BY AUTUMN KNOWLTON
YAKIMA, Washington - Nearly 750 people, the vast majority
of them Latino, marched to Miller Park after picketing the
office of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS)
here February 23 to protest a firing of an estimated 700-1,000
workers.
The INS ordered 13 Yakima-area fruit packing warehouses to fire all workers it listed as undocumented by February 19. The immigration cops audited the warehouses' payroll records and claimed there were 1,708 undocumented workers. Many on this list, however, were seasonal employees who already had been laid off. The INS claims no one will be deported as a result of this action, but some workers who were not slated for firing might have left their jobs anyway for fear of being deported.
The INS took this action in the middle of an ongoing fight by apple packing workers to organize into the Teamsters union.
Sharon Rummery, an INS spokeswoman in San Francisco, was quoted in the Yakima Herald-Republic as saying, "Jobs are what matter to us." Demanding the firings is "a new concept. It's kinder, gentler, and it's smarter" than mass deportations.
Amnesty for the fired workers was the main demand of the spirited protest, which was organized by the Chicano/Latino Coalition of Yakima with support from Teamsters United for Change, Washington Alliance for Immigrant and Refugee Justice, and the United Farm Workers. Around 700 people came to a community meeting February 18 to plan a response to the INS action.
The Carpenters union and chapters of the Chicano student group MEChA from Central Washington University and Yakima Valley Community College were also at the rally with banners and protest signs.
The signs at the rally had slogans such as "Stop the war against immigrants" and "Lo podemos hacer juntos," (We can do it together). Many of the protesters were young women, who make up a large percentage of the workforce at the area's apple packing houses. An estimated 15,000 workers are employed in the Washington fruit warehouse industry.
The rally included comments by members of the local community. Among the speakers were two representatives of the Catholic church and Ricardo García, a member of the Chicano/Latino Coalition and the director of the local Spanish- language radio station KDNA, which played a big role in publicizing the action. Organizers of the rally announced a car caravan that will travel from Yakima to Olympia, the state capital, February 25 to draw attention to the situation of the fired workers in the Yakima Valley.
Autumn Knowlton is a member of the YS in Seattle.