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CHICAGO—The
package delivery giant UPS is on the verge of firing hundreds of
workers in the Chicago land area as a result of the company’s
participation in the government’s E-Verify program. These workers, some
with more than 20 years seniority, are facing the prospect of losing a
good union job with benefits and pensions and being forced into the
mass of the unemployed due to the Obama administration’s anti-immigrant
policies.
E-Verify
is a federal program that supposedly checks the employees’ names and
Social Security numbers against a national database to verify their
work status. The Obama administration is mandating all companies with
federal contracts to take part in E-Verify. Thousands of employers are
participating in the program, putting tens of thousands of workers on
the chopping block.
UPS
began rolling out the program in Chicago in January. UPS will soon
expand the process to its facilities across the country. Supervisors
told workers they must fill out the government’s I-9 authorization form
and show documentation to HR of employment eligibility.
The
company has set a deadline for Chicago workers of March 31 to
submit documentation, or else workers will be immediately terminated.
Supervisors have harassed workers who have not done so, even singling
out workers in pre-work meetings and posting lists of workers who
haven’t submitted documentation.
Management
has targeted the suburban Addison facility in particular, where there
is a large concentration of Latino workers. Workers there must often
endure racist remarks from supervisors.
Teamsters
Local 705 has stood behind their UPS members, working to save their
jobs. The local’s officers and staff participated in an open meeting
called by the suburban-based immigrant-rights coalition, Immigrant
Solidarity DuPage, and held a meeting at the union hall to educate the
affected workers on their rights.
Local
705 has also sent extra union representatives to the Addison plant to
stop the abuse of Latino workers, and has filed harassment grievances
against supervisors. Recently, a group of workers in Addison who had
not yet filled out the I-9 form were told by management when they came
to work that they were laid off. The union filed a
grievance in response, and a few days later the workers were called
back to work. The local has requested negotiations with UPS, but
so far the company has refused. The union and affected workers
have met with Congressman Luis Gutierrez, who has agreed to help urge
UPS to meet with the union.
Local
immigrant-rights activists have also taken on the workers’ cause. A
delegation of activists, church leaders, and community members will
attempt to meet with UPS management on March 4 to demand a
stop to all firings. UPS workers will participate in a march and rally
called by local activists on March 10 in downtown Chicago to
commemorate the mass march of hundreds of thousands of immigrant
workers held on that day in 2006 and demand just immigration reform and
an end to the E-Verify firings.
Many
of the UPS workers and other local activists are mobilizing for the
national March 21 Washington, D.C., rally to demand
immigration reform. Local 705 is planning on chartering a bus for the
UPS workers to attend the action.
The
E-Verify program was first introduced in the Clinton administration and
then expanded under the Bush administration, which in 2007 mandated its
use by all employers for newly hired workers. The Obama administration
has adopted this reactionary tool as part of its so-called
immigration-reform agenda, and implemented the federal contractor rule
in September 2009. Many cases have been documented of U.S. citizens and
other work-authorized employees being fired due to errors in the
E-Verify system.
As
a candidate, Obama promised (at least in front of Latino crowds) a just
reform of the immigration process. Instead, Obama and Homeland Security
Secretary Janet Napolitano have increased the attacks on immigrant
workers through a series of administrative directives. These have
included the no-match-letter policy and the expansion of the 287(g)
program, often called “polimigra,” which authorizes designated local
police to enforce immigration law. Polimigra has been granted to many
ultra-right sheriffs and police departments that have used it to engage
in mass round-ups of Latino workers. There have been more deportations
of immigrant workers under Obama than under Bush.
Many
activists have rallied around the immigration reform bill proposed by
Rep. Gutierrez. While this bill contains provisions that will allow
many undocumented workers to apply for legal status, removes barriers
for others, and proposes to end the 287(g) program, it also increases
border militarization and enforcement, including expanding the E-Verify
program!
The
bill also calls for the creation of a new federal agency to establish “employment-based immigration policies that
promote economic growth and competitiveness while minimizing job
displacement, wage depression and unauthorized employment.” Such an
agency could be used as a back-door method to create a guest-worker
program—establishing a permanent low-paid legal immigration labor force
with no rights and the ability to drive down the wages of U.S. workers,
both documented and undocumented. Senate proposals include the
immediate creation of such a guest-worker program.
All
the while, thousands of workers, as at UPS, will soon be fired from
their jobs. While UPS and other companies claim they are only going
along with the law, in truth they are all too happy to be “compelled” to remove thousands from their payrolls. For UPS,
this means they can replace higher paid seniority workers with new
hires, starting at $8.50 with no medical benefits for one year. The
firings also can have the effect of sending a collective chill down the
backs of remaining workers as they see the company throw their fellow
workers out into the street.
For
the fired workers, who have dedicated years of hard work in a grueling
and physically demanding job, E-Verify has thrown their lives into
turmoil. The company they have helped to make billions in profits is
now kicking them out the door. This same process is being repeated
around the country at thousands of employers. Is this the “just”
immigration policy promised by Obama?
The
fight for immigration reform must start with a defense of fired
workers. The entire labor movement, immigrant-rights movement, and
their allies must come to the defense of the workers being targeted
under the E-Verify system. Both the AFL-CIO and Change to Win labor
federations have declared their opposition to E-Verify in resolutions;
now is the time for them to put their words into action. This attack on
immigrant workers is an attack on all workers—it deserves a response by
all workers.
Instead
of looking for help from Washington politicians, who have only worsened
conditions for immigrants, the labor and immigrant-rights movement must
return to the streets and picket lines to demand an end to all firings
and for amnesty for all workers.
Mass marches such as those that occurred in 2006, and the
2008 worker occupation of Republic Windows and Doors, are examples of
what can be accomplished when workers gain confidence to fight and
mobilize to defend their rights. Such a return to action is the only
hope for a change in immigration policies and the only hope for these
workers under attack.
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