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  Issue No 58 Official Organ of LaborNet 16 June 2000  

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International

Fair in the Land of the Free


More than 20,000 immigrant workers, union members and community and religious leaders packed a Los Angeles Sports Arena on June 10 in support of immigrant workers' rights.

 
 

They overflowed onto the surrounding sidewalks at the fourth, and by far the largest, of the AFL-CIO forums on immigrant workers' rights.

"Every day when immigrants go to work, millions of them face low wages, violations of their rights, insults and discrimination, AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson told the crowd of ore than a dozen nationalities, hundreds of whom waved U.S. flags and the flags of their homelands.

Immigrant workers in the United States, especially the 5 million to 6 million undocumented workers, are easy targets for exploitive employers who routinely violate their most basic rights-the rights to safe workplaces, overtime pay, minimum wage and the freedom to form a union, Chavez-Thompson said. At AFL-CIO immigrant rights forums in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Atlanta, immigrant workers testified that when they stand up for their rights, their employers routinely threaten and fire them.

"Time after time," Chavez-Thompson said, "we see employers try to divide us from our sisters and brothers. They try to pit immigrants against non-immigrants, documented against undocumented, and try to drive down the wages and working conditions of all."

In February the AFL-CIO Executive Council called for major reforms in U.S. immigration laws, which routinely are used to punish workers. Instead, the federation is seeking changes that would criminalize employer exploitation of immigrant workers and allow undocumented immigrants who are in the United States and contributing to their communities an opportunity to become U.S. citizens.

Seamstress Lupita Vargas said she often goes weeks without being paid and believes her employer takes advantage of her undocumented status.

"What can I tell her? Nothing, because she knows I am here illegally," she told the Orange County Register. "She knows I'm afraid to go anywhere else. But now maybe in the future, I will be able to work for an employer who doesn't take advantage of me."

"Looking for a better future for our families is not illegal," Seattle construction worker Jos� Angel Juarez Falcon told the cheering L.A. Sports Arena crowd.

Several times during the high-spirited rally, participants let the world know,

"Aqu� estamos y no nos vamos"-"We are here to stay and we are not leaving."

Miguel Contreras, executive secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, said the immigration issue has helped build one of the largest coalitions of unions, people of all faiths, immigrant rights groups and immigrants representing dozens of nationalities.

Representatives of many of those groups are meeting in Los Angeles to map out mobilization and legislative strategies for reform.

"The rights of working people and the rights of immigrants are one and the same. In the past, this movement has fought for the rights of Irish and Italian and Slovak workers-for African Americans and Asian Americans and Latinos-for working women and lesbians and gays and workers with disabilities," Chavez-Thompson said as the forum drew to a close.

"I promise you here and now that we're fighting for exactly the same thing for exactly the same reasons for this generation of immigrants in the workplace."


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*   Issue 58 contents

In this issue
Features
*  Interview: After the Gold Rush
NSW building union leader Andrew Ferguson on life after the Olympics and why Che Guevara is his political hero.
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*  Unions: MUA Women's Policy Back on Course
A hard hitting report by the Maritime Union's women's delegate Sue Gajdos prompts the union to, once again, promote its female members.
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*  Politics: Raising the Rafters
Opposition leader Kim Beazley delivered a stirring address to last weekend's NSW ALP State Conference. Here's every word of it.
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*  History: Time and Tide
Greg Patmore surveys the themes of Working Lives in Regional Australia in this introduction to the latest issue of 'Labour History'
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*  International: Fair in the Land of the Free
More than 20,000 immigrant workers, union members and community and religious leaders packed a Los Angeles Sports Arena on June 10 in support of immigrant workers' rights.
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*  Environment: Life's a Beach
Workers are invited to join an environmental campaign to protect the coastal communities and coastline from exploitation by multinationals.
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*  Satire: More Pacific Coups Forecast
The popular holiday resort of Great Keppel Island is bracing itself for a bloody coup, following the rash of rebel uprisings in other parts of the Pacific.
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*  Review: At the Barricades
Denis Evans' photo essay on the Patrick dispute captures the camaraderie on the Melbourne picket lines - solidarity that, like solder, welded workers and their communities together into a human barricade.
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News

 Crackdown on Fiji Workers Intensifies

 Building Industry Braces for Post-Games Slump

 Call Centre Battle Hots Up

 More Sackings Spark Entitlements Showdown

 Carr Establishes Labor Hire Inquiry

 High Court Puts Workers At Reith's Mercy

 Miners Hit the Streets Over Death Threats

 Unions Urged to Reignite Republic Debate

 Tips Rip-Off Sparks Hotel Picket

 Community Workers to Lay Siege to Parliament

 Water Workers Accept 14% Pay Rise

 Counselling for Workplace Accidents

 Korean Food Festival is Union Business

 Che Helps Doctors Save Lives

 Maude Barlow Public Lecture - Sydney June 27

Columns
»  The Soapbox
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»  Sport
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»  Trades Hall
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»  Tool Shed
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Letters to the editor
»  In Defence of Rallies
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»  The Cost of Activism
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