------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Dec. 13, 2001 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
IT CAN BE DONE: LOW-WAGE IMMIGRANTS WIN BACK PAY By Milt Neidenberg New York How sweet it is. A group of immigrant, undocumented workers in this city has won a substantial settlement following a bitter, protracted struggle. Thirty-one poor and oppressed workers, mostly Mexicans, have won a settlement of $315,000 from a powerful group of merchants and business leaders who dominate the produce market in this city. Their victory is particularly significant in light of a deepening recession and a war climate in which President George W. Bush and company are bashing immigrant workers, whether they come from Mexico, the Middle East or Central Asia. To defend their unfair labor practices, the greengrocers had formed the Korean Produce Association, which represents 820 merchants. Contrary to the myth that these merchants came from South Korea as oppressed workers, most were financially well off before they arrived here. In their fight against union organization, they falsely charged this very diverse union with racism and an anti-Korean bias. The first breakthrough in this hard-fought struggle came a year ago. Two merchants agreed to pay 10 workers over $100,000 in back pay and damages. New York State Attorney General Elliot Spitzer, who released the information and brokered both settlements, said other agreements are in the works. Local 169 of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial & Textile Workers has been waging a valiant fight for over two years to organize these oppressed workers. Local 169 Staff Representative Mike Donovan told reporters after this second victory: "In the green-grocery industry alone, there are some 2,000 stores employing about 14,000 people, most of them Mexicans. "In 100 percent of the 100 stores our union looked at, we found [federal] Fair Labor Standards abuses. Workers were paid as little as $2.50 an hour and worked as many as 72 hours a week, with no overtime. They're often threatened with deportation if they complain." Criticizing the government for lack of oversight or accountability, Donovan added, "With union contracts, the workers would have protection against exploitation." (New York Daily News, Nov. 25) Organizing these young workers, whose extreme poverty and undocumented status have isolated them from many of the workers around them, demands great sacrifices and stamina. UNITE Local 169, including Mexican workers who were added to the union staff, spent years picketing some of the stores. They worked closely, befriending the workers who felt isolated under the slave-labor conditions imposed by the bosses. The union reached out to the communities around the greengrocers, which responded time and again by boycotting the stores. Local 169 also coordinated the organizing campaign with anti-sweatshop and living-wage coalitions. Youths and students joined the union, its allies and other constituencies at rallies and marches. These struggles, which included facing up to cops and arrest, were indispensable to the victories that followed. International Action Center members volunteered and worked full-time for the union during the course of this hard- fought campaign. Recently, Local 169 agreed to turn over the campaign to organize the greengrocers to the United Food and Commercial Workers. This kind of networking is essential to the strategy to organize the lowest-paid workers, who are subject to immigrant bashing, racism and ethnic profiling. Anti-worker attacks emanate not only from bosses such as the greengrocer merchants, but from giant corporations, agribusiness and all those employers that dominate the service-oriented industries. President Bush is a major player. He encourages and cheers on the powerful multinational corporations and the bankers. He is aiding them with anti-immigrant, repressive executive orders violating civil liberties and constitutional rights while pushing for more racist and punitive laws that would be immediately implemented by the Justice Department, FBI, and Immigration and Naturalization Service. His efforts to get fast-track legislation to speed up a so- called Free Trade Area of the Americas, encompassing all of Central and Latin America, are meant to further increase the flow of oppressed workers who leave their impoverished homelands to seek jobs here and abroad. The struggle with the greengrocer merchants has shown how to respond effectively to the all-out assault against the workers, the oppressed and the labor movement. In spite of a widening U.S. war in Central Asia and a deepening global recession, workers can fight back to get a measure of economic justice. As Local 169 Staff Representative Donovan told Workers World: "The victory of these victimized, low-paid, multinational workers is a victory for all labor. But we need many more strong campaigns and many more such victories." - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
