Illegal immigrants have the right to unionize, says L.A. Times edtiorial
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
Remember the raid on illegal immigrants working in the Agriprocessors meatpacking plants in Postville, Iowa, in May?
Nearly 400 people were arrested that day by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The raid was apparently one of the biggest of its kind and came after months of planning, according to this release from Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Now, a discussion over the right of illegal immigrants to unionize -- an action that Agriprocessors has tried to block -- raises new worries for people on both sides of the immigration debate, according to this Los Angeles Times editorial.
Three years ago, employees at the meat processing company’s Brooklyn distribution center voted to unionize, but Agriprocessors would not honor the vote. The National Labor Relations Board ordered it to do so. Instead, it is petitioning the Supreme Court to hear a case arguing that illegal immigrants do not have the right to join labor unions. If it wins, the company’s apparent business model -- using illegal immigrants until caught but denying them union protections -- could usher in a new era of worker serfdom. This should alarm people on all sides of the immigration debate -- those who favor stepped-up deportations and sanctions against employers of illegal immigrants, as well as those who support increased labor and civil rights for immigrants. Should Agriprocessors prevail, illegal immigrants would be vulnerable to even greater human rights and labor abuses than they are now, and employers would have more incentive not to hire U.S. citizens, who have the right to organize.
Read the rest of the editorial on the rights of illegal immigrants to unionize here.
For more on immigration, click here.
-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City
I