a bustling commercial center of Latino businesses. When news of the raids was spread by the Spanish radio stations, an eerie silence spread over Union Street and other Spanish neighborhoods down into East Boston. The little store selling religious icons of Jesus and Mary was empty. White employers complained their workers disappeared. Parents kept their children home from school, behind locked doors.

Legal residents were affected, as well as those who had crossed the border illegally or overstayed their legal welcome. People knew from the workplace raids in New Bedford earlier this year that you could be arguing your case from a jail cell in Texas with little access to legal help and far from your children and even prescription medicines. Better to miss pay and risk discipline on the job and stay home with your children. Read the rest>>

Video: AFL-CIO/Unite HERE slam anti-immigrant talking head

Migrant worker’s rights are everyone’s rights. Let’s keep spreading the word. Just thought I’d share this video to brighten your day!

from the description: “[AFL-CIO/Unite HERE] take down a stuttering Dobbsian sycophant with one truth: wages have more to do with the ability of workers to organize than they have to do with an influx of migrants.

“We need to protect the rights of all workers in the United States, whatever their status” – Thea Lee.

UFCW Hunts ICE – The new class war

The United Food and Commercial Worker Union is suing ICE to stop immigration raids.

“Workers were denied access to phones, bathrooms, families and legal counsel. Some were handcuffed and held for hours. Others were shipped out on buses,” Hansen said in a copy of his planned remarks.

Thousands of workers, citizens and legal residents who broke no law, committed no crime and who were not even alleged to have broken a law or committed a crime were criminalized for showing up at work, and they and their families suffered the horrible consequences,” Hansen said. [re: UFCW lawsuit against ICE concerning SWIFT raids]

The rights of migrant workers are the rights of all workers. Anyone looking at the landscape of our workforce today can see that the movement for migrant rights that cuts across borders and industries is opening up new terrain for class struggle in the US.  If migrant workers don’t have rights, all workers’ rights are in danger.

The UFCW’s lawsuit not only highlights damages against migrant workers in the Swift raids of 2006, but it highlights the connection of their experience with those of other workers in the plant. Americans that watched the raids from afar (with Rush Limbaugh taking up one of the more prominent spaces on the couch) saw only what they wanted (or were told) to see: “illegal” migrant workers being targeted by ICE- “good riddance” was the chorus.

How blind can they be. The truth is, when ICE targets factories, homes, or schools- they don’t just target migrants, they target us all. Families come under suspicion, legal permanent residents are misidentified and deported, citizen children are abandoned, economies that rely on migrant and citizen workers are disrupted or destroyed. The face of suffering isn’t migrant alone, it’s human and American and cuts across race and creed, if not class.

Now, white workers may not be mistaken as undocumented, but their livelihood, rights and industries are put at risk as their migrant co-workers are targeted. Raids don’t make us stronger, they rip our communities and families apart at the seams, and undermine our communal values.

The American worker is in danger, but not from their migrant counterparts sweating alongside them in our nation’s factories and warehouses. The real danger is the scapegoating, lies, and mistruths that are pushed on the American worker. [re: lies, just check out what the Coalition for the Future of the American Worker is shoveling] Fighting migrant workers won’t get American workers better wages, better protections, or better jobs. As long as their is exploitation for some, there is exploitation for all.

What will class struggle look like in the US in 2020? It will be multiracial and multinational. As corporations cut borders and manipulate international trade agreements, workers will meet the fight if we can overcome the racist and fear-filled factions that attempt to divide and conquer us.

Win: Halt to SSN No Match Letter

We know that folks across the country have been working to stop the Social Security Administration from sending out letters. Well, as of Friday a judge has put a temporary halt to the letters in light of  a lawsuit… The letters are on hold until at least October 1st- Thanks to NILC, AFL-CIO, and ACLU for their work on this lawsuit.

Judge Halts Illegal Immigrant Notices
By JORDAN ROBERTSON 08.31.07, 7:50 PM ET

SAN FRANCISCO –

The Social Security Administration cannot start sending out letters to employers next week that carry with them more serious penalties for knowingly hiring illegal immigrants, a federal judge ruled Friday.

Ruling on a lawsuit by the nation’s largest federation of labor unions against the U.S. government, U.S. District Judge Maxine Chesney granted a temporary restraining order prohibiting the so-called “no-match” letters from going out as planned starting Tuesday.

The AFL-CIO lawsuit, filed this week, claims that new Department of Homeland Security rules outlined in accompanying letters threaten to violate workers’ rights and unfairly burden employers. Chesney said the court needs “breathing room” before making any decision on the legality of new penalties aimed at cracking down on the hiring of illegal immigrants.

She set the next hearing on the matter for Oct. 1.

The Social Security Administration has sent out “no-match” letters for more than two decades warning employers of discrepancies in the information the government has on their workers. Employers often brushed aside the letters, and the small fines that sometimes were incurred, as a cost of doing business.

But this year, those letters will be accompanied by notices from the Department of Homeland Security outlining strict new requirements for employers to resolve those discrepancies within 90 days or face fines or criminal prosecution, if they’re deemed to have knowingly hired illegal immigrants.

Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed

One Thousand Workers, Religious and Civil Rights Leaders and Activists Rally in Support of Smithfield Workers

Thanks to the Justice at Smithfield Team for this Update!

On Wednesday, August 29th, 150 Smithfield workers and family members traveled to Williamsburg, Virginia to meet the top corporate leaders of Smithfield Foods, and were joined by 1000 supporters from around the country in a loud, colorful and passionate show of solidarity.

The demonstration, the largest in the history of the historic colonial town, dominated Smithfield Foods’ 2007 Shareholders meeting. Moved by a series of inspirational messages from faith, civil rights, and workers’ leaders at the First Baptist Church ( click here to see the diverse list of speakers), the overflow crowd took to the streets, chanting and singing to the beat of a dozen drummers and hundreds of whistles. Stopping briefly in front of the Williamsburg Lodge—the site of the shareholders meeting—the crowd shook the walls with their cries for justice at Smithfield‘s Tar Heel Plant.

The most exciting moment, though, came inside the shareholders meeting. Ten workers from the Tar Heel plant and ten prominent clergy and community leaders went to the shareholders meeting. During the meeting, Reverend Nelson Johnson from the Southern Faith Labor Community Alliance gave an impassioned message of support for the workers cause on behalf of the millions of members represented by the prominent leaders. Terry Slaughter, a livestock worker at the Tar Heel plant, showed CEO C. Larry Pope petitions signed by thousands of Tar Heel employees—representing a strong majority of workers in the plant. The petitions demanded a free and fair choice for selecting a union and called for “A union and a union contract…like unionized Smithfield workers have in other plants…and for Smithfield to remain neutral and let people choose a union without the company interfering” Terry showed thousands of supporting petitions from Smithfield workers around the world-from Poland, Spain and France to Iowa and Nebraska.

After the event, press reports noted that Smithfield executives plan to enter into talks with UFCW representatives.   In another press interview, Pope “criticized the union’s extensive campaign against the company…’It is costing the company substantially,’ Pope said after the meeting.” And click here to watch the local television coverage.

As the supporters rallied nearby in Bicentennial Park they promised to continue to stand alongside the Tar Heel workers until the battle is won. When workers brought the news from inside the shareholders meeting, the crowd erupted in a chant that made clear that the movement was just getting started. “We will be back,” they cried. “We will be back.”

Anti-Immigrant in Black Face?

Did you see the quarter page ad in your national paper a few weeks ago?

An African- American male facing you from the lower right hand corner of your paper with the suggestion that immigrants are a threat to African Americans and that legalization was a slap in the face to African-Americans. The ad was sponsored  by “Coalition for the Future American Worker”. What was this ad really saying, and who is the CFAW?

I recently read Bill Fletcher’s response to the ad and I wanted to share it with you, let us know your thoughts…..

Black Commentator

May 23, 2007

Anti-Immigrant in Black Face?

By Bill Fletcher, Jr. – BC Editorial Board

The picture in the ad immediately caught my attention.  The photo was of a very dignified older African American man looking into the camera, very determined and equally pensive.  Underneath his photo was a caption giving his name “T. Willard Fair” and the fact that he was the veteran of 40 years of struggle in the Civil Rights Movement.

This was certainly enough to pique my interest.

Beneath the caption was a statement declaring that the alleged threat to African Americans comes from documented and undocumented immigrants. He went on to suggest that any notion of legalizing undocumented workers was a slap in the face of African Americans. The ad is associated with a group called the “Coalition for the Future American Worker.”

Fair’s attack is not surprising, although the virulence and historical nature of it is very unsettling, particularly because it is bound to strike a chord among many African Americans.

Roger Toussaint on the Public Good

A healthy immigration system is a public good. No one in the open market will provide it for us. Rather, the government must provide for it as a third party. It is Congress’ job to make immigration workable again. I recently read Roger Toussaint’s remarks, reproduced below, and I feel that they capture an important spirit within our struggle.

From remarks by Transportation Workers Union Local 100 President Roger Toussaint at the 2nd Annual Sumner Rosen Memorial Lecture, May 8, 2007:
 
“We have had 25 years of denigration of the very idea that there is something called the public good. Government has to push it forward. Society has to pay for it.

The Republican presidential debate last week was at the Ronald Reagan library. It belonged there. Reagan unleashed the open assault on the public good. The candidates fell all over themselves trying to show who was the most Reagan-like — who would keep starving the public sphere and push all wealth into the marketplace.

Congress Passes Minimum Wage, Now How about Some Worker’s Rights…

Though not a living wage, Congress’ recent increase in the minimum wage to $7.25 is good news for us all. It is a step towards improved low-wage work opportunities in the US- but we still have a long way to go.

One of the steps towards improved worker rights in the US must be improved worker rights for immigrant workers. As long as work place standards are not enforced in industries employing immigrants, without a pathway to citizenship and portability for temporary visa workers, and worker protections for immigrants, how can we expect businesses to improve working conditions and rights for all US workers?

Workers int he US are closely knit together by profession and class. The raise in the minimum wage will cut across culture and neighborhood to touch all communities across the country.

This must be a reminder that we cannot accept guestworker programs in the US. Lower standards of work and integration for immigrant workers lowers standards and expectations for ALL US workers.