>Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1999 00:09:24 -0400 >Reply-To: Forum on Labor in the Global Economy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Sender: Forum on Labor in the Global Economy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >From: Automatic digest processor <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: LABOR-L Digest - 13 Jun 1999 to 14 Jun 1999 (#1999-132) >To: Recipients of LABOR-L digests <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >MIME-Version: 1.0 > >--YdCOaJBERAdRWcAIBUVRIFGHFLWFCW >Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1999 00:09:24 -0400 >Reply-To: Forum on Labor in the Global Economy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Sender: Forum on Labor in the Global Economy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >From: Automatic digest processor <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: LABOR-L Digest - 13 Jun 1999 to 14 Jun 1999 (#1999-132) >To: Recipients of LABOR-L digests <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >There are 2 messages totalling 233 lines in this issue. > >Topics of the day: > > 1. ORGANIZING WORKERS ON L.A.'S MEAN STREETS > 2. Maquiladora Reader > >--YdCOaJBERAdRWcAIBUVRIFGHFLWFCW >Date: Mon, 14 Jun 1999 10:50:03 -0400 >From: Charles Brown <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: ORGANIZING WORKERS ON L.A.'S MEAN STREETS >MIME-Version: 1.0 >Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII > >ORGANIZING WORKERS ON L.A.'S MEAN STREETS >By David Bacon > > LOS ANGELES (6/13/99) -- Los Angeles' newest union is far from >being a labor organization in the traditional sense. It doesn't bargain, >it has no signed contracts, its membership is fluid, and it seems more >concerned with culture and sports than Roberts Rules of Order. But it has >been successful in doing what no union has been able to do for decades - >organize the floating workers of the streetcorners. > In the process, Los Angeles' Day Laborers Union is helping labor >rediscover its most important tradition - its ability to act as a social >movement. > At the turn of the century, the radical Industrial Workers of the >World prided itself on being a union for the "western floating worker" - >someone who rode the rails from job to job. The "wobblies," as they were >known, were the hoboes' union. > Decades ago, dockworkers were also insecure, competing for jobs in >a morning shapeup on the waterfront. Longshoreman was a word used >interchangeably with bum and drunk. Now west coast longshore workers have >one of the highest wages in U.S. industry, one of the country's most >militant unions, and near-total control over their work. > Today, it is the worker on the streetcorner, begging jobs from >passing contractors, who is stereotyped for urinating on the sidewalk and >harassing passersby. Almost everywhere day laborers -- streetcorner >workers -- are immigrants, especially in Los Angeles. They are outsiders >many times over - insecure, marginalized, poor, often speaking little >English. > Their vulnerability makes them an easy target for neighbors angry >over the visibility of the poor, local businesses who accuse them of >driving away customers, police who see them as a source of crime and >complaints, and the Immigration and Nationalization Service, who think they >should just go back across the border. > On some corner labor sites on LA's suburban outskirts, that >opposition gets pretty extreme. Last year in May and June, workers on a >corner in Agoura Hills were chased up a hill, away from the street by >deputies yelling racist insults. On a number of occasions, helicopters >were even used to chase workers. > According to Victor Narro, attorney for the Coalition for Humane >Immigrant Rights in Los Angeles, "the force of the helicopters lifted them >off the ground, causing them to lose their balance and fall down the side >of the hill." > Starting in 1989, nine southland cities and LA County itself passed >ordinances prohibiting workers from getting jobs on the street. > Organizing starts when workers decide to find a way to confront >this powerful opposition. From the beginning they get help from day >laborers from previously-organized corners, and CHIRLA staff members. > The laborers start by forming a committee, and agreeing on ground >rules for people looking for work at that corner. They usually negotiate >with local law enforcement on a stretch of sidewalk where local contractors >and employers can pull up in their vehicles and hire them. The laborers >agree on a minimum wage rate, so they no longer compete for jobs by >undercutting each other. They formulate conduct rules banning drinking and >drugs. > Some Los Angeles corners have become well-enough organized that the >city has provided funding for renting a vacant lot, where workers can set >up tables, hold classes, and even start a small garden. > Antoli Garcia, who became a committee member when day laborers >began organizing on Pomona and Atlantic Avenues last spring, sees two >reasons for getting organized. "First, we need to put ourselves in order," >he explains. "We used to have a lot of trouble from the sheriffs, mostly >because people were drinking while they were waiting for jobs. Second, we >need fairer pay, and to distribute the work in a better way. Sometimes >contractors won't hire me because of my age." Garcia is 57. > What makes the process work is the common culture that binds >workers together. "One of the first steps we take is usually to set up a >soccer team," says CHIRLA organizer Pablo Alvarado. "It's a natural thing >that people do anyway, while they're waiting for work. We come in and >organize it, so that workers learn the value of cooperation, even though >they're in a very competitive environment." > Learning the value of unity is a basic element of any labor >organizing effort, but competition on the streetcorner is especially >intense. "I felt it when I first came here," Alvarado remembers. "Looking >for work was dehumanizing -- having to run after the contractor's truck to >get a job. The employers would get out of their pickups, and come over and >touch me to see if I was strong. Each time I got hired, I felt I was >taking a job from someone else." > Building on the common culture of Mexican and Central American >immigrants, the Day Laborers Union started a band, Los Jornaleros del >Norte. Its theater group, which dramatizes the struggle to survive on the >corner, is made up of worker-actors who perform on the corner. Behind >these tactics are the ideas of the Brazilian educator, Paolo Friere. His >techniques of popular education were used widely in the revolutionary >movements of Central America, the homeland of many day laborers. > While the Day Laborers Union is the most recent, and probably most >unusual organizing effort among Los Angeles' immigrant workers, it has been >preceded by many others over the past decade. They all rise from the >immigrant community itself, with the support of community organizations and >institutions. > Some of those efforts have been extremely successful, leading to >alliances between immigrant workers and unions. In 1992, workers who put >up drywall in new homes mounted a strike which shut down most housing >construction in southern California for a year. The drywallers strike was >an autonomous movement, using militant tactics to close down job sites and >resist immigration raids. When the Highway Patrol and INS cooperated in >raiding caravans of strikers on the freeways, workers got out of their cars >and stopped rush hour traffic until the harassment ceased. > Drywallers allied themselves with the Carpenters Union, and won the >first contracts achieved through bottom-up organizing in the building >trades since the 1930s. In 1995, the Carpenters and another group of >immigrant construction workers mounted a similar strike, winning further >contracts covering framers. > Those efforts were followed by organizing drives among truck >drivers in the Los Angeles harbor, and gardeners throughout the LA basin. >The harbor truckers' strike shut down shipping for days. Both efforts were >organized by existing associations of immigrant workers, who eventually >sought union support. Like day laborers, both groups of workers are >independent contractors, excluded from the protection of U.S. labor law. > New York City in recent years has seen similar movements among >immigrant workers. Immigrant asbestos removers used their own association >as the kernel of an organizing drive, eventually winning contracts with the >Laborers Union. Taxi drivers mounted a similar city-wide movement and >strike. > Both in New York and California, the organizing movements among >immigrants are revitalizing unions. Janitors, carpenters, machinists and >laborers in LA have rebuilt their ranks through these efforts. Immigrants >have also contributed a wide variety of new, more militant tactics, >including mass picketing, civil disobedience, going onto the jobsite during >strikes, and community boycotts and marches. These tactics were widely >used during more radical periods in U.S. labor history, but were scrapped >during the conservative, cold-war era. > These immigrant workers join unions with high expectations, >demanding Spanish translation of meetings and documents, and more >democracy. In New York, the Laborers Union was placed in trusteeship, >reorganized, and eventually wound up under the leadership of militant >immigrant asbestos workers. In Los Angeles, similar struggles have taken >place to democratize the janitors and carpenters unions. > The Day Labor Union is part of this tradition, consciously >politicizing its members in a way reminiscent of the CIO's early leftwing >period. "Through organizing, workers learn to become good political >analysts," Alvarado explains. "We want to develop organic leaders -- >people who come from the community and decide to stay there, people who are >capable of acting for themselves." > In Los Angeles, day laborers have discovered how a shared immigrant >culture can act as a powerful tool to build an organization from the >grassroots up. U.S. labor unions should pay attention, as they look for >ways to unite a work force that is more diverse -- and less secure -- than >ever before. > > - 30 - >--------------------------------------------------------------- >david bacon - labornet email david bacon >internet: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 1631 channing way >phone: 510.549.0291 berkeley, ca 94703 >--------------------------------------------------------------- > >--YdCOaJBERAdRWcAIBUVRIFGHFLWFCW >Date: Mon, 14 Jun 1999 10:58:28 -0400 >From: Charles Brown <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: Maquiladora Reader >MIME-Version: 1.0 >Content-Type: text/plain > >This is an important new publication about the maquiladoras, published by the >American Friends Service Committee, to which I made a small contribution. > >David Bacon > > >* * * * > >PUBLICATION ANNOUNCEMENT > >THE MAQUILADORA READER is an important new book on grassroots labor >activism in the global economic arena. Subtitled "Cross-Border Organizing >Since NAFTA," this compilation documents how workers and their allies are >reaching across the border to search for new answers to the challenges of >globalization. > >THE MAQUILADORA READER explores activism at the intersection of >international labor organizing, women*s empowerment, environmental and >occupational health, and cross-border solidarity. In the process, it >reveals how the Mexico-U.S. border * the only border in the world where the >advanced industrial North directly meets the "underdeveloped" South * >functions as a unique "cutting edge" where new paradigms of activism are >being forged. > >Published by the American Friends Service Committee, this book reflects >AFSC*s involvement of more than 20 years in cross-border activism, which >has centered on a partnership with the Comit� Fronterizo de Obreras (Border >Committee of Women Workers), a worker-controlled grassroots organization on >the Mexican side. Information is included about numerous organizations and >initiatives, offering a comprehensive portrait of labor activism at the >border in the NAFTA era. Individual chapters delve into such areas as women >at the border, health and environmental issues, differing strategies for >cross-border activism, and how the border fits into the larger panorama of >free trade agreements. > >Additional details, including ordering information, are available in our >online brochure at http://www.afsc.org/maquiladora.htm. > >Please help us get the word out about this new resource by reposting this >announcement as widely as possible. If you have a website, we hope you >consider adding a link to our brochure at the URL noted above. If you need >additional information about this book, please contact Luis Perez >([EMAIL PROTECTED]). >--------------------------------------------------------------- >david bacon - labornet email david bacon >internet: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 1631 channing way >phone: 510.549.0291 berkeley, ca 94703 >--------------------------------------------------------------- > >--YdCOaJBERAdRWcAIBUVRIFGHFLWFCW-- >
