Labor Enlists Mexico as Amnesty Ally

Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castaneda thrilled delegates at a hotel workers union convention this week by vowing to fight for “the whole enchilada” of immigration reform, insisting that any employer-backed guest worker program be tied to amnesty for illegal workers.

In the process, he underscored his government’s growing alliance with U.S. labor on immigration reform.

Castaneda’s appearance at the Los Angeles convention was a coup for the 250,000-member Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees union, or HERE, and for labor as a whole, which has had fractious relations with Mexico for most of the last decade, largely over free trade.

A new federal government in Mexico and a radical change in organized labor’s position toward illegal immigrants--who once were resented as potential strikebreakers--set the stage for what Castaneda referred to as a “better and stronger relationship.”

Led by service sector unions such as HERE and the Service Employees International Union, organized labor has emerged as the leading voice for immigration reform in the United States. To highlight that activism, the hotel union said Wednesday that it will organize a cross-country “freedom ride” for amnesty next year, modeled after similar rides for civil rights in the early 1960s.

There are strong practical reasons for the change: As more immigrants enter the labor force, unions increasingly are trying to organize them. But the unions find that workers’ illegal status often is used to discourage them from joining.

Unions also fear that an expanded guest worker program, which would allow workers to enter the country temporarily under restricted visas, would encourage exploitation while further hampering organizing efforts.

Last year, the AFL-CIO called for a sweeping new amnesty program, which would grant legal status and eventual citizenship to all illegal immigrant workers in the United States, as well as the repeal of so-called employer sanctions. The sanctions, which penalize employers that hire undocumented workers, were adopted in 1985 at labor’s insistence. Unions say they are used to retaliate against workers who try to form a union.

The three-day HERE convention was dominated by talk of immigration legislation and strategies to pull more immigrants into the organization without alienating longtime members.

At an immigration forum Wednesday morning, some delegates pointed out potential schisms between new immigrant workers and African Americans, who have been largely displaced in hotel and restaurant jobs.

“African Americans are apprehensive and even fearful of the impact of demographic changes,” said Isaac Monroe, a delegate who co-chaired the Immigration and Civil Rights Task Force. “It is up to us to quell those fears. . . . The importance of one movement can never get lost in the shadow of the other.”

Monroe said that the union needs to insist that employers hire African American workers along with immigrants, and that the labor movement needs to promote more minority leaders.

HERE President John Wilhelm, who was elected to a second five-year term this week, said the union will insist on equitable hiring practices in contracts, while adding language that would protect immigrant workers from exploitation. He declared to boisterous cheers, “We can never, never let them divide us.”

The demographics of the union are changing dramatically, and that trend is expected to continue as organizers specifically target immigrant workers. At Local 11 in Los Angeles, 75% of the members are immigrants.

Elsewhere in the country, immigrant membership also is growing: 50% in Las Vegas, 68% in New York, 39% in Chicago. In 10 years, the immigration task force projected, 80% of workers in the hospitality industry will be immigrants.

Castaneda’s appearance Tuesday night drew leaders of other unions, including Service Employees International Union Executive Vice President Eliseo Medina and United Farm Workers President Arturo Rodriguez.