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Labor Rights Week Kicks Off with Historic Agreement on Immigrant Workers’ Rights
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The ambassadors of El Salvador, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic joined Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis today to sign a historic partnership to protect the labor rights of migrant workers from these countries who are employed in the United States.
The signing kicks off National Labor Rights Week, Aug. 29-Sept. 5. “Women in the Workplace” is the focus of this year’s Labor Rights Week. Migrant women are at risk of wage theft and safety violations, sexual harassment, workplace violence and gender discrimination.
This week, events are slated in 50 U.S. cities with Mexican and Central American consulates. Consulate officials will work with the Department of Labor, state labor authorities, labor unions, faith leaders and community groups to inform migrant workers about their rights and the resources available if those rights are violated.
Speaking at the signing ceremony today in Washington, D.C., Solis said:
Today, we renew our promise to everyone who does an honest day’s work in America. No matter how you got here or how long you plan to stay, you have rights. You have the right to a safe and healthy workplace and the right to a legal wage.
The partnerships are pledges between the governments to work together to educate migrant workers about their labor rights and prevent abuses in the workplace.
During the past year, Mexico, Nicaragua and Guatemala signed similar agreements and Solis said the Labor Department is pursuing accords with governments from southeast Asia to educate and protect their vulnerable workers as well. She added:
We understand that many migrant workers in America are afraid to report mistreatment because it can lead to more abuse, the loss of their job or deportation. With these partnerships, we seek to remove these fears. The beauty of this program is its simplicity: We’re making it easier for immigrant workers to come forward by partnering with the institutions where they are most likely to go for help—their own country’s consulates.
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18 Comments
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It is true that immigrants have been exploited, but again, let us DELINIATE the DIFFERENCE between ILLEGAL ALIEN TRESPASSERS and LEGALLY-ACCEPTED FOREIGN IMMIGRANTS!
Let us not confuse IMMIGRATION WITH people who criminally trespass across our national borders to take our jobs by accepting less-beneficial less-than-living wages under deplorable working conditions so as to allow employers to degrade our employment conditions and pay! They are NOT the same!
And let us also point out that there is a large number of illegal alien trespassers who are Canadian, English, Australian, Indian (real Indians from India) and other places from around the world who speak native or indigenous variations of English with their only requirement to “polish” their accents! But by and large our largest illegal problem comes from south of our borders, and not mostly from only Mexico but from other countries “down there” as well.
What about the rights of the displaced workers who sit at home on unemployment while millions of illegal aliens work everyday? Part of the labor movement back when Samuel Gompers started the AFL-CIO was to slow down immigration when work got slow but not now. In 2010 our current congress renewed over 500,000 work visa’s and issued over 400,000 new visa’s. What about the American citizen? Do we have to compete with illegal’s for a job? I have been a union member in good standing for 30 years and I do not support amnesty or earned citizenship for illegal’s in our country.
Perhaps we need border patrols on this site to keep away antiworking class racist phony interlopers like yourselves. Legality is determined by who has the guns. It used to be illegal for Blacks to ride in the front of the bus, but breaking the law changed the law. All the crimes of all the immigrants here throughout history, if totaled together, would pale in comparison to the racist war of conquest against Mexico, which, by force, moved the border thousands of miles west and south. US policy dominates Mexico and creates the conditions which force workers northward to survive. Any of us, were we born in Mexico, would move heaven and earth to get to the US, because humans seek to survive and reproduce.
Greg – did you know that Obama has deported more ‘aliens’ (from Mars?) than any president? Did you know that the superexploitation of immigrants, which you unknowingly champion, has resulted in more returning than coming here? I am sure, Greg, that, if you are willing to relocate, you will be able to get a job picking lettuce or grapes or peaches in Georgia. (Seasonal, of course, with no job security or benefits, and low pay and back-breaking conditions.) See you in the fields. (not)
Thanks William.
In Alabama we have years of experience with the thugs of the Ku Klux Klan using terror to divide white workers from their black brothers and sisters. This strategy of the bosses left workers powerless and the Big Mules running things. Today Alabama is at the bottom of almost every measurement of quality of life and the reactionaries running the state are conducting an anti-immigrant drive.
Workers will never climb out of the hole the bosses have dug for us if we don’t stand together in the fight for social, legal, and economic justice.
Not a good argument . Illegal is still illegal and anyone supporting or fostering it are breaking the law.Obama and his cabinet are not doing the right thing by giving American jobs and tax to illegals or visas ( Visas are nothing less than indentured slavery that was outlawed seventy five years ago)that should not be here.. These democrats are not getting any smarter or wiser. So lets go after this president,in a big way,with all the republican terrorists after him One would think he would try to cultivate his friends. guess not . But he can be had and if you have any hint of a candidate that could run against him ,by all means lets field him and elect him.This union should not be promoting this law breaking and job stealing proposal.
Well, I have to agree with you William on the history of Mexico, every foreign country from Spain in the beginning to our own USA when our railroads invaded Mexico when it was barely even a country has abused Mexico.
Mexico’s problem is that it is still a feudal nation, and the elite Establishment does NOT want the Mexican people to become educated and independently interested in Democracy. That was the reason for the brutal Mexican government crack-down on the indigenous people in the Yucatan Peninsula area to make way for the tourist businesses! And after that came the escalation of the drug cartel wars! So the Mexican people really have had it bad!
Couple to that the fact that ILLEGAL TRESPASSING in MEXICO by NON-MEXICANS coming from THEIR south have flooded their economy and employment situation! And Mexico has a much more strict illegal entry penalty than our USA!!!!! So “they” must be simply ignoring the Nicaraguans, Hondurans, Guatemalans, Peruvians, Equadorians, and others streaming nortward into their country because the trespassers somewhat look and sound like Mexicans, or at least that is my uninformed guess!
But all of this is the problem created by U.S. commerce more than anything else, just as what happened in Haiti, Cuba, Panama, Hawaii, and the Philippines, just to name a few! (Oh I know I am leaving out Hunduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, El Salvadore, Guatemala etc etc)
In 2008 the Indiana state legislature held a summer study committee on illegal immigration in Indiana. The Pew Hispanic center found most illegal’s worked in manufacturing, hotels, restaurants and construction which is my chosen occupation. The Obama administration at this time will review most cases of illegal’s who are detained by DHS. These illegal’s if they did not create a serious crime ( open to interpretation ) will be released and may apply for a work visa in some cases. We have 7 to 8 million illegal alien workers in our country and as many as 20 million unemployed American citizens. We need to stop allowing employers to escape prosecution for hiring illegal’s instead of our citizens. We also have plenty of work visa’s for seasonal workers so we need to stop making excuses. What America need’s is for our politicians to stop pandering to the ethnic lobby like what is taking place right now and concentrate on job creation for the American citizen.
An injury to one is an injury to all! Wherever people come from and whatever their immigration status, we are talking about our fellow workers. Labor’s history proves that when workers don’t stand together, the bosses stand on all of them.
In Alabama we have years of experience with the thugs of the Ku Klux Klan using terror to divide white workers from their black brothers and sisters. This strategy of the bosses left workers powerless and the Big Mules running things. Today Alabama is at the bottom of almost every measurement of quality of life.
Workers will never climb out of the hole the bosses have dug for us if we don’t stand together in the fight for social, legal, and economic justice.
I think you are missing out on the point, Jim. Illegal trespassers are not “one of us”, they are sabateurs to our economic / employment system !!!!!
You are so right about the crime against humanity called The Ku Klux Klan, however, let us not lump illegal trespassers into the same society as the rest of us so far as being in a “brotherhood of universal workers”, that is a tear-jerking sentiment that is totally unfounded and wrongly imposed upon us in our society. The illegals came from their society in which THEY did not want — or were afraid to risk their lives for — any participation in a liberation movement to unshackle themselves from their own tyrannical commercial system! So, they want to flee to our society to undermine OUR economic / labor system by taking jobs LOWER PAID and under DISTRESS OF HARSHER TREATMENT than OUR employers can get away doing with US !!!!! THAT is the bottom line.
They need to go back to their own country and mount their own civil rights campaign for decent working conditions for a living wage — IN THEIR COUNTRY! We have enough problems surviving in a USA where employers have THE rights and we natizens have been given an ULTIMATUM to OBEY contrary to what our Democracy PORTRAYS we should be entitled to !!!!!
The reason this sort of agreement is so crucial is to better protect American jobs, not to replace American workers. If this agreement shins light on employers who take advantage of workers from outside USA, they will not be so eager to hire and exploit these workers. It also gives labor an opportunity to organize these sweatshop workers and boost wages and benefits which will benefit all workers. When workers are forced to compete against slave wages we all loose.
We destroyed their nation with NAFTA. I think it’s only fair that we treat them with some dignity when they come north fleeing what we created – the guns and drug cartels and corporations and corruption.
Undocumented immigrants are indeed part of “us,” if the relevant “us” is human beings who work for a living. And resisting the classic divide-and-conquer that has been going on for generations is not a tear-jerking sentiment, it’s a realistic analysis of how we’re being manipulated to go along with the transfer of more wealth to the already mega-rich both from U.S. citizens and from citizens of Latin American countries.
There are legitimate questions about how best to do that resistance (different proposals for immigration reform, how should the labor movement prioritize its efforts, etc.) but we need to be resisting the global economic forces, not taking out frustrations on Latin American farmers who have been forced off their land by NAFTA.
Workers in Latin America have been mounting their own civil rights campaigns for decades, but the U.S. government has been funding and training right-wing militaries and counter-revolutionary forces against those workers for just as long. U.S.-based companies repress the rights of their workers in Latin America (both in manufacturing and in agriculture) and undercut the ability of Latin American farmers to make a living. The civil rights campaign in Latin America is very much going on to this day, in the efforts of the Mexican miners and electrical workers unions among many others. The UE web site has info on these efforts (www.ueinternational.org).
As for Mr. Gompers, he wasn’t the entire labor movement in his time. It’s important to remember that immigrant workers (including workers from Ireland and eastern Europe) were among the most active in the historic labor struggles of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Immigrants continue to be active in the labor movement today.
Susan, your use of the phrase “…Undocumented immigrants are indeed part of “us,”…” is an entirely inappropriate reference that is propagandistic, but the entire rest of what you wrote is so accurately true!
The undocumented are NOT immigrants, they are trespassers and are not part of our society! However, as human beings we are all related in our humanity, it is just that illegal trespassers are trying to destroy our standard of living by giving employers the advantage they need to lower our working wages through unjustified employment competition.
The rest of what you say is absolutely correct! The inhumanity of our political-economic empire-building has always made a black mark on our nation’s history, and it is time for our people wo wake up, and learn the truths about our evil historic ways, and to demand a change! THEN maybe we can help those people of other societies to improve their lifestyles and standards of living WITHOUT destroying our own!
The problem of illegal or legal workers should be the responsibility of the EMPLOYER. With all employee getting put into the system if you do not have a valid SS number it should show up and you are caught! The employer would face the burden of punishment and the illegal Alien summarily deported. If fines are high enough and incarcerations long enough this problem will dissolve.
Yes NAFTA has crushed Mexico, but that was a given. Corporate greed is behind that move. The circumstances do not make it right to violate our immigration laws. This means the CITIZEN employer that is knowingly breaking the law is liable. Making a legal issue into social issue is just wrong. Our Congress has dropped the ball and turned tyheir heads to allow this exodus of illegals to cross our border and gain employment while citizens remain jobless. Get Corporations out of our legislature and we can begin to heal our nation. abolish the lobbies and repeal the Federal Reserve Bank Act.
WE are a sovereign nation with clearly defined borders. Any person illegally trespassing is already a criminal, so why wait for them to break our laws again? if they can’t be bothered to seek entrance by legal means then I can’t be bothered fedding and birthing their babies. Deportation , but we must secure our borders so that we can slow them down. Our border patrol is a JOKE. it is so undermanned that it is only getting a fraction of the trespasser. Look to our Congress for the solution. Remember that illegal aliens are not a human rights issue ,but a simple crime against the country and it’s real citizens. No wag the dog or smoke and mirrors pork barrel BS is needed.
Well that is true as far as enforcement, Nozzey. But there are other “government incentives” that reward illegal trespassing into our nation in spite of our having ICE. For the trespassing alient, it really is a matter of entrapment, because they are encouraged by our country while being penalized by our country, depending on what is depending upon, if you get my meaning.
We need to end Globalization on an international effort scale, and then ALL nations’ domestic economies will improve dramatically!
The major incentives to job seeking illegal aliens are corporation generated. Even small ones that add up to big money such as day work, dock work etc. this causes big problems because it is not based , but mobile and hard to enforce. I know these people are risking their lives to make a buck and their own people are victimizing them as well , but the issie is with our governments “flim -flam” border stand. We have so few ICE people because big business wants these illegal for higher profit to product cost. American day workers will do the task bur American \, tax payer?worker can’t pay his bills andlive in this countrt fofr $ 5.00/ hour. If you are going to work here I expect you to pay all the taxes that I have to pay. This below poverty wage does not make a gallon of milk , a car or mortgage any cheaper. Most citizens are tyrying to live here ,not make money to send home to feed their foreign children. Enticing starving people to trespass is part olf the mighty NAFTA legacy and corporate America should be found guilty along with their bought and controlled Congress. Big business wants to bring down the pay scale and exploit foreign as well as American people, then let them feed and house these trespassers. It is far past a conspricy it is a take over by Corporate America. It will backfire on them, I have no doubt. Thank you for your input and opinion. I’m always eager to see different points of view. That is the purpose of reading these opinion blogs.
A lot of these Mexican workers are here because of NAFTA. When NAFTA passed, it allowed Archer, Daniels, Midland and other U.S. agri-giants to flood the Mexican market with U.S. taxpayer subsidized wheat and corn. This caused millions of small Mexican farmers to go bankrupt (about 6 million according to a Carnegie (?) Foundation study.) These displaced farm families went to Mexican cities, displacing other workers and forcing a vast migration to the U.S.
These Mexican workers only came to the U.S. so that they could feed their kids and keep a roof over their heads – kind of like a lot of our ancestors. Our country still considers illegal entry into the U.S. to be about the equivalent to the crime of speeding, so it is not as if these people are hardened criminals.
As workers we should stand up for all working people’s rights and freedom – otherwise we’ll get screwed together.
Very interesting point that I was not aware of, Brian. As I said, Globalization is bad both for the supplier and for the buyer, turning both into employment slaves and consumer prostitutes and vice-versa! This is a great example of how Globalization destroys world commerce!