1,200 janitors fired in 'quiet' immigration raid
johnny@.
November 9, 2009
Minneapolis � One of the largest immigration crackdowns under the Obama
administration to date took place in the Twin Cities last month, when
1,200 undocumented janitors were fired from their jobs, according to
immigration lawyers.
The janitors worked for ABM, a San Francisco-based contract company that
cleans many downtown office towers in the Twin Cities.
The Obama administration has shifted away from the dramatic workplace
raids that were a hallmark of the Bush administration's enforcement
strategy. Under President Obama, the Department of Homeland Security
says it is putting pressure on employers who break the law.
Cut!
The nonprofit Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota was called in by the
janitors' union, SEIU, to give legal advice to the frightened employees.
"There was a lot of fear that even showing up to talk about your
documents that you were going to be arrested and detained by ICE," said
the center's John Keller. "People thinking that they shouldn't go to
work, extremely concerned about their children. Almost always the first
concerns in these circumstances -- even when your children are US born
-- is, what if I go to work and don't come back?"
"We have spent a lot of time working with people in these circumstances,
and it is sometimes some of the best work we do -- just to inform people
what is real, what is rumor," said Keller.
The most important rumor to dispel was that the workers were arrested.
Unlike raids at the Swift meatpacking plant in Worthington in 2006, and
the Postville, Iowa raid in 2008, the ABM janitors would not be rounded
up or arrested.
The union worked with the company and ICE to give employees more time to
show proper documents. They had until October. Then, each Monday,
another batch of workers who failed to show correct papers was fired.
ABM won't reveal the total size of its Twin Cities workforce, or any
information at all, but the scope seems large. This janitor says of the
120 workers who cleaned at the Plymouth building, only three were able
to stay on the job.
Another janitor we spoke with is a legal resident who's still on the
job, cleaning bathrooms at the Ameriprise building. She estimates 80
percent of her co-workers were let go.
ABM is a Fortune 1000 company traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Its
headquarters is in San Francisco, and according to its Web site, it
employs more than 100,000 people. In 2008, its revenues were $3.6 billion.
ABM would not make staff at the Minneapolis office or the corporate
headquarters available for an interview. Tony Mitchell, ABM Industries
vice president of corporate communications in New York, issued this two
line statement via e-mail.
"Federal law prescribes specific procedures by which employers conduct
employment verification activities. Our policy is full compliance with
the law," Mitchell said.
The janitors' union, SEIU, is prohibited from talking about the
enforcement action. The ABM janitor jobs make up one-quarter of SEIU's
membership.
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/11/09/immigrants-fired/
This is one union that should cease to exist.