Incompliance with labor laws by business is a common place, even much more so when the workers lack the basic protections due to their immigration status. But yet, some of the most important struggles for the rights of all workers have come from the ranks of immigrant labor. The fight for the 8-hour day had its highest point here in Chicago when a mainly immigrant workforce took the streets on May Day of 1886, and since then May Day has been commemorated worldwide as the International Workers’ Day. Following that tradition, millions of immigrants and sympathizers came out to the streets last years, across the country, to demand the legalization of all undocumented workers. As the immigration rights movement prepares for new mobilizations this spring, immigrant worker have kept fighting for their right to live and work in this country with out fear. The featured panel will take a look to this struggle.
The Coalition of Immolakee Workers represents tomato pickers from Florida who after having a successful drive to get Taco Bell to pay more for the tomato they pick, are now making a similar campaign with McDonalds. A group of these workers have been building in the Chicago area a demonstration in front of the McDonalds headquarter Friday, April 13th, 3pm, in Oak Brook, IL. For more information visit www.ciw-online.org.
Chicago Workers Collaborative represents workers in the Chicago area who face abuse in the work place. Lately, they have been defending workers who face mass firings, arguably due to the “No-Match Letter” that the government has sent to companies warning them of mismatches between their Social Security records and their workers’, but that ultimately companies have used to quell unionizing drives, as in Jays, the Chicago based potato chips company or Testa produce. Workers from these places will be part of the panel.
This event is co-sponsored by Chicago Workers Collaborative, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, International Socialist Club, Mexican Students of Aztlán, Student-Farm Alliance, UIC Students for Immigrant Rights.