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An
Interview with Immigrant Rights Organizer Martín Unzueta
"We Are Going
to Keep Marching"
By LEE SUSTAR
The WALL STREET JOURNAL published
a worried analysis about the April 10 day of action for immigrant
rights, pointing to widespread absenteeism by workers who participated,
which forced many employers to shut down.
Workers at an Excel meatpacking
plant in Dodge City, Kan., walked off the job after several workers
were disciplined for staying away from work to demonstrate. After
they marched into the company cafeteria and announced they wouldn't
return to work, management was forced to back down and withdraw
the disciplinary action.
In Chicago, workers at the
Cobra Metal Workers Corp. were fired after skipping work to participate
in the march of 300,000 people on March 10. But they won reinstatement
after activists organized by the Chicago Workers Collaborative
rallied to their defense.
I talked to MARTÍN UNZUETA,
the group's organizer, about the central role of workers in the
new immigrant-rights movement--and the national movement to skip
work, march and protest on May 1.
* *
*
LS: HOW DOES the Chicago
Workers Collaborative participate in the immigrant-rights movement?
MU: THE MISSION of the organization
is to organize the community around workers' rights, and give
workers some tools to fight in the workplace.
For example, a law protecting
the rights of day laborers in Illinois was just passed last year
and took effect in January. So we're fielding complaints from
the different day laborers to fight for their rights with the
state Department of Labor.
The first complaint against
a company is a $2,000 fine. The second is $500 for each worker
for each day that the company doesn't solve the problem. Typically,
the complaints are that they didn't pay overtime. Others didn't
take care of workplace injuries. Many of them don't give W-2
forms to the workers.
Finally, some companies are
using the day laborers to undercut workers' rights--to avoid
paying benefits and preventing their right to organize.
LS: WHAT ROLE did this kind
of organizing here in Chicago and around the U.S. play in the
huge demonstrations for immigrant rights?
MU: IF YOU are a day laborer,
you are contracted. If you don't go today, you can go tomorrow.
So you can miss work to protest.
Other workers are trying to
organize unions. In the last four years, I've helped organize
four unions--more than a lot of trade unions have done in the
Chicago area. I try to make the workers understand what the benefits
of being in a union are, and I help different unions to organize
these places--such as the United Electrical Workers and the Steelworkers.
The workers meet here in our
office with the unions, which gives workers some protection under
the law.
We also function like a community
organization, providing English classes and helping with different
state programs, like food stamps. And we use our institution
to educate workers about their rights in the workplace.
LS: DO WORKERS from Mexico
bring with them their traditions of organizing?
MU: THEY BRING all their traditions.
In Mexico, we had a terrible experience with the unions, with
leaders like [oil workers' union leader] Fidel Velazquez, who
was a real gangster. They killed a lot of people who wanted to
create independent unions. So when they come here, we try to
make clear to them what the relationship should be between workers
and the unions.
Many people come here and say,
"My union is making me do things." We say, "Do
you know your contract? No? Read the contract and then come back
to me." If you don't know your rights when you have a contract,
how can I help you?
Then, there are the people
who don't have unions. Right now, we're working around three
nonunion companies. They only have about 100 workers, so they
aren't very attractive to the unions. If they had 500 workers,
all the unions would say, "Let me try."
LS: WHEN LATINO workers
walked off their job April 10, the employers were suddenly talking
about the importance of immigrant labor, and many were fired.
Why are workers willing to take this risk?
MU: YOU CAN find many workers
who can be fired from one job and find work easily in two or
three days. We tell them, "You have rights, you've worked
there for five years, and you should get compensation."
But the reality is that it's not a big priority for them to keep
working for one company.
Many of the people we work
with are legal residents or citizens. Their problem is their
understanding of the law in the U.S.--that they have rights.
If you're a Latino, even if
you're a citizen, you're paid $11 or $13 per hour. We can find
people who earn $17 or $20 per hour, but there aren't a lot.
Because we find institutionalized discrimination.
If you come to a company, maybe
they pay $20 per hour. But if they see that you're Mexican, and
you don't speak good English, they're going to pay you $13 per
hour. This is the big discrimination against the community.
That's why many of those who
are marching now are not undocumented immigrants. There are lots
of citizens, lots of green cards. They march because this isn't
just an issue of regularization, or of amnesty, or whatever it's
going to be.
The thing is that we're discriminated
against in this country each time we go to work every day. That's
our anger here right now.
LS: WHY IS the May 1 protest
important?
MU: IT'S IMPORTANT because
now the unions are coming with us. We have a coalition--the Service
Employees International Union, UNITE HERE, the Steelworkers and
the Teamsters, coming together with the community organizations
to make May Day the workers' day, like it should have been many,
many years ago.
The workers who were killed
here in Chicago [on the first May Day in 1886] were immigrant
workers. And this day should be for them.
We had Mexican-American community
organizations, but now those coming to our meetings include the
Korean community, the Polish community. We're trying to reach
the Irish community, and we need to reach the Muslim community.
If the unions don't see what's
happening and they miss this, then they are dead.
LS: ARE YOU calling for
workers to strike May 1?
MU: WE'RE NOT asking people
to strike--not exactly. We're using a different strategy. If
you request your employer to get this day off, then perhaps you
can get an agreement--perhaps in exchange for working more hours
the next week.
We're trying to make this a
day for the civil rights of immigrant workers. And who in this
country wants to be opposed to civil rights? Workers can say,
"I know you're the owner, and you make a lot of money from
us--are you opposed to our civil rights?" And they'll say,
"No, no."
We have a petition the workers
can use to request a day off. It doesn't say it, but basically,
this gives them protection under the National Labor Relations
Act.
LS: SOME IN the immigrant-rights
movement say we shouldn't call for people to skip work and school
May 1, or call for amnesty for undocumented workers, because
it will cause a backlash.
MU: WE NEED amnesty. I think
[Congress] is going to do whatever they want. But we're going
to keep marching. Because if we don't keep marching, they're
going to give us less--all the time, less and less.
I don't agree about keeping
quiet in this movement. In Mexico, the first of May will be a
boycott against the American companies. In Mexico, we have a
strong independent union movement, the UNT, and they're supporting
us.
I think everyone has the right
to free speech in the U.S. You have this right whether you're
a worker or a student, and you need to use it. This is a civil
rights movement.
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