The Birmingham News: National labor leaders visiting Birmingham on Wednesday heard emotional stories and passionate pleas for help in fighting Alabama's new immigration law during a day of meetings with activists, Hispanic workers, sympathetic business owners and frightened mothers and fathers.
After hearing firsthand from Hispanics who are hiding in their homes, who've lost jobs and businesses, Fred Redmond, the international vice president for human affairs with the United Steelworkers, said he and his fellow members of the AFL-CIO sponsored delegation would carry the message back to union groups around the country.
"Our commitment is to go back to our organization and tell your story," Redmond said. "Your struggle is our struggle. You are not alone. We must come up with some sort of strategy to help with this situation."
The delegation, which was made up of African-American labor leaders, saw parallels with Alabama's racially discriminatory past. Bill Lucy, a member of the AFL-CIO executive council, dismissed the bill backers' assertions that the law was aimed at protecting jobs for Americans.
"I don't think anybody buys that," Lucy said. Instead, the union leaders see the Alabama law as part of a national, multi-pronged effort by Republicans taking aim at groups that have traditionally supported Democrats. Those efforts include legal limitations on unions, strict voter ID laws and anti-immigrant bills. "They are designed to make it virtually impossible for people to participate in the political process," Lucy said.
At a stop in Pelham, the group encountered a 19-year-old Pelham High School graduate with the kind of eloquence and charisma that might lead one into politics, except that Victor Palafox was brought to the country by his parents when he was a young child and is not a legal resident. After graduating from high school, he was accepted to UAB and Auburn, among other schools, and planned to attend this fall. The immigration law contains a provision that would forbid public colleges and universities from allowing those here illegally to enroll. A court ruling blocked that part of the law, but Palafox decided to devote himself to speaking out against the law despite the risks.
"I am undocumented and I am unafraid. There is no reason I should be ashamed because all I have ever done is give my best to my country," he said.
After years of hard work in drywall and construction, Tony Quintana had saved enough to invest in opening a grocery store. On March 30 he opened the El Ahoroo Supermarket in Leeds.
For the first several months, "It was going great," he said. The store was bringing in $3,000 a day on weekdays and up to $6,000 on weekends. Then, the immigration law passed and his customer base started leaving. He eventually shut the store down. "I lost everything," he said.
Meanwhile, he sent his wife and children to Texas for their safety. But eventually the pain of separation and its cost led him to bring them back.
After hearing firsthand from Hispanics who are hiding in their homes, who've lost jobs and businesses, Fred Redmond, the international vice president for human affairs with the United Steelworkers, said he and his fellow members of the AFL-CIO sponsored delegation would carry the message back to union groups around the country.
"Our commitment is to go back to our organization and tell your story," Redmond said. "Your struggle is our struggle. You are not alone. We must come up with some sort of strategy to help with this situation."
The delegation, which was made up of African-American labor leaders, saw parallels with Alabama's racially discriminatory past. Bill Lucy, a member of the AFL-CIO executive council, dismissed the bill backers' assertions that the law was aimed at protecting jobs for Americans.
"I don't think anybody buys that," Lucy said. Instead, the union leaders see the Alabama law as part of a national, multi-pronged effort by Republicans taking aim at groups that have traditionally supported Democrats. Those efforts include legal limitations on unions, strict voter ID laws and anti-immigrant bills. "They are designed to make it virtually impossible for people to participate in the political process," Lucy said.
At a stop in Pelham, the group encountered a 19-year-old Pelham High School graduate with the kind of eloquence and charisma that might lead one into politics, except that Victor Palafox was brought to the country by his parents when he was a young child and is not a legal resident. After graduating from high school, he was accepted to UAB and Auburn, among other schools, and planned to attend this fall. The immigration law contains a provision that would forbid public colleges and universities from allowing those here illegally to enroll. A court ruling blocked that part of the law, but Palafox decided to devote himself to speaking out against the law despite the risks.
"I am undocumented and I am unafraid. There is no reason I should be ashamed because all I have ever done is give my best to my country," he said.
After years of hard work in drywall and construction, Tony Quintana had saved enough to invest in opening a grocery store. On March 30 he opened the El Ahoroo Supermarket in Leeds.
For the first several months, "It was going great," he said. The store was bringing in $3,000 a day on weekdays and up to $6,000 on weekends. Then, the immigration law passed and his customer base started leaving. He eventually shut the store down. "I lost everything," he said.
Meanwhile, he sent his wife and children to Texas for their safety. But eventually the pain of separation and its cost led him to bring them back.
His children are American-born but he and his wife are here illegally. They fear one or both of them could be arrested, deported and separated from their children. Quintana has explored every route he can find to obtain legal status but has been unsuccessful. He still ventures out to earn a living, but tells his wife to stay out of sight.
"I am hiding my wife and my kids," he said.
Adelina Perez told the delegation she hears people say immigrants don't pay taxes: "This is a lie," she said. "I've paid Social Security for 13 years and I am never going to be able to claim those taxes."
The delegation had a late lunch at Max's Deli in the Colonnade off U.S. 280 as something of a show of support for the deli's owner.
Max's owner Steve Dubrinsky unexpectedly found himself receiving boycott threats and hateful email when he complained about the immigration bill's effect on his legal resident Hispanic employees. When the story went national, Dubrinsky got a surge of support from people from near and far praising him for having the courage to speak out against the law. "It's clear to me," he said. "I am on the right side of this."
Wednesday morning, the newly elected president of the Alabama AFL-CIO, Al Henley, welcomed the delegation but also told the leaders that the national labor movement shares some blame for the political situation in Alabama because national unions have tended to view Alabama and the South as a lost cause.
"We are powerless in the Alabama Legislature," Henley said. "It's a shame it got this way, but what do you expect when you ignore the South?"
Henley called the immigration legislation "hate-filled."
"It looks like the old racism of the civil rights era," Henley said. But it also presents an opportunity, Henley said, for the labor movement to engage in the struggle against the law and also organize union and political efforts more broadly in the state.
"I am hiding my wife and my kids," he said.
Adelina Perez told the delegation she hears people say immigrants don't pay taxes: "This is a lie," she said. "I've paid Social Security for 13 years and I am never going to be able to claim those taxes."
The delegation had a late lunch at Max's Deli in the Colonnade off U.S. 280 as something of a show of support for the deli's owner.
Max's owner Steve Dubrinsky unexpectedly found himself receiving boycott threats and hateful email when he complained about the immigration bill's effect on his legal resident Hispanic employees. When the story went national, Dubrinsky got a surge of support from people from near and far praising him for having the courage to speak out against the law. "It's clear to me," he said. "I am on the right side of this."
Wednesday morning, the newly elected president of the Alabama AFL-CIO, Al Henley, welcomed the delegation but also told the leaders that the national labor movement shares some blame for the political situation in Alabama because national unions have tended to view Alabama and the South as a lost cause.
"We are powerless in the Alabama Legislature," Henley said. "It's a shame it got this way, but what do you expect when you ignore the South?"
Henley called the immigration legislation "hate-filled."
"It looks like the old racism of the civil rights era," Henley said. But it also presents an opportunity, Henley said, for the labor movement to engage in the struggle against the law and also organize union and political efforts more broadly in the state.
No comments:
Post a Comment