American Labor Heavy Hitters On the Ground in Alabama’s Immigration Battle
November 17th, 2011by Glynn Wilson
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Heavy hitters from American labor are now on the ground taking a special interest in Alabama due to the growing controversy surrounding the state’s draconian immigration law.
An AFL-CIO sponsored delegation of union leaders actively engaged in the struggle for civil and human rights recently spent a day in Birmingham and Pelham getting a first-hand view of the law’s impact by hearing from local community leaders and undocumented workers.
Fred Redmond, International Vice President of the United Steelworkers and Vice President of the national AFL-CIO, said the whole immigration situation in Alabama is very disturbing and the AFL-CIO is now committed to the battle.
“It’s disturbing to us as working people. It’s disturbing to us as a movement, and it’s disturbing to us as a country to realize that in 2011, here in the state of Alabama, people are being disenfranchised. They’re being discriminated against. Kids are being denied the right of an education,” he said. “This is not the America that we know.”
Fred Redmond, International Vice President of the United Steelworkers and Vice President of the national AFL-CIO, listening to a Latino who wanted to be a history teacher but now cannot attend Alabama or Auburn due to the immigration law
Mr. Redmond said the delegation came to get a better understanding of the situation and to “stand with the people of Alabama.”
After listening to horror stories from workers about losing homes, jobs and businesses and fear of being imprisoned or deported and separated from their children, many of whom are American citizens by virtue of their birth here, Redmond said “unfortunately, the great state of Alabama” appears to have gone “backwards.”
“We thought we had this discussion here 40 years ago under the leadership of Dr. King,” he said. “We think we took a stand in Alabama 40 years ago that all men are created equal.”
He understands there are many good people in Alabama who do not endorse what’s happening to Latinos here. He said Hearing their testimony “reinforced that we’ve got a long way to go. Not just in Alabama, but when we look at states like Arizona, South Carolina and other places.”
Alabama is a microcosm of the national situation, he said, “where a small group of people who still want to divide and separate us as Americans. As long as they can do that, the 99 percent of us who don’t control the wealth in this country are going to be subjected to economic and social discrimination by those who have it all, those who want to deny us an opportunity to reach the American Dream.”
He said the testimony reinforced the fact that organized labor nationally has to pay attention to this state.
When asked if he thought the Republican Party pushed the bill not to solve any real problem but simply for political purposes and “voter suppression,” to keep a traditionally Democratic Party supporting voting bloc out of the political process, Mr. Redmond said, “that’s got a lot to do with it.”
He suggested people should just consider the trustworthiness of a party that preaches the gospel against government intervention in people’s lives, then imposes this sort of government intrusion in the immigration law to disenfranchise people and disconnect them from the process.
“We see laws popping up around the country that are totally designed to disenfranchise people from the political process,” he said. “The good news is, it’s not going to work. Too many people gave their lives. Too many people are buried in the ground now because they fought for that very right. For us to sit back and not doing anything would be a slap in the face to Dr. King, Medger Evers and others who gave their lives for a just America.”
Labor leaders and restaurant owners at Max’s Deli
The labor delegation met with restaurant owners impacted by the law over lunch at Max’s Deli, where owner Steve Dubrinsky is leading the cause against the law among businesses in and around Birmingham. He made national headlines recently for his opposition to the law, and was attacked by the vocal right who called for a boycott of his restaurant on talk radio.
“I think the law stinks,” Dubrinsky said this week. “I don’t agree with the law.”
There are many reasons, he said, including higher prices for poultry, which represents 10 percent of the state’s economy up there with wood products, and for produce like tomatoes. The labor pool for restaurant workers has shrunk considerably. But there’s also the unintended consequences.
“You want to get a car tag, spend a day there,” at the courthouse standing in line, he said. Then there’s the racial profiling and “all that nonsense.”
When you talk to him, Dubrinsky emphasize that he is not “pro illegal immigration.”
“We need immigration reform, but this law is not the reform that we need.”
William Lucy, a member of the executive council of the AFL-CIO and and president of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, said the law completely destabilizes a lifestyle of thousands of workers across the state of Alabama, the ability to do normal things like drive and go to work, to interact with government agencies.
“This law has an awful lot of unintended consequences that are totally destroying the fabric of people’s lives,” he said.
The group is gathering information for a report to advise the labor movement and other organizations so they can assist the people impacted by the law, and the state.
He said the law itself was “part of a nationwide effort on behalf of extremely conservative folks to shrink the electoral pool so that locally, regional and nationally a small minority of people can control the policy apparatus.”
Many of the labor leaders said they were encouraged by what they heard, especially from young people willing to speak up and get involved. The governor and members of the state legislature are already backtracking from the unintended consequences. The federal courts have ruled part of the law unenforceable, and the national furor has Republicans on the defensive. One of the bill’s chief sponsors, Senator Scott Beason of Gardendale, has already been forced to relinquish his powerful Rules Committee post, giving opponents hope they are making a difference.
Mr. Redmond said it is unfortunate that this country has not gotten over the remnants of discrimination. With a president in the White House who does not look like the previous 43 presidents in skin color, and the impeding of his ability to govern by the Republicans in the House, have driven people “to a degree of hate that I for one thought did not exist in America” any more.
“We see that it still exists,” he said. “America can only be a great country when we eliminate racial discrimination, voter suppression and the things that hold back the citizens of America. We’re all in this together, whether we are black, brown, yellow, white, whatever. We’ve got more serious problems in this country that we need to resolve.”
Union leaders meet undocumented workers in secret location
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Tags: AFL-CIO, American Labor Heavy Hitters On the Ground in Alabama's Immigration Crisis
November 18th, 2011 at 6:31 pm
The Alabama law is gonna stand so get over it. It’s all about making tidy cheap labor profits and thats all nothing else.
November 18th, 2011 at 8:58 pm
Actually, that’s not true. The federal courts have already let big business, the churches and the schools off the hook:
Federal Judge With Ties to Bush Fails to Strike Down Alabama’s Immigration Law
Federal Appeals Court Upholds but Blocks Enforcement of Some Parts of Alabama’s Immigration Law
It’s far from over. See this: http://www.locustfork.net/
Justice Department Dispute Intensifies with Alabama Over Immigration Law
The Obama administration’s legal campaign against restrictive state immigration laws has led to a bitter standoff in Alabama, where Justice Department attorneys are investigating possible civil rights violations. The federal government already has sued Alabama over its new law, one of three such lawsuits against states that have cracked down on illegal immigration. Now, the Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation to monitor potential discrimination as parts of the Alabama law take effect.