[Marxism] Blacks and Immigrants Bring in the Union

["Darrel Furlotte" <darrel.furlotte@xxxxxxxxx>]

Blacks and Immigrants Bring in the Union
http://www.truthout.org/122108B

(clip).......
The union strategy relied on organizing resistance to immigration-related 
firings, and uniting a diverse workforce of African Americans, Puerto Ricans 
and immigrant Mexicans. In 2007, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and 
company managers cooperated in two immigration raids that produced a climate of 
terror organizer Eduardo Pena likened to "a nuclear bomb." Immigrant workers 
left the plant in droves. The Smithfield raids were two of many in recent 
years, used to punish workers when they've tried to improve conditions.

    The plant's citizen workers felt the effects along with the immigrants. For 
months afterwards, the organizing campaign was effectively dead, with many 
leaders deported and union activity halted by fear. It was only when African 
American workers who'd fought to win the King holiday became the core of a new 
generation of leaders that the struggle to build the union could continue.

    If Black and Latino immigrant workers hadn't found a way to work together, 
the union drive would have ended with the raids. And if the company and ICE had 
succeeded in convincing half the plant that the other half really had no right 
to work because they lacked legal immigration status, workers would have been 
unwilling and unable to defend each other. In the end, both groups found a 
common interest in better wages and working conditions. But they also had to 
agree to defend the right of each worker to her or his job, and treat any 
unfair firing as an attack on the union, whether the victim was Black, Mexican, 
or Puerto Rican.

........................................................................

  Outside the Tar Heel plant, the union grew roots in working-class 
communities, and became part of workers' lives. They took English classes in 
its office and marched in demonstrations for civil rights. That coalition 
turned the company's anti-labor actions against it, exposing its record in the 
place where Smithfield was most vulnerable - in the eyes of consumers.

    The election result was the product of a long-term organizing effort and 
commitment. With a similar commitment, other unions can do the same, no matter 
how big the plant or anti-union the employer. But it takes a strategy based on 
building a real union in the workplace and community. That's what workers did 
at Smithfield.

full:http://www.truthout.org/122108B
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