Vol. 71/No. 35      September 24, 2007

The capitalists draw in immigrant workers to have a section of the working class with few or no legal rights, as part of maintaining their profits. Bosses and their politicians use arguments that immigrant workers steal “American jobs” to foster divisions and break down solidarity among working people. At the same time they use all means at their disposal—cops, courts, ultra-rightist vigilantes—to intimidate immigrant workers and maintain their status as a super-exploitable section of the working class. Divisions in the working class based on race, sex, and country of origin weaken the class as a whole and make it easier for bosses to drive down wages and working conditions for everybody.

Organizing and using union power goes in the opposite direction by uniting workers to fight together for more tolerable living and working conditions. Union organizing puts workers in a stronger position to defend themselves against boss attacks on wages, line speed, and dignity. In the process, working people cut across divisions and build solidarity.

With the changing composition of the U.S. working class through the influx of millions of immigrants from Latin America, Asia, and Africa, the demands for immediate legalization for all and an end to raids and deportations become urgently posed for the labor movement.

Immigrant workers have been at the forefront of some of the most important union battles in recent years. This was the case in the 2003-2006 fight to organize a United Mine Workers of America local at the Co-Op coal mine in Huntington, Utah. It was also true of the 2000 sit-down strike and subsequent organizing victory for the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 789 at the Dakota Premium Foods slaughterhouse in South St. Paul, Minnesota.

Another example is the May 25, 2007, union victory at PM Beef in Windom, Minnesota, where workers, largely led by Latino immigrants, successfully fought to organize themselves into UFCW Local 1161. The union representation vote there came less than six months after an immigration raid at a Swift plant just 30 miles away, where 239 workers were arrested. Many of the PM Beef workers had previously worked at the Swift plant, which is also organized by UFCW Local 1161.

Such raids are aimed at intimidating workers and weakening fights for legalization and unionization. The bosses can, have, and will continue to play the “immigration card” against workers fighting for unionization. During the Co-Op organizing struggle, the company fired dozens of workers on the eve of a union representation election, claiming it had just discovered the workers did not have proper papers to work in the United States.

Workers’ ability to maintain their jobs under these conditions can only be won in struggle. Dozens of immigrant workers who were fired for taking days off for demonstrations for legalization in 2006—from meat packers in Detroit to house painters in Monroe, Washington—won their jobs back.

On May Day 2006, two million workers walked off the job, shut down factories, and poured into the streets to demand legalization. This year, more than half a million marched in cities and towns across the United States on May Day. And hundreds of thousands of workers have participated in other actions protesting raids or local anti-immigrant laws that spring up every single week.

By taking to the streets, these workers set an example for all of labor at a time when the union movement continues to weaken and working class struggles tend to be marked by setbacks and stalemates more than victories. They reflected a growing self-confidence by working people—a confidence that the bosses desperately want to undo.
 
 
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