Labor Pursues Immigrant Labor

Over the last five years or so, organized lebor really has changed its tune on immigration.  In the past, the AFL-CIO supported employer sanctions and border enforcement.  Now, understanding that immigrant labor is here to stay, labor is now focusing orn organizing immigrant workers.  Here is the latest from the N.Y. Times:

The A.F.L.-C.I.O. and the nation’s largest organization of day laborers signed a partnership agreement yesterday intended to help the languishing labor movement tap into the potent energy of the immigrant rights movement. The A.F.L.-C.I.O. said its partnership with the group, the National Day Labor Organizing Network, would also seek to improve wages and conditions for tens of thousands of laborers and other immigrant workers. With the agreement, the A.F.L.-C.I.O. is embracing workers who many union members have accused of driving down wages. The partnership connects the labor federation to a network that largely represents illegal immigrant workers who often have run-ins with the police as they stand on street corners soliciting jobs. The day laborers’ network and the immigrant groups it works with were pivotal in setting up the large demonstrations this spring that backed immigrant rights. “I think the A.F.L.-C.I.O. needs this energy, this new energy,” said Pablo Alvarado, director of the network, a loose association of day laborers and worker centers across the country. More than 140 of the worker centers exist, and promote the rights of immigrant workers, teach them English, inform them about their rights and help them file claims for unpaid wages. “The fact is that worker centers are one of the most vibrant parts of the labor movement today, even though they have largely not had a connection to ‘organized labor,’ ” the A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s president, John J. Sweeney, said at a news conference in Chicago, where the federation’s executive council was meeting. Under the partnership, worker centers will be able to have nonvoting representatives on the boards of central labor councils in cities throughout the nation. The day laborers will not pay union dues or become union members.

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KJ