‘An Injury to One Is An Injury to All’

For many American workers, organizing a union can mean putting your job on the line. For undocumented immigrants--no matter what the conditions on the job--even joining a union can lead to the back seat of an Immigration and Naturalization Service van on the way to the border.

Consider Norma Lerma del Torro, a 28-year-old mother of three from a poor state in Mexico. She made the tough trek north to Minneapolis to find a better life for herself and her children. When she sought to better her conditions by joining a union at the Holiday Inn Express, what she encountered was hardly the American dream. The manager called the INS--a “coincidence” he claims--and Norma and eight Mexican co-workers found themselves on their way to jail and possible deportation.

This “coincidence” and many more like it have put a chill on labor organizing but also spurred the historic resolution unanimously passed at the AFL-CIO executive council meetings in New Orleans this week. In a dramatic shift, labor has called for an amnesty for the 6 million or so undocumented workers now in the country and for dropping penalties against employers who hire them in the future.

Why has the labor movement reversed course? For one thing, unions have come to the realization that in many industries the protection they provide to existing members is only as strong as the rights enjoyed by the most vulnerable workers. If undocumented workers are afraid to complain, then everyone else on the job will find their voices muted. If you are afraid to ask for an asbestos respirator because you fear deportation, a new, lower safety standard is, in effect, being set for everyone.

For another reason, unions need to organize immigrants to retain a footing in many industries and to grow in an increasingly diverse economy. Some estimates indicate that about 1 in 5 people who entered the work force last year were immigrants, both legal and not. In some industries such as meatpacking, garments, agriculture and hotels, immigrants make up an even larger percentage of the work force. You can’t easily ask someone to sign a union card if you’re checking their green card at the same time.

The call for amnesty recognizes that current immigration policy is dysfunctional. As INS budgets have soared, so has undocumented immigration. In fact, it has increased by about 275,000 a year since the 1986 law authorizing employer sanctions was passed. The reason is pretty straightforward: Wars and economic dislocation at home have pushed people north and a booming U.S. economy has pulled them in--a giant sucking sound so to speak. As a result, immigrants--with and without papers--have become a vital part of the work force. They work hard, pay taxes and want a better life for their children. Recognizing this central economic role, a number of major employer organizations have seconded labor’s resolution.

So-called employer sanctions--the threat of penalties for hiring undocumented workers--rarely have been used against employers but lay the basis for a climate of fear in the workplace. A company needs have little fear of being investigated--only about 5,000 out of close to 600,000 firms were checked in 1997--but an employer can use the law at will to investigate the legal status of workers. When workers begin talking union, many employers overnight decide to vigorously comply with immigration law.

Ultimately labor’s new immigration policy cannot be explained by pragmatic reasons alone. In adopting it, unions are returning to their core values of solidarity and “an injury to one is an injury to all” and seeking to be a voice for all working people, even the most disadvantaged.

When Rosa Parks refused to sit down in the back of the bus, or Martin Luther King Jr. marched with the sanitation workers in Memphis, or Cesar Chavez fasted in Delano, it was for more than a seat on the bus, an extra dollar in the paycheck or better conditions in the fields--as important as these issues were. It was about dignity, respect and democratic values.

What labor is saying is that people who are part of this society today--no matter how they got here--ought to be able to share in its ideals. A movement that immigrants helped build is reaching its hand out to the next generation.