Calero, associate editor of Perspectiva Mundial and Militant staff writer, won a fight against the effort by the U.S. government to deport him. His visit here is part of an international tour to spread the lessons from his struggle to other working people.

Calero said that Washington did not initially see “the political price it was going to pay when the INS began deportation proceedings against me.” Pointing to a May 22 court ruling calling him “nondeportable” as an admission by the government that it had picked the wrong fight at the wrong time, Calero said that workers continue to face systematic violations of their rights, especially immigrants, and that through the tour he is finding example after example of this employer offensive. These attacks are driven by a worldwide economic crisis, he said.

“These objective conditions and how we organized to fight are what made it possible to achieve the victory in my case,” he noted. Some argued against a public campaign because they said it would only provoke the government and make it come down harder, Calero stated, but “I countered that in the face of the enemy, you can show no fear. They will use it against us and hope we panic and get disorganized.”

McDonald said that Calero’s fight against deportation and the Tyson workers’ strike share similarities. “The INS was trying to take away Róger’s existence in the U.S.—his family and job,” she said. “Tyson is trying to take away these workers’ very existence. Their income, health plan, and pension.”

“Róger became on the surface deportable, but because of public outcry, attention, and good legal help, we are celebrating tonight,” said Ed Leahy, coordinator of the Immigrant Rights Network of Iowa-Nebraska, who also helped lead efforts to reach out for support in defense of Calero in Omaha.

Jorge, who asked that his last name not be used, is a packinghouse worker at Swift & Co. who had recently attended a Tyson strike rally in Jefferson. He introduced Mike French, a worker for 28 years at Tyson and vice president of UFCW Local 538. French explained the deepgoing takebacks that Tyson is demanding. “We’ve been on the picket line 24/7 for the past four months and are proud to take a stand,” he stated.

An immigrant worker and his U.S.-born wife told the gathering that they, like Calero and thousands of others, are fighting against an unjust deportation. After renewing his visa and work permit successfully several times, he was arrested in March by immigration officers intent on deporting him because of an arrest many years earlier—although he was never charged with any crime. “We have to do something,” he said.
 

This was a homecoming of sorts, since Calero had worked on the cut floor of the Perry IBP meatpacking plant in 1999-2000. From there he had moved to St. Paul, Minnesota, joining other workers at Dakota Premium Foods to organize a union.

The Perry meeting was sponsored by United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) Local 1149, the local that Calero had been a member of in his time here. Local 1149 shop steward Dave Edwards brought greetings to the meeting. “We will continue to stand beside Róger and will offer our help whenever he needs to call on us,” he said. Four other workers from the IBP plant attended the meeting.

Attacks on democratic rights and workers’ rights have accelerated in the name of national security and the “war on terror,” Calero said. He added that government plans to deport 13,000 U.S. residents, mostly Arab and Muslim, who had complied with a federal order to submit to “special registration,” and other such attacks, build on bipartisan policies years prior to the current administration.

Another example Calero pointed to was Chicago’s Operation Landmark, in which federal authorities are planning to check the files of employees at the Sears Tower and other so-called sensitive locations.

Janet Lemmermann, a legal assistant with the Des Moines law firm of Hedberg, Owens, & Hedberg, P.C., told the meeting about a recent victory by workers at Iowa Packing Company in Des Moines.

The workers had been fired in 2001 for stopping work over working conditions, overtime pay, and an abusive supervisor. At the same time that Calero was beginning his fight against deportation in December 2002, a federal administrative judge ruled that the workers should be reinstated with back pay, in addition to other sanctions against Iowa Packing Company. That decision was reaffirmed by the National Labor Relations Board in April of this year.

Lemmermann became a supporter of the case after meeting activists in Calero’s fight at a meeting of the Iowa-Nebraska Immigrant Rights Network.

Activists from the Immigrant Rights Network videotaped Calero’s remarks to show at a future meeting. The meeting in Perry was also sponsored by the Drake University chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, and the Spanish-language newsweeklies El Enfoque and El Latino. Calero was also interviewed by the Des Moines Register (see article that appeared in last week’s Militant).
 

“My fight struck a chord among workers,” Calero said at a June 24 gathering at the Decima Musa restaurant here, which was chaired by Gerardo Sánchez, a leader of the local Calero defense committee and a member of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1546. Calero stressed that his defense campaign was nonpartisan, “inviting anyone interested to join, and turn to, and receive support from other fighters.”

Julieta Bolivar, a member of the Latino Union, an organization of day laborers who is also fighting deportation by the immigration police, took part in the gathering. “I didn’t come prepared to speak, but to show my support for Róger,” she said. Bolivar was arrested by cops in Pennsylvania while traveling to a conference of day laborers. She now has a court hearing scheduled in Pennsylvania November 5. “As you can see I’m still here and we are going to keep fighting,” she declared to a big applause.

Amancia Alverado, one of the activists in the Calero defense committee here, spoke about her visit to El Paso, Texas, where a network of groups is being organized to protest deaths of immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. “We deserve the right to live here and work here,” she said.

Discussion lasted over an hour after Calero’s presentation to a meeting of the Union of Mexican Braceros on June 23. The braceros formed the group in 2000 to fight for wages not paid to them when they were brought from Mexico to the United States to labor on farms and railroads during and after World War II.

Several of the braceros were former meat packers who were interested in Calero’s experiences in the successful fight for union recognition at Dakota Premium Foods, where Calero worked before joining the Militant staff. One of them was Lupe Peña, a retired meat packer and staunch supporter of the Calero campaign who organized a presentation on the defense case at a braceros’ meeting last March, collecting 30 signatures to stop the deportation. “It is a great victory,” he said. “We won because of all the work we did, all the different people, the organizations, everyone.”

The next day Calero joined a protest of day laborers who are fighting for a hiring hall in the Albany Park neighborhood of Chicago. Some of them attended earlier rallies in support of Calero and welcomed the news of his victory. José Landaverde, a leader of the Latino Union, invited him to speak at the action. Calero noted how the employers seek to hire immigrant workers to break strikes and push down wages. The day laborers described how they have been asked to cross picket lines, including during an organizing drive at a laundry. They said they instead put up their own picket lines in defense of the laundry workers.

Calero was invited by José Oliva, executive director of the Interfaith Workers Rights Center and a chairperson of the national Róger Calero Defense Committee, to attend a meeting of representatives of unions, immigrant rights groups, churches, and community groups involved in fighting against the Social Security Administration’s “no-match” program. Under this plan, the government agency sends a letter to workers or employers notifying them of a discrepancy on the workers’ W-2 forms and government records. Bosses have been using the letters to fire workers, including singling out many fighting for better job conditions. Javier Ramírez, vice president of the UFCW Local 1546, was one of the main speakers. He urged the unions to press companies to make a contractual agreement not to victimize workers who receive no-match letters.

Calero got interviews with a popular Spanish-language talk show at La Tremenda radio station; World View, a national radio program; and the Northeastern University radio station. The June 24 meeting was videotaped by CAN TV, an alternative network. Lorenzo Martin, editor of The Standard, a newspaper in Chicago Heights oriented to the Black community, covered the event.
 
 
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