Session
reports:
Submitted by
fazcarate on April 27, 2007 - 9:35pm.
This session will
be on: June 29,
2007 - 10:30am
It will be held
at: Room 1203 room at the Westin
Hotel
The American
Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) is a
voluntary federation of 54 national and international labor unions. We
represent more than 10 million workers across the United States.The mission of
the AFL-CIO is to improve the lives of working families—to bring economic
justice to the workplace and social justice to our nation. To accomplish this
mission we will build and change the American labor movement. We will build a
broad movement of American workers by organizing workers into unions. We will
recruit and train the next generation of organizers, mass the resources needed
to organize and create the strategies to win organizing campaigns and union
contracts. We will create a broad understanding of the need to organize among
our members, our leadership and among unorganized workers. We will lead the
labor movement in these efforts. We will build a strong political voice for
workers in our nation. We will fight for an agenda for working families at all
levels of government. We will empower state federations. We will build a broad
progressive coalition that speaks out for social and economic justice. We will
create a political force within the labor movement that will empower workers
and speak forcefully on the public issues that affect our lives. We will change
our unions to provide a new voice to workers in a changing economy. We will
speak for working people in the global economy, in the industries in which we
are employed, in the firms where we work, and on the job every day. We will
transform the role of the union from an organization that focuses on a member's
contract to one that gives workers a say in all the decisions that affect our
working lives—from capital investments, to the quality of our products and
services, to how we organize our work. We will change our labor movement by
creating a new voice for workers in our communities. We will make the voices of
working families heard across our nation and in our neighborhoods. We will
create vibrant community labor councils that reach out to workers at the local
level. We will strengthen the ties of labor to our allies. We will speak out in
effective and creative ways on behalf of all working Americans.
identify as
women
identify as
people of color
are
immigrants (not born in
Globalization, free-trades policies, and corporate driven labor
policies in the U.S. have put pressure on the U.S. labor movement while
simultaneously creating a growing number of workers, largely immigrants, who
are super-exploited by unscrupulous employers. To exercise their rights, workers
have been self-organizing by creating Worker Centers that advocate for the
their members through collective education and action, while also providing a
broad array of assistance to its members and their families.
In August 2006, the AFL-CIO decided to partner with Worker Centers
across the country by formalizing ties between Central Labor Councils, State
Federations and local
Suggested Presenters: (not all are confirmed)
Pablo Alvarado, Executive Director, National Day Labor Organizing
Netwrok
Caroline Murray, Director, Anti-Displacement Project/Casa Obrera
Eddie Acosta,
Victor Narro, Director,
Marilyn Baird, Director,
Fred
Azcarate
fazcarat@aflcio.org
AFL-CIO
www.aflcio.org
Director,
Voice@Work
202-639-6229
Friday, June
29th (Visioning / Envisioning Another World)
Panel
Workplaces
Immigrant
Rights
Labor
50-100 people
DC
20006
Labor Session #1:
Immigrant Workers’ Rights!
Organized by the
AFL-CIO
Ellen’s notes
There were about 60 people participating in this workshop, including the panelists. It was fairly mixed by gender. It was mainly white, Latino, and black. There are two women who speak only Spanish and a woman translates for them (they sit next to her b/c there is no translation equipment). The participants range in ages from 25-50, with most about 35-45 years old.
Eddie Acosta (he is a Latino man who is the National Worker Center Coordinator for the AFL-CIO). The name of this session is a little different than the main focus of this workshop, which is on workers’ centers and labor unions.
Eddie introduces the other panelists:
1. Frances Boyes
(white woman,
2. Joyce Johnson
(black woman,
3. Enco Moto (Latino man, National Day Laborers’ Organizing Network)
Eddie: Many
workers fall outside of unions: independent contractors, day laborers, etc.
Workers united is the main idea. There are about 160 workers centers in the
Joyce: She is the
director, standing in for the Economic Justice coordinator who is most familiar
with this workers’ center. Our approach is community unionism. We emphasize
dignity, the work, and the potential of everyone. You are a resident and you
are important. Their campaign with K-mart became a model. Workers made efforts
to unionize and were approached by their ministers who are key to change in the
Bible Belt. There was a substantial difference in wages (I think she means
between the day laborers and regular workers). Ministers supported the campaign
and were arrested when they prayed outside the company’s doors. Students also
got arrested and got involved through assignments for their labor studies program
in the local university. We engaged with many different community groups. The
Smithville campaign has become well known. It created a labor-community
alliance. We’ve gone to groceries selling
Enco: Antilan represents about 30 organizations that are learning from each other. Our goals: 1. We want to change the negative image that people have of day laborers. 2. We also seek to legalize immigrants. We support all the efforts to do this and to make sure that day laborers are included in all of the legislation that the AFL-CIO is supporting. 3. Protect people’s civil and human rights and improve their working conditions. Often day laborers are not given proper training and equipment to do their jobs. They struggle with anti-immigrant sentiment within labor unions. Its important to have solidarity among all workers. The main differences among workers are in their wages and working conditions. We want day laborers to become union members. We want to identify bad contractors and pressure them to improve working conditions and give them breaks for example. They organize painters and other workers. Its important to validate the work that people do. Home Depot law (a law promoted by this company?) would prohibit day laborers. This is how the national network got started. The relationship between unions and workers centers: we’re like boyfriend and girlfriend holding hands. We are learning from each other.
Discussion with
audience:
A white man from
A white man asks Enco about who he is and he clarifies that he is an organizer hired by the AFL-CIO to organize day laborers, but he isn’t a day laborer himself.
Enco: There will be a national conference to bring
worker center members together. He describes a worker center that collectively
owns a housekeeping business and they use non-toxic cleaning chemicals that are
good for the environment and they hope to bring more women into it and enlarge
their company. This is a model for other cities. In
White man (he
belongs to the Young Socialists from
Eddie: The
AFL-CIO bill was killed in the senate yesterday. Some people were sad but also
relieved because this bill is a disaster for working people. In 1986, IRCA was
passed and we supported employer sanctions for employing knowingly or not an
undocumented immigrant. Since then, the AFL-CIO has changed its position on
immigration policy. We seek to legalize all undocumented workers and to raise
their wages. The bill represented a compromise on immigration and legalization
was traded for guest worker program. What do you do with future immigrants is
important. If you are in the
Enco: We need to educate people to keep the space clean and to not harass people.
Eddie: The Congress is still very conservative even though the Democrats now have the majority. Kennedy supported a pro-union bill, the employer of choice bill and he drove the immigration bill. No senator proposed a comprehensive immigration bill but would offer amendments to other bills that were pro-labor. The pro-labor and pro-immigrant lobbies have been divided. We can’t be divided on this issue. I am talking as an individual, not a representative of the AFL-CIO. We need to agree on principals. We cant get a perfect bill. We can’t get what we want if we are divided. Kennedy is a good ally. We struck a bargain in the last bill. 12 million immigrants would be legalized in exchange for a guest worker program. Next year, there is not likely to be an immigration bill passed because it’s a presidential election year. What do we do to push back against the anti-immigration sentiment. We want to fix the Hoffman-Plastics decision. That decision upheld the legality of having a worker during a union organizing campaign answer regarding whether he was documented. Prior policy said that would illegal. We can’t have corporate control of immigration and labor laws. The AFL-CIO tends to separate immigration and labor issues.
Joyce: We are all together We use the resources of the documented workers to help the undocumented with theft of wages (back pay of wages) and the need for march permits.
White woman in audience: What are you doing to organize women?
Enco: In
Joyce: The worker center and public services union combines key issues, such as child welfare and educational justice. They address women’s concerns with schools.
White man: There
was a raid of immigrant workers in
Joyce: We’ve also
had problems with ICE. Unions and the Commission on the Status of Women have
opposed these practices. I work in a community that is not very diverse, but
the no-match issue arose in
Eli Green (Steelworkers
union, a black male oilworker): we need to consummate this marriage b/w workers
centers and unions. Black workers were historically used as strike breakers. We
need to confront divisions among workers and anti-immigrant sentiment. There
are some black, Latino, and white workers unclear on these issues. Minutemen
organized a demonstration in
Joyce: But the culture within some unions aren’t open to receiving undocumented workers. People (undocumented) need to move into unions. Some courtships take longer than others. (she jokes that she speaks as someone who has been married for many years after a very short courtship).
Eddie: In the Change to Win unions, there’s not enough done to work well with immigrants at the local level. We’re putting together a curriculum to distribute through the Central Labor Councils to educate local union members. Unions and workers centers are working together on this to overcome polarization among workers. You need to let people get their feelings out before you change their minds on these kinds of issues. He wants to end this workshop on a positive note. He mentions that a state assembly woman was attending the workshop earlier but had to leave. She was starting a bill to stop police MOUs.
Cuban-American translator stands up and says she also has something positive to share before the workshop ends. She’s from the Mississippi Immigrant Rights Association. They are now accepting passports as ID’s for bank accounts, an issue her group worked on. She also encourages the participants to keep in touch and work together on these issues.
Submitted by
Ai-jen Poo on April 8, 2007 - 3:28pm.
This session will
be on: June 30,
2007 - 10:30am
It will be held
at: International C room at the
Westin Hotel
This workshop
is being coordinated by participants in the National Gathering of
Domestic/Household Workers taking place at the forum. We represent 12 domestic
workers organizations across the country, concentrated in
identify as
women
identify as
people of color
are
immigrants (not born in
Organizing in the Shadow of Slavery: Domestic Workers, Farm
Workers and Low-wage Workers in the South
The session will include a brief history of how the legacy of
slavery has shaped the development of the economy in the
The session will put organizations organizing on these fronts in
dialogue with each other and with labor historians and political economic
theorists in order to deepen the analysis of the roots of oppression facing
these workforces, identify the common histories and current struggles and
strengthen the organizing through making connections. Organizations will
present on their work and their organizing methods and engage one another on
key questions related to building a coordinated low-wage workers movement in
the
Ai-jen
Poo
domesticworkersunited@gmail.com
Domestic
Workers United
www.domesticworkersunited.org
Organizer
718-220-7391x11
Saturday,
June 30th (Strategizing the Achieving of Another World)
Panel, slide
show, video and testimonials
Cross sector
movement work
Informal
sector
Migration, Migrant
Workers
100-250
people
NY
10458
walda
Labor Session #2:
Organizing in the Shadow of Slavery
Saturday @
Organized by Domestic
Workers’ United
Ellen’s notes
The audience had about 110 people and perhaps even more than this (some were sitting on the floor and hard to count). Participants were mostly women and very racially and ethnically, mixed. It was mainly blacks and Latinos, but a fair number of men, Philipinos, Asian-Americans, and whites were also in the audience. There was a literature table with literature and t-shirts from 2 organizations for sale along the side. Various people picked up literature, bought shirts, etc. at the beginning and end of the session. Translation equipment was used throughout for Spanish-to-English translation. Since some panelists spoke English and others’ Spanish and there wasn’t enough equipment for everyone, we had to take turns using the equipment. The room was large and overflowing with people, with not enough chairs.
Moderator: The session began with a session panelist announcing the creation of a new national alliance of domestic worker organizations.
A group of 4 DWU members sing a song, with audience participation and loud clapping with the music. A lot of cheering and clapping when they finish. Then everyone chanted, “We will fight, fight, fight…” It felt like a pep rally.
Moderator: The focus of this workshop is black workers/farm workers/domestic workers/immigrant workers. We have exploitation and globalization. Globalization is splitting our nations’ apart and hurting our homelands.
The national network includes about 12-14 organizations. The moderator calls out the names of these organizations and affiliated organization that are participating in this session, with a lot of cheering and representatives of each group standing up so we can see them: Domestic Workers United, Migrant Workers’ Association, Women Workers Project, South Asian Women, Committeee for Haitian Refugees, Philipino Workers’ Center, San Francisco Day Labor Women’s Collective, CHIRLA, Coalition for Immoklee Workers, Mississippi Workers’ Association, Garment Workers’ Center…
June Johnson (a black woman, probably with the
AFL-CIO):
Gloria (westcoast domestic worker, from POWER in
Black Workers for Justice (black man from
Coalition for
Immoklee Workers (Philipino woman): Our master is the global capitalist
system led by the
Domestic workers, like farm workers, are excluded from the National Labor Relations Act. We can be terminated if we organize. There is an innate contradiction between employers and workers and that’s why we need to organize. Technically, we’re under minimum wage law and overtime laws but there’s widespread violations of those laws. We don’t have social security or healthcare. We rely on medicines from the community and from our home countries to survive. These exclusions cannot be tolerated.
Black woman from the DWU: Domestic workers and farmworkers enable those who run the corporations to do their work, but this work is not recognized. Toxic chemicals are used in the fields. Workers have to educate themselves because they aren’t covered by OSHA. We are our brothers’ keeper. Whether you are documented or not, you have human rights and human rights are workers’ rights. When you know that, they can’t mess with you. You tell them you will call immigration and they (the employers) will be sanctioned. We need to stand up for ourselves.
Veronica (Coalition for Immoklee Workers-a
Chanting:(Very
energetic and loud)
Si se puede! (repeats).
We will fight back this slavery attack! (repeats)
Grace Chang (an
academic): She discusses visas and how dehumanization is institutionalized
through these visas. In terms of the squalid working conditions, employers want
to treat the workers like they are not people. It is largely immigrant and
women of color and so employers think they can get away with it, but they are
dead wrong (because the workers are fighting back). This labor trafficking in
agricultural and domestic work is common but overlooked or taken for granted.
Trafficking is associated instead with sex workers. People are ignorant and
don’t realize it also happens in the agricultural and domestic labor
industries. This trafficking is institutionalized and encouraged by bad
immigration policies. Trafficking is defined in US federal laws as involving
the recruitment or obtaining of person to work through force; including
servitude and slavery. The
Audience member (
Audience member (
Panelist, Back Workers for Justice (black man): we need to make a link to patriarchy. Most housekeepers are women and we need to link sexual harassment, workers’ lack of pay, etc. to patriarchy. Immigrant rights is another important part of their exploitation. We ned to fully support the May 1st marches and unions didn’t do this. We have an international petition for rights to collective bargaining and for a bill for workers’ rights. This is a struggle for democracy, for basic rights.
Panelist (black woman; probably June Johnson): We need to go back to our bases and what they need and are cooking up for change. Not all of our organizations were created at the same time and we need to learn from our grandparent organizations. We have to show how intelligent we women are… These organizations have a lot to give and a lot to learn. We need to break down the sexism, racism, etc. that keeps us exploited. We are all equal and we need to break down the system of slavery. We’ve just planted a seed, we’ve just begun… (Giving advice to the newer organizations): Be clear about your differences and resolve them. Acknowledge your victories.
A panelist announces that over 12 domestic worker organizations joined together and formed a national network, the National Domestic Worker Alliance is made and there is a lot of cheering and chanting.
A panelist: We need to turn things around and use our exclusions (e.g., from the NLRA, due to racism, etc.) as our strength.
We end the session with another round of chanting, denouncing slavery, exploitation, racism, sexism, etc. and upholding workers’ rights. The moderator also announced that the next session would be closed to the public and would be just for members of the organizations that were part of the new national network of domestic workers so that they could focus on the work of that network. There was a lot of informal networking at the end of the session, folks buying shirts, gathering literature, etc. Old friends saying hello, giving hugs to each other, etc.
Submitted by sreyes on May 10, 2007 - 8:25pm.
This
session will be on:
It
will be held at: Mezzanine Center
room at the
We came
together to fill in the void produced when no rally was called on May Day 2006
in the City of
This activity seeks to demonstrate the need to join forces in the
world to confront the injustices of a condition created by contemporary
capitalism: large masses of migrant workers desperately seeking work to
survive. In that process they are abused, victimized, exploited and
discriminated.
The
We must make ours the following principles agreed upon by the
WSF-MWRA:
"Therefore, it is necessary to keep making the links between
migration related questions and the larger struggle against neo-liberal
policies that jeopardize everyone’s liberty.
Together, we reaffirm our rejection of the idea that migration and
migrants are a problem to be eradicated and that migrants are a source of
insecurity, terrorism, or illegal trafficking.
We refuse both to criminalize migrants and to accept the idea that
migratory movements are somehow dangerous to people in the receiving countries.
Laws concerning migration should be based on human rights rather than on
security and repressive considerations.
We call for a change of perspective in the debate on migration. We
reaffirm that migrants participate in the transformation of societies and we
reassert their positive and vital role. Migrants embody the international
solidarity values we all defend. Migrants' rights are human rights."
Sergio
Reyes
sreyes1@yahoo.com
www.bostonmayday.org
Coalition
Organizer
6172905614
6174410277
Saturday,
June 30th (Strategizing the Achieving of Another World)
Brief
presentation, discussion and strategy building
Human Rights
Immigrant
Rights
Labor
Migration,
Migrant Workers
Workers
25-50 people
MA
02111
jerome
Labor Session #3:
Transnational United for Migrant Workers’ Rights
Organized by the
Saturday
I missed most of this session and came in at the end of it, but I got the literature of the organizers after it was over and talked briefly with the organizers.
The session appeared to be run by 2 people, an immigrant man (he appeared to
be South Asian or Middle Eastern). He said that he wasn’t in a union. The other
organizer was a SEIU Local 521 member and was a black woman. Their literature
included a petition for the
When I arrived, a white Eastern European (?) woman was speaking about ways to make the struggle for migrant workers’ rights more transnational and then she left to go somewhere else.
Progressive Labor
Party (white man): These aren’t our
borders. Armies defend the country to benefit the government. Borders divide
working people. We organized a May Day march (in
Man from
SEIU Local 521/session organizer: We are international (her union). No one is really safe in the global economy. I am supportive of non-violent negotiations. I’m in the home health care industry and we make gains by acting collectively and supporting other workers’ struggles in others’ countries. I’m encouraged by these Social Forums.
IBEW Local 613 (an
immigrant man from
SEIU Local 521/session organizer: Get to know the people from another state/country. This is how we understand why people move. People move because of layoffs. Its not them vs. us. Its us. We’re too quick to learn stereotypes but not how to bust them. You need to see the human side of it.
After the session was over, the IBEW member asked if any one
was from the
Ellen’s responses to the Guideline questions:
The concrete action was circulating the petition to the
The organizers linked this session to the WSF process. They
had a banner up that they had used during the 2007 WSF meeting and the idea of
their petition grew out of their participation there and the Migrant Workers’
Assembly (see workshop description above). There was no discussion about future
local/national social forums, but rather on taking ideas from this workshop
back to your local community and organizing for immigrant/migrant workers’
rights locally. At the end, the local participants from