Unions now encourage law-breaking illegal immigration

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/18/us/los-angeles-labor-leader-puts-focus-
on-immigrants.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

By JENNIFER MEDINA

LOS ANGELES � As the head of the hotel workers� union here in the 1990s,
Maria Elena Durazo negotiated a contract with provisions rarely seen by
labor unions: The jobs of workers who were deported or lost authorization
to work in the United States would be held open for two years, with the
same pay.

It was remarkable protection for the immigrant workers who made up the
bulk of the union�s membership � and it implicitly acknowledged that many
of those immigrants were working without legal papers.

In the years since, Ms. Durazo, 60, has become one of the most prominent
labor leaders advocating an overhaul of the country�s immigration
policies. As the executive secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County
Federation of Labor, she presides over what is widely perceived as the
most successful group of unions in the country. While union membership is
declining nationally, it is growing in California, and much of that growth
can be attributed to Latino immigrants.

And many believe immigrants offer the best potential for growth in a
movement that is often viewed as foundering.

�You look around at who has the most difficult jobs, at who is doing the
work we rely on every day, and it is immigrants,� Ms. Durazo said in an
interview here. �If we look at what we can do for them, what we can do
together, we see that there can be very important rewards that will
improve their lives. We cannot fix the prosperity of the rest of the
country without improving the prosperity of immigrants.�

It is impossible to know just how many of the roughly 800,000 union
members in Los Angeles are in the country illegally, often using fake
Social Security numbers or other forged papers. But the county has an
estimated 900,000 illegal immigrants, more than any other in the country,
and according to the Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration at the
University of Southern California they make up about 9 percent of the
state�s work force.

The power of the heavily immigrant unions can be seen in huge protests in
Los Angeles, as well as in the extensive voter outreach operations across
the city. And while Ms. Durazo remains focused on the immigration debate
in Congress, she is simultaneously marshaling her troops to help elect a
new mayor here and prevent the sale of The Los Angeles Times to the
conservative billionaires Charles G. Koch and David H. Koch.

In the mayoral race, the unions have backed Wendy Greuel, the city
controller, against Eric M. Garcetti, a city councilman, and have spent
millions helping her. This week, the union mailed fliers suggesting that
if Ms. Greuel was elected, the minimum wage would be raised to $15. Ms.
Greuel has said she would support raising wages at the city�s largest
hotels to $15, but has not backed a citywide increase.

Ms. Durazo has often enraged local business leaders, but successful
campaigns to require a living wage in some of the city�s hotels and to
unionize carwash workers have earned her respect and devotion among many
immigrants, who often line up to see her as she travels around the
country.

�As the immigrant population starts to spread to other cities, you are
going to see more and more attempts to recreate the kind of victories the
unions have had here,� said Peter Dreier, a professor at Occidental
College who has studied unions at the local and national levels. He
pointed to the successful campaigns by janitors in Texas and Florida as
recent examples. �We see clearly that immigrants are willing to play a
significant role in politics and that they are used to being part of a
movement.�

�Los Angeles became the model and now Maria Elena is spreading the
gospel,� Dr. Dreier said.

But critics of immigration reform take a far less charitable view, saying
that the unions have failed to save jobs for American-born workers.

�They are simply searching for ways to make themselves relevant again,�
said Ira Mehlman of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a
group opposed to the immigration bill being discussed in the Senate.
�Particularly in the large service industries, they are coming along to
protect the people working in these jobs illegally.�

Ms. Durazo grew up as one of 11 children of Mexican immigrant farmworkers
who traveled all over Central California to find jobs picking crops. She
went to college and began work with unions and later got a law degree.

In 1989, she took over as the head of the local chapter of the Hotel
Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union after local leaders
fought against providing Spanish translations of information for their
members. At the time, some viewed her victory as a coup, while others saw
it as an inevitable change because of the shifting demographics.

Much of labor�s success in Los Angeles is attributed to Ms. Durazo�s
husband, Miguel Contreras, who as the head of the county labor federation
built a coalition of elected officials, clergy and civil rights advocates.
In 2006, a year after his death, Ms. Durazo was elected to his post of
executive secretary-treasurer, overseeing 350 unions, including government
workers, teachers, janitors and security guards.

Mr. Contreras, with help from Ms. Durazo and other labor leaders, had
successfully begun recruiting new candidates for political office,
including several Latinos who had long supported immigrant rights and
labor unions, said Madeline Janis, the national policy director of Los
Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, which she helped found with the
support of Ms. Durazo in the 1990s.

�Unlike almost any other place, the leadership here realized that
immigrants could get out and knock on doors and convince people to vote,
even if they themselves were not eligible to do so,� Ms. Janis said. �That
really transformed California politics and was a precursor to what is
happening nationally today.�

Many say Ms. Durazo helped make immigration a priority for unions
nationally by framing the issue as an extension of the civil rights
struggle. In 2003, she entered the national stage with the �Immigrant
Workers Freedom Ride,� stopping across the country to draw attention to
the plight of illegal immigrants.

�There is now a collective understanding that what is happening to
immigrant workers � the kinds of abuse and theft they experience every day
� is just wrong,� said Angelica Salas, the executive director of the
Coalition for Human Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles. Ms. Salas said that
workers� immigration status frequently thwarts the unions� efforts to
organize new employees or improve conditions. �We hear all the time that
people fear speaking out because they will be fired or deported.�

Eliseo Medina, the international secretary-treasurer of the Service
Employees International Union, said unions� attitudes toward illegal
immigrants had changed over the decades in part because more Latinos like
him and Ms. Durazo have climbed through the ranks.

�Most of us are only one or two steps removed from a friend or a relative
who is undocumented,� Mr. Medina said. �We all understand that this is a
much more of an entire community issue. When people started equating
illegal with Latinos, it forced us to come together.�

While many say that immigration status often stops workers from
unionizing, Mr. Medina said the efforts to organize low-wage workers here
showed that many immigrants were �fearless.�

�Immigration and labor has become so integrated, because in order to
organize workers you are going to have to deal with immigrant rights,�
said Victor Narro of the Labor Center at the University of California, Los
Angeles. �Immigrants are really the source of optimism for the labor
movement.�

--
Barack Obama, reelected by the dumbest voters in the history of the United
States of America.

Eric Holder, racist black murdering United States Attorney General, still
has his job.

Nancy Pelosi, Democrat criminal, accessory before and after the fact to
improper vetting of Barry Soetoro aka Barack Hussein Obama, a confirmed
felon using SSAN 042-68-4425, belonging to a dead man.

Obama ignored the brutal killing of an American diplomat in Benghazi, then
relieved American military officers who attempted to prevent said murder
in order to cover up his own ineptness.

Obama continues his goal of disarming America while ObamaCare increases
insurance premiums 200% and leaves millions without health care.

Obama helped bankrupt Illinois. Democrat run Chicago closes 54 public
schools.

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