 |
America's Broken |
Servicing Director |
|
On January 17, 2007, a legal immigrant who works for Stop & Shop was reinstated by an arbitrator to his position and was made whole for all wages and benefits which he had lost as a result of his unjust discharge. He had been discharged because he presented a new social security number (SSN) to the company in December 2005. On May 15, 2007, this local will be going to arbitration again for another legal immigrant who has worked at Stop & Shop for more than five years and was discharged when he requested in 2006 that the company change his SSN to a legal SSN. You may ask why I and the UFCW stand up for the on-the-job rights of immigrants and undocumented workers. The issue of immigration stirs deep emotions in many people. But we can't ignore the forces of globalization that motivate thousands of workers to cross the border in search of better lives. And we can't deny that companies that are unable to ship jobs overseas actively recruit and hire immigrant workers, for the purpose of creating a pool of vulnerable and exploitable workers right here in the USA. The fact is that America has a broken immigration system that is driven by huge corporations. In effect, companies have privatized US immigration policies for their own profit. Employers can pay immigrant workers less, force them to work in excruciating conditions, keep them from joining unions, and threaten them with deportation if they stand up for their rights on the job. A good example is what happened - On March 6, 2007, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents raided Michael Bianco Inc. in New Bedford, MA, a deplorable sweatshop that squeezed illegal aliens for every second of their workdays, fining them $20 for spending more than two minutes in the bathroom and firing them for the second offense. More than 500 workers were forced to ration one roll of toilet paper a day, which the feds said typically ran out before 9 AM. If an employee talked to a fellow employee, they were fined $20 and fired on the second offense. These workers' pay would be docked 15 minutes for every minute they were late. All this, despite the fact that the company had been the beneficiary of local tax breaks and a $91 million US government contract to make military survival vests and backpacks. Immigrants don't drive down wages and working conditions - employers do. Exploitation of immigrant workers is wrong, and it's not fair for native-born workers either. Americans who work alongside immigrants suffer the same exploitation in terms of stagnant low wages, paltry benefits, and unsafe working conditions. There are more than 12 million undocumented immigrants living and working in the US today. Some in Congress want to turn them into felons. But that would only drive immigrants further into the shadows, making it even easier for corporations to exploit them. Others, including President Bush, want to create a temporary guest workers program, but, in effect, that would turn permanent jobs that pay well into low-wage, no-benefit, no-future jobs. Both of these proposed "solutions" would make it even easier for companies to drive down wages and working conditions for all of us. As long as immigrant workers are exploited, ALL workers lose power at the bargaining table. The UFCW has always been an immigrant movement. One hundred years ago, Polish, Italian, Irish, and southern European immigrants manned the production lines in the packing, poultry, and food processing industries. Back then, immigrants joined unions in droves, together with native-born workers. They helped build the American middle class as they worked toward their own American Dreams. Today, thousands of UFCW members are immigrant workers with their own American Dreams. When they have a path to citizenship, rights on the job, and hope for the future, they can be a powerful voice in the fight for fair wages, benefits, and working conditions for all workers in America. We support immigrant workers because supporting ALL working people is the heart and soul of trade unionism. | |
Jim Ronayne |
|
IMPORTANT: If you work for Stop & Shop and you change or have changed your social security number, at any time and for any reason (even for as simple a reason as a typo in your records), you MUST notify the UFCW Industry Pension Fund at 1-800-531-2385 in order to receive pension credit under both numbers. If you have any questions on this matter, feel free to call Jim Ronayne (1-800-439-1445, ext. 121)' your conversation will be kept strictly confidential. | |
|
Back to Homepage |
|