https://socialistworker.org/2017/09/20/new-york-teamsters-stand-for-sanctuary
New York Teamsters stand for sanctuary
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https://socialistworker.org/2017/09/20/new-york-teamsters-stand-for-sanctuary
Comment: Tim Goulet
New York Teamsters stand for sanctuary
Defending immigrant workers is a prerequisite for a fighting labor
movement that backs up calls for solidarity with action, writes
Teamsters Local 810 member Tim Goulet.
September 20, 2017
TEAMSTERS JOINT Council 16, representing 120,000 Teamsters in 27 locals
across the five boroughs of New York City, as well as Long Island, the
Hudson Valley and Puerto Rico, has declared itself a "sanctuary union."
The vote to do so was given added urgency by the early September
deportation of Eber García Vasquez, a Teamster who worked for 26 years
at a medical waste hauler on Long Island before he was deported to his
native Guatemala.
As a sanctuary union, the Teamsters have vowed to not cooperate with
federal immigration agents in attempting to detain or deport members.
The joint council has also pledged to provide legal training and
solidarity for members who face such threats and to demand contract
provisions from employers that provide added protection for immigrant
workers.
Teamsters Local 810 in Queens was the first to pass a sanctuary
resolution. As that resolution states [1], Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) agents "have been raiding and arresting immigrants on
the flimsiest of pretexts, with no regard for how long they've lived in
the U.S., how dependent their families are upon them, or the ties they
harbor with their communities."
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THE DEPORTATION of García Vasquez tragically serves to prove this point.
A 26-year member of Teamsters Local 813, García Vasquez was expelled to
his native Guatemala on September 6. For those 26 years, Eber worked at
the medical waste hauler Stericycle in Farmingdale, Long Island.
His case is particularly cruel, as he was the sole breadwinner for his
family. His wife is confined to a wheelchair following a car accident
some months ago. Eber originally fled to the U.S. to escape violence in
his home country that claimed the lives of several family members,
including his mother.
García Vasquez was deported despite a public campaign to defend him,
including union-led protests at Federal Plaza and New York City's ICE
headquarters; a petition campaign; an organized member call-in to ICE;
and expressions of local political support for his cause.
Eber was detained and his lawyer escorted from the building when he
showed up for an annual check-in with immigration authorities.
Afterward, he was spirited out of New York to Bergen County Jail in New
Jersey, likely to avoid unwanted attention.
The process was remarkably quick. Less than two weeks after his
detainment, he had been deported, making it all the more difficult to
mount an effective defense. "In just 13 days, [Eber García Vasquez's
family] was ripped apart," wrote George Miranda, president of Joint
Council 16.
Eber's wife, Maria Chavez Marino, didn't find out he had been deported
until Eber called her from Guatemala. "We don't know how he will
survive, how he's going to live," she said.
Angela Fernandez, an attorney and the executive director of the Northern
Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant Rights, was surprised by the details
of García Vasquez's case, despite her many years of experience with the
injustices of the U.S. immigration system. "The fact that this happened
so quickly--to go from your check-in to find yourself in your country of
origin in 13 days--is astounding," she said.
Unfortunately, the Trump administration appears determined to continue
its acceleration of the targeting of undocumented people, as the
administration's recent assault on the Deferred Action for Childhood
Arrivals (DACA) program [2] indicates.
Undocumented workers aren't only at risk of being targeted by the
government, but by employers as well. Some employers may feel squeezed
by Trump's anti-immigrant agenda, but the more aggressive among them may
simply use the new regime as an excuse to escalate anti-immigrant
actions in the workplace to discourage organizing, or simply pit workers
against one another.
As Sonia Singh writes at Labor Notes [3], the assault includes:
workplace raids by government agents; I-9 audits, during which ICE
reviews employer records to make sure all employees have proper
documentation; no-match letters, which means the Social Security
Administration notifies employers that information on a worker's W-2
doesn't match government records; and E-Verify, an online system to
check an employee's eligibility to work, which is required in some
states and voluntary in others.
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THIS PLACES a responsibility on the labor movement to serve as a first
line of defense for undocumented workers. Unions can take collective
action to ensure that employers do not cooperate with government
officials. Sanctuary resolutions are an important statement of
solidarity and anti-racism that educate other workers and the labor
movement as a whole, as well as inspire people to fight back.
But how and even whether a resolution's provisions are enforced depends
on organization and action.
Since Trump's inauguration, many labor unions around the country have
been stepping up to defend their members and fight for immigrant rights.
But not all.
The building trades, for example, have generally bowed to Trump, hoping
for favors in exchange for their support for his agenda. But as Dave
Jamieson writes at HuffPost [4], other unions--such as those in the
service sector--have been acting as "de facto immigrants rights groups
advocating for their members."
Last spring, the AAUP-AFT played a pivotal role in keeping Carimer
Andujar safe by leading a rally outside the Newark, New Jersey, offices
of ICE while Andujar went inside for her annual check-in. "They were
well aware of the support I had waiting for me outside," said Andujar, a
Rutgers student and DACA recipient, upon her release [5].
Juan Vivares faced a situation similar to Eber García Vasquez when he
reported to ICE offices in lower Manhattan after receiving a deportation
order. But Vivares was released due to the mobilizing efforts of his
wife's union, 32BJ SEIU, which rallied outside ICE offices, pressured
politicians and led a mass call-in to the officer handling Vivares' case.
Several unions have made a concerted effort to provide legal assistance,
organize support for immigrant members and their families, and push to
negotiate contract language stipulating that employers refuse to
cooperate with ICE.
Other unions have secured agreements with employers to notify a shop
steward if ICE or the Department of Homeland Security inquires about a
worker; to not allow ICE on site without a warrant; and to forego
self-audits of their employees' immigration documents unless forced to
by federal officials.
UNITE HERE, a union in the hotel and restaurant sector with a large
immigrant base, is one of the unions making a push to incorporate
immigration safeguards in new contracts, including a provision requiring
employers to contribute to an assistance fund for undocumented workers
who lose their jobs.
Other unions, such as SEIU Local 275 in Seattle, have conducted
workshops in alliance with local immigrants rights groups to educate
members about how to respond when confronted by immigration agents.
Teamsters Local 396 in Los Angeles, where immigrants are overrepresented
in the sanitation sector, have been able to secure clauses in contracts
that include a grace period for workers who need time to deal with
immigration officials inquiring about their work papers--so that the
workers don't lose their jobs or seniority.
AFSCME Local 3299, which represents 20,000 workers at the University of
California, has established an immigration committee that actively
fights for sanctuary and other protections for its immigrant membership.
The AFL-CIO recently issued a pamphlet to its member unions that
addresses immigration issues in the context of collective bargaining.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
TAKEN TOGETHER, these examples indicate that labor has taken some
significant steps forward in standing up for the rights of its immigrant
members. But, of course, there is still much work to be done.
Defending every member regardless of documentation must become a
principle that every rank-and-file worker feels in their bones. Fighting
side by side and making every one of our unions a sanctuary for the most
vulnerable and oppressed isn't an optional extra, but a prerequisite for
rebuilding an effective labor movement.
Ultimately, the best weapon to protect our fellow workers is collective
action by rank-and-file organization. We can't rely on lobbying
politicians and cutting deals in back rooms with officials.
Whether or not any of these avenues are successful will ultimately be
decided by the strength we can leverage through united action that draws
together the efforts of as many people as possible who share our
objectives. Workplace actions supplemented by citywide rapid response
networks that can quickly move substantial resources into action are ideal.
Up until now, the pace and scope of the struggle have been largely
determined by the shock waves set off by the Trump administration's
actions. Now we must figure out how to move from being largely reactive
to advancing our own agenda.
That means confronting arguments put forward by more moderate forces
that attempt to win protections only for so-called "good" immigrants. As
Rigo Gogol and Alan Maass wrote at SocialistWorker.org [6], "we want
'protection for all.'" Sanctuary means a place of safety and refuge for
those in time of trouble; it either applies to everyone or no one.
As the great revolutionary socialist Eugene Debs once wrote: If
socialism "does not stand staunchly, unflinchingly and uncompromisingly
for the working class and for the exploited and oppressed masses of all
lands, then it stands for none and its claim is a false pretense and its
profession a delusion and a snare."
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[1] https://socialistworker.org/2017/06/28/we-are-a-sanctuary-union
[2]
https://socialistworker.org/2017/09/07/we-cant-let-dreamers-be-driven-underground
[3] http://www.labornotes.org/2016/12/five-ways-defend-immigrant-members
[4]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/organized-labor-steps-up-to-fight-deportations_us_59b6df97e4b03e6197afea7c
[5]
https://socialistworker.org/2017/05/17/ice-knows-that-we-stand-with-carimer
[6]
https://socialistworker.org/2017/09/08/outrage-against-daca-repeal-takes-the-streets
[7] http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0