This morning, hundreds of domestic workers in California are kicking off their Domestic Workers Bill of Rights Campaign in Los Angeles. Click here to sign the petition in support of these courageous women and the Bill of Rights today.

Stand with Silvia!
Take action to pass the California Domestic Workers Bill of Rights in 2013

Take Action
Domestic workers from across California have one message today: domestic workers care for the families and homes of California with respect; it's time for California to take care of its domestic workers so they can provide for their own families.

Sylvia Lopez is a house cleaner in the Bay Area. She works hard cleaning homes to provide a better life for her two children, Karina and Daniela.

We work in the shadows without a law to protect us from harsh chemicals or enforce the agreements we make with our employers.

I don't want my daughters to think that the work their mother does is less than real work. I want them to go to college, become professionals and to know that their mother did important work too. I am a house cleaner so that my daughters can have a better life.

It's important to me that my daughters to see my work as dignified — we need a domestic workers bill of rights in California.

Governor Brown may have vetoed the California Domestic Workers Bill of rights in 2012, but since the veto, Sylvia and her colleagues have built an even more powerful movement of domestic workers and families across the state, including employers and people with disabilities.

This new, stronger coalition is ready to face any challenges ahead! But, this growing movement needs your support.

Click here to sign the petition and send Governor Brown and the California state legislature a clear message: it's time to end the injustice — it's time for a California Domestic Workers Bill of Rights!

Thank you!

"A beautiful experience. Thank you!"

"A big thanks to everyone who made this possible.

It was a historic couple of days!"

The United Workers Congress is proud to report that its first DC convening of workers made a significant impact on the national debate around immigration reform. Over 300 workers and organizers, gathered to develop a shared immigration platform on workers rights and more importantly workers from different sectors from across the country brought their voices into the debate.

Specifically, events took place during February 11-13, 2013 in Washington D.C. and were sponsored by the United Worker Congress/UNITY to push for a stop to deportations and a start to immigration reform that not only includes immigrant workers and protects their rights – this is a huge task! Workers who were able to endure long bus rides and travel, were transformed by the events put together in these days and our Congress is stronger for building the relationships between people and connecting them to the current national debate.

"We have to do this more often with the goal of having stronger communities and with that new power we can be prepared to respond to any future problem our communities face."

Several historic and first time ever events took place during the United Worker Congress(UWC)/Unity Strategy Session, below are the highlights.

Political and Organizational Victories
• UWC sponsored a historic 300+ group viewing of the Winter 2013 State Of The Union address together in D.C.

• UWC had 300 people in line to pack the first Senate Hearing on Immigration Reform.

• UWC was able to assist in the first time – undocumented workers were able to make their voices heard, they stood up against Janet Napolitano for her role in the massive deportations of workers and family members.

• UWC was able to ensure that workers were able to tell their stories to members of the House and bring their experiences and real life issues to the national debate.

• UWC had a packed room of workers lined up to tell their stories At the House listening session with Gutierrez and other members the House.

• Not just immigrant workers were at the table--UWC brought workers from NY workfare to join the debate and push for the fair and humane treatment of all workers!

• UWC sponsored over 40 lobby visits with key representatives to move the POWER Act.

• Leaders for the UWC also had a meeting with the DOL today and that went well - participants felt good about building stronger relationships with them.

• The February 13th day of political and legislative actions ended with the allies meeting - and groups were excited to share what they were doing and try to find ways to connect to our work.

Social Media Success!!

• We had 538 tweets which used #all11million (the meme we put out) over the last few days and the 50 most recent ones reached 35K accounts.
http://nbclatino.com/2013/02/13/senate-hearing-on-immigration-reform-touches-on-the-human-cost-of-the-debate/

http://tweetreach.com/reach?q=%23All11million

• We have a tumblr with photos from the 2 days http://all11million.tumblr.com/

• We have a media team collecting clips and news - we had national press cover the event and will send those clips once they are compiled .

• We have video summaries of the events too! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fn0IQaJ6kYU&feature=youtu.be

How Far Did Folks Travel From?
Several flew in from the West Coast.

Buses came from New Orleans, Boston, New York and Chicago!
Even though the trip from the south took 2 days, the energy and excitement uplifted the passengers

Community/Artists Participation
Ramiro Gomez Jr.,  an artist from Los Angeles, unveiled a portrait of a family in a meeting room at the Washington Hilton on Tuesday, February 12th before the UWC audience of immigrant activists. The cutouts represented his own family, he said, as well as the families of everyone in the room. An article of his work and his experience posting his art work around D.C. is written about extensively in a Washington Post article. *The family portrait piece is now on display at the University of Maryland with the help with Dr. Perla M Guerror, Assitant Professor, Department of American Studies.
http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-02-13/entertainment/37077692_1_ramiro-gomez-deportations-immigration
http://www.npr.org/2013/02/14/171912349/artist-works-to-keep-immigrants-in-the-picture

Overall Media Coverage
AFL Begins National Push for Immigration Reform:
http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/02/07/afl-cio-begins-national-immigration-reform-push/

Voxxi: Immigrant Workers Want a Say in Reform:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/12/immigrant-workers-want-a-_n_2672104.html

Raw Story: Undocumented Immigrants Tell Obama Stop Tearing Apart Families
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/02/13/undocumented-immigrant-tells-obama-stop-tearing-families-apart-with-deportations/

Al Jazeera Interview with Rosi & Adelina
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10100644686360162
http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/insidestoryamericas/2013/02/20132149283536796.html

Undocumented Response to State of the Union
mycuentame.com/stateoftheunion

Mycuentame video from Senate hearing today:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151415500064712&set=vb.172945319711&type=2&theater

USA Today: Doubts Set Testy Tone for Senate Hearing
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/02/13/senate-immigration-hearing/1916461/

Paramus Post: Immigrant Workers Launch Platform
http://www.paramuspost.com/article.php/20130213151428271

LA Times: Border Security Never Stronger Says Napolitano
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-immigration-napolitano-20130214,0,558836.story

Voice of America: US Senate Looks at Reform
http://www.voanews.com/content/senate-focuses-on-immigration-reform/1602926.html

ABC: Senate Address Immigration & Border
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/02/border-security-no-barrier-to-immigration-reform-napolitano-says/

AP: Calls for Action at Senate Hearing
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/02/12/3230460/democrats-in-immigration-gang.html

Democracy Now: Undocumented, Allies Disrupt Senate
http://www.democracynow.org/2013/2/14/headlines/undocumented_protesters_allies_disrupt_senate_hearing_on_immigration_reform

Paramus Post: Domestic Workers Respond to SOTU
http://www.paramuspost.com/article.php/20130213163518854

En Español

AP: Le Gritan a Napolitano
http://voces.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/13/janet-napolitano-reforma-migratoria_n_2678484.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false

Primer Impacto SOTU coverage: Inmigrantes esperan que el presidente Barack Obama hable de inmigración esta noche :
‪http://bit.ly/14QYZMj

Primer Impacto: Interrupting Senate Hearing
http://noticias.univision.com/primer-impacto/videos/video/2013-02-13/a-grito-limpio-irrumpio-un?refPath=/univision23/

La Opinion on the Senate Hearing
http://www.laopinion.com/Senado-protagoniza-acalorado-debate-reforma-migratoria

Semana: Reforma Migratoria sera firmada
http://www.semana.com/mundo/articulo/reforma-migratoria-sera-firmada-de-inmediato/333240-3

Telemundo: Manifestiones interrupan el Senado
http://msnlatino.telemundo.com/videos/noticiero_telemundo/audiencias_de_inmigracin_en_el_senado/c7c3f99c-27cc-424c-9050-ab38b41f5fd4

We also had two different segments on CNN en Español with Daniel Castellanos from NGA then Tania from NDLON

HuffPo: best Moments of SOTU
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/13/obama-state-of-the-union-2013-video_n_2653282.html#225_immigrant-workers-surprised-disappointed-by-obama-immigration-remarks

TruthOut: Immigrants Make their Voice Heard in Washington
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/14542-immigrants-head-to-washington-to-make-their-voices-heard

Spanish-language TV

CNN en Español
http://ctv4.criticalmention.com/playerpage/player?shareid=105068&partnerToken=46e567b13c2a9b74013cdfd1b4d84838&clientId=46181

Telenoticias Washington, DC
http://ctv4.criticalmention.com/playerpage/player?shareid=105047&partnerToken=46e567b13c2a9b74013cdfd1b4d84838&clientId=46181

Univision Washington, DC
http://ctv4.criticalmention.com/playerpage/player?shareid=105048&partnerToken=46e567b13c2a9b74013cdfd1b4d84838&clientId=46181

Univision Orlando, FL
http://ctv4.criticalmention.com/playerpage/player?shareid=105050&partnerToken=46e567b13c2a9b74013cdfd1b4d84838&clientId=46181

Univision Miami, FL
http://ctv4.criticalmention.com/playerpage/player?shareid=105052&partnerToken=46e567b13c2a9b74013cdfd1b4d84838&clientId=46181

Univision Tampa, FL
http://ctv4.criticalmention.com/playerpage/player?shareid=105053&partnerToken=46e567b13c2a9b74013cdfd1b4d84838&clientId=46181

Telenoticias San Antonio, TX
http://ctv4.criticalmention.com/playerpage/player?shareid=105054&partnerToken=46e567b13c2a9b74013cdfd1b4d84838&clientId=46181

Noticias 34 Atlanta, GA
http://ctv4.criticalmention.com/playerpage/player?shareid=105055&partnerToken=46e567b13c2a9b74013cdfd1b4d84838&clientId=46181

Noticias 21 Fresno, CA
http://ctv4.criticalmention.com/playerpage/player?shareid=105058&partnerToken=46e567b13c2a9b74013cdfd1b4d84838&clientId=46181

Noticias 14 San Francisco, CA
http://ctv4.criticalmention.com/playerpage/player?shareid=105060&partnerToken=46e567b13c2a9b74013cdfd1b4d84838&clientId=46181

Univision Denver, CO
http://ctv4.criticalmention.com/playerpage/player?shareid=105061&partnerToken=46e567b13c2a9b74013cdfd1b4d84838&clientId=46181

Telemundo New York, NY
http://ctv4.criticalmention.com/playerpage/player?shareid=105064&partnerToken=46e567b13c2a9b74013cdfd1b4d84838&clientId=46181

2013 International Strategy Session- India

Last month 14 United Worker Congress Member Leaders arrived in New Delhi, India for an intense 11 day labor education exchange & strategy planning. The purpose of the trip was to introduce the United Workers Congress as a growing platform projecting the voices of workers not protected under current US labor law, share strategies with leaders of the Indian trade union and social movements and to move conversations that will build the United Workers Congress long-term. In addition sharing organizing models used to build our base and our power with similar sectors in India, UWC delegates discussed strategies impacting employment structure/practices, including day laborers (daily wagers), contract workers, self-employed, cooperatives, and labor-community alliances.To learn more about how this session is part of implementing a broader vision for UWC click here http://excludedworkerscongress.org/our-work/international-labor-issues-campaigns

Below are photos, videos & testimonials from our delegation.

Day Laborers and the Struggle for Bread. India and the US. 

(by Roger Sikes Organizing Director of Atlanta Jobs with Justice)

The United Workers Congress (UWC) met with members of the independent construction workers union called Nirman Mazdoor Sanghatana (NMS) in Mumbai, India this past week. This union organizes in the informal sector, largely among workers that we would call "day laborers" in the United States, while in India they are referred to as "daily wagers." Day laborers gather in small to medium sized groups in informal yet visible sites in a city or town (for example in front of a gas station, a public street corner, in-front of a shopping center) in search of work ranging from roofing, small construction projects, painting, loading and unloading goods and any tasks that the homeowner, business owner or small contractor may need.

In Atlanta, GA one might find day laborers on Ponce de Leon standing in-front of the shopping center that includes Home Depot and Verizon Wireless stores....

We had the opportunity to visit a daily wager site in Mumbai that is organized with NMS. This location was on a street corner on a busy road in Mumbai. The organized daily wagers had built a shelter at this location to protect themselves from the weather while waiting for work. As we stood hearing about the organization and the struggles and experiences of day laborers at this street corner, a group of workers quickly secured cold sodas from the store front just adjacent to the shelter and gave them to our delegation.
Daily wagers and members of the community quickly gathered at the site to understand what was going on and a leader of NMS took the opportunity to build political consciousness among the crowd around the need for worker organization in India.

Day laborers in both India and the United States face similar issues in their quest for work. The strong connection between theNational Day Laborers Organizing Network (NDLON) - a key part of the United Workers Congress - and the daily wagers in India was obvious. Harassment from police officers for occupying public space, wage theft from employers, unstable employment and pressure from the surrounding community that may be wary of the day laborers presence to name a few. NMS uses a community/labor organizing model and ensures that there is community representation on the elected leadership body of each daily wager site. This promotes communication and understanding between the local community and the daily wagers.
Before we left, the daily wagers again brought us gifts, this time roses (note that these gifts appeared spontaneously, the daily wagers were working their magic - or community connections - as we stood learning). The roses were presented to each member of our delegation.

As we were leaving the site a small, tight knit group of women approached us. They were construction workers (day laborers). When asked about their experiences working as construction workers as women, their response was simple, "if we don't do this work we cannot eat."
I was struck by the tight unity of the women as they rolled up to the crowd, here you can see their hands touching each other's shoulders as they addressed our delegation.

(by Roger Sikes Organizer Atlanta Jobs with Justice)

Today is our first day in the world's 4th largest city, with a population of 20.5 million: Mumbai, India. During the morning we had the opportunity to engage with Mecanzy Dabre from the National Hawkers Federation (Street Venders). Street venders make up a large and vibrant sector of the Indian economy, employing approximately 10 million Indian workers throughout the country. The National Hawkers Federation (NHF) represents 1,125,000 street venders across 25 states in India. Street venders often face retaliation from police for establishing a space to sell their wares as well as resistance from some neighborhood associations. Street venders provide affordable goods and services to urban communities and offer employment to folks that may not have access to any other jobs. Street venders provide jobs to typically marginalized communities such as muslims and women. The 11 Central Trade Unions have pushed for legislation to establish the rights of street venders and ensure that there is proper city planning to allow space for street venders and pedestrians in a thoughtful way. Some national legislation has been passed, but oftentimes enforcement at the state and local level is lacking and NSF organizes to enforce it. We then heard from Salma Shaikh the general secretary of the Azad Hawkers Union. Salma said the first step is to remove the fear. They employ aggressive education around the rights of workers and street venders. They educate 100 venders at a time and then elect 2 or 3 to handle the police on behalf of that base. Salma shared an experience from 2007.... She was selling her wares in the street and the police came and beat her and other street venders with sticks. She was furious at the treatment they faced and vowed she would live and die in the struggle. She has since been to jail 7 times fighting for the rights of street venders. Salma said that women need to be central to this movement, "In a women's lap, life is born."

To start off the afternoon we engaged with two independent and self-sustaining Domestic Worker organizations (Picture attached). A big piece of their organizing has been making domestic work visible and formal. One step has been providing identification cards to their members. Membership in the union costs 25 rupees per year (about 50 cents in the US). Madhu Birmul, a leader with the domestic workers union explained that in one of the homes that she used to clean the tea that she would drink was different from that of the family. She asked one day who washed the cup that she was drinking from, and if that person also received a different type of tea... The answer was no. From that day on, she wanted to organize domestic workers. She said that domestic workers were often ashamed of their work, and the first step was building consciousness around the dignity of their own labor. When Madhu first started to build the domestic workers union she had support from only two other domestic workers. The union has grown to over 25,000 in her state. Because Domestic Workers make very little, they ask members to contribute plastic bottles and metal to the organization that can be sold to recyclers. Madhu told us that national legislation was passed in 2008 around the rights of Domestic Workers, however the legislation was not being implemented at the state level. The domestic workers thought out a plan to hold the government accountable: they asserted that the government was dead. In order to highlight this death, the domestic workers planned to shave their heads (In some Indian communities, if your husband dies, the widow will shave her head in mourning). However, it was difficult to push members to take this drastic step, especially if they had living husbands. So it was domestic workers that were already widows - a group of 25 - that stepped up and shaved their heads to highlight the death of the government.

The local government reacted quickly to this dramatization and began implementing the national legislation. Later in the afternoon we heard from Madhukant Pathariya with the independent construction workers union called Nirman Mazdoor Sanghatana that organizes day laborers (referred to as "Daily Wagers" here) in Mumbai. The union was founded in 1984. Madhukant said that in 1991 India opened

up to the global economy and around this time the "organized sector" or formal sector began losing jobs and traditional unions only  rotected their own members and did not expand to the informal sector. He then stated that "the more insecure labor is, the more  organized it becomes." NMS does much of its organizing on street corners where day laborers congregate to find work. Much of this work is small scale construction/labor, and not so much on large construction work. The organizing was very similar to that of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON). NMS also works within the community which is especially important because of the visible presence of the day laborers waiting for work within the community. A bit on the organizational structure of NMS (photo attached)... Each location where daily wagers congregate elects a 21 person leadership committee. There must be at least 2 women on the committee, 18 must be day laborers, 2 must be members of the outside community (again community relationships and perspective is important) and 1 person from the central leadership committee of NMS. Madhukant spoke of a stigma around the word union for many of the daily wagers as some had negative experiences in the past, so the name of their organization does not include union but "organization." There are many social divisions within the informal sector such as caste status, state origin, language and religion. These divisions sexist within the base of NMS. NMS believes that it is not formal educational trainings that help to build leaders and consciousness, but through struggle. They believe strongly in politicizing workers and building class consciousness. NMS is not affiliated with any political party, they ask members to leave party politics at the door. They do believe in issue based alliances.

(by Nadia Marin-Molina, Execiutive Director- National Day Laborer Organizing Network)

We began the day with a presentation from SEWA (Self Employed Women's Association) a women's union which has about 1.1 million members, including domestic workers, construction workers, street vendors, and many others. Sonia Pehn flew in from the southern state of Kerala which has a historically strong labor movement, progressive government and greater labor protections than other areas of the country. Because of this, she explained, the state has the highest rate of literacy in the country 80% and a high rate of women participating in higher education. Sonia spoke about how SEWA began organizing domestic workers in Kerala by training a group of poor women from a historically marginalized caste, as part of a strategy to professionalize domestic work. This strategy of training women in child care, health care, cooking and cleaning allowed both the organized women and their employers to see their relationship as one of employers and employees, rather than master and servant.

Later in the day, the UWC delegation visited the wonderful May Day Cafe. Established on May 1, 2012, the cafe was founded by Suda Nava Deshpande, the director of a popular street theater company called the People's Theater Group, which was formed in 1973. The all volunteer theater troupe conducts plays across the country for audiences that include students, rural communities and particularly workers. The troupe has a particularly close relationship with union struggles, often developing new plays quickly in response to strikes, employment crackdowns and other issues of concern to workers. Meanwhile unions are so familiar with the theater that they count on these plays as part of their strategies to educate and organize workers across the country. The cafe and bookstore lead directly to a door for a theater space, a room where the audience sits around the edges and the play takes place in the middle. The founder then described the broad community based fundraising strategy which allowed them to raise a substantial amount of money, enough to buy a small 3 story building which houses the cafe, as well as the performance space and a left bookstore.

The largest public event of the trip was that afternoon, a public seminar on New Directions in Worker Organizing. Organized by the Society for Labor and Development, the seminar/panel brought together 3 presenters from the United States and 3 from India. They discussed the increasing governmental repression of activist organizing and the sinister push towards biometric identification cards (reminiscent for some of us of the e-verify / biometric work ID push in the US); the legal framework which should protect labor organizing and often does not; and the importance of uniting global labor struggles. Many audience members spoke up to provide examples of their own experience in organizing against evictions and worker abuse and facing retaliation at the hands of the police and employers.

The analysis provided by Ashim Roy of the New Trade Union Initiative encapsulated well some of the lessons that came out during the day. The Global South includes both the countries in the Southern Hemisphere and the millions of workers who have emigrated to work in the North. Without their combined contributions, both cultural and economic, the entire world would grind to a halt. But if and when the workers of the Global South are able to organize, their power will create a tide that will transform the labor movement.

 (By Jill Shenker, Field Director National Domestic Workers Alliance)  

Today, on our 3rd day of meetings, we finally had the opportunity to get an historical overview of the trade union movement in India – from 1875 to the present! We had three very different and interesting external meetings:

1) Mobile Creches, who provides childcare and education on the construction sites and slums of Delhi while their migrant parents work. 15-20% of construction workers here are women, and husband and wife often work together in temporary construction jobs. It was exciting to learn about this organization working at the intersection of children’s and worker rights.

2) SEWA (Self-Employed Women’s Association) Delhi – SEWA has 1.3 million women members across India who are street vendors, home based workers (ex. Embroidery), women selling their labor and services (ex. Domestic workers and construction workers), and small producers (ex. Small farmers and milk producers). They provide a broad range of services and economic empowerment programs for their members including: education centers for members and their daughters, referral and support to access social services and social security programs, and microfinance (loans, pension, insurance schemes, coop formation). The scale of SEWA is incredibly inspiring, and we felt we could spend weeks learning about their multitude of strategies to create personal, political, and economic empowerment of informal sector women workers. Thankfully, we have another meeting with domestic worker organizing director of SEWA tomorrow!

3) All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) is the oldest trade union in India, founded in 1920. AITUC became a revolutionary force, in connection with the Communist Party, for the independence of India. We learned more about the past three years of work building up to the national general strike and the platform of 10 common demands across all of the trade union centers, regardless of political affiliation. And they had a lot of questions for us about the realities with the recession of unemployment, bonded/trafficked labor, immigration enforcement, and the Occupy movement.

We’re sitting with many questions and a commitment to innovate strategies to build transformative mass worker organization in the US.

 Photo: Building Woodworkers International & CITU-Hotel Workers

(By Erica Smiley, Director of Campaigns Jobs with Justice and American Rights at Work)

Day 2 of the trip initiated a series of public exchanges with several sectors. UWC delegates opened up the morning with a presentation by the Hotel Workers Union and the Hotel Employees Federation of India (HEFOI), a sectorial federation of hotel workers unions. After hearing about their strategy and on-going struggle with company unions in 5-star hotels, the Restaurant Opportunities Center presented on similar problems that exist in restaurants in the US—highlighting their track record for winning back wages and benefits by targeting the more popular and wealthier restaurant chains with on-going direct action.

This meeting was followed by an exchange with the Building and Woodworkers International union, where UWC delegates learned about the successful Construction Welfare Boards—institutions that construction companies pay into that then provide social security, healthcare and other benefits to the workers upon registering. Similar programs are in development for India’s domestic workers. The National Day Laborers Organizing Network responded with their experience in the US, highlighting how current immigration laws limit workers from ever wanting to “register” with a government agency. Still, all agreed that similar strategies are worth continued exploration in the US—connecting taxes on large corporations to publicly funded programs and support for workers.

The afternoon opened with a meeting with Action India, a local grassroots organization known for creating Mahila Panchayats—local women’s councils that hear the cases of local community women and support women in resolving domestic issues in a safe and supportive way. The organization lead with a feminist, anti-patriarchal purpose—aiming to support and build power among India’s women. Jobs with Justice delegates noted how similar the Panchayats were to local Workers Rights Boards, and the National Domestic Workers Alliance shared strategies (and challenges) in the organizing of US domestic workers.

The official day ended with a meeting between the UWC, the Ford Foundation of India and the ILO. The details of the general strike were flushed out a little more before discussing potential areas for future collaboration between US worker organizations and Indian organizations.

1) All India Strike - day 1 of 2 days 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 12, 2013

Immigrant Workers Launch Own Platform for Immigration Reform

Hundreds of Workers Arrive in DC to Raise Voice for Full Inclusion, Relief, Labor Rights  

Washington, D.C.—Tonight, after a day-long national strategy session, more than 250 immigrant workers and civil and labor rights leaders gathered to watch President Obama’s State of the Union address—and launch their own demands to stop deportations and achieve just and inclusive citizenship with strong labor protections for all 11 million immigrants in any reform. 

The group of workers has traveled to D.C. to kick off efforts nationwide to ensure that immigrant workers themselves shape immigration reform and are fully included in the policy debate. Their own platform for immigration reform includes an inclusive path to citizenship, an immediate end to deportations, and strong defense of workers’ labor, employment, and civil rights, including the right to organize and protections against cruel employer retaliation through the adoption of policies in the POWER Act. See the full principles here.  

“As the latest push for immigration reform begins in earnest in Washington, the real faces of this issue are going to make themselves heard,” says Sarita Gupta, Executive Director, Jobs with Justice. “Immigrants who work in our country and contribute to our economy every day are coming to Capitol Hill to ensure that any discussion on immigration reform advances their needs and rights on the job. Workers’ rights advocates will be supporting their efforts knowing that we can’t afford any immigration policies that drag workplace standards down and create any more inequity in our economy.” 

“After so many speeches and promises, its time for the President to give meaning to his speech tonight with concrete action to address the suffering caused by deportations,” explains Pablo Alvarado, Director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network. “The first step on the path to citizenship is a suspension of deportations. We want to see the President that sets an example for Congress and includes all 11 million – engineers and day laborers alike.”

"President Obama said it best in Nevada: immigration is about people, not policies. Today while he delivers the State of the Union, workers across the country are setting out to win full and first class citizenship. That means a path to citizenship for all the 11 million, and an end to exploitation in guestworker programs." - Saket Soni, Executive Director, National Guestworker Alliance 

"We’ve been waiting too long for this opportunity,” says Ai-jen Poo, Executive Director, National Domestic Workers Alliance. “We want to win citizenship for all 11 million undocumented immigrants. That’s why we are organizing domestic workers and other immigrant workers to push for an inclusive road to citizenship that protects workers and keeps families together." 

On February 13th, workers will attend the first Senate hearing on immigration; meet with Administration officials; lobby with staff of Judiciary committee members, Senate leadership, and House caucuses; share their stories at an event with Rep. Luis Gutierrez (IL-4); and will rally on the Hill. 

Many of the 250+ workers are currently in deportation proceedings, such as Chicago Pallet Factory workers and the Southern 32, a group of immigrant labor organizers and civil rights defenders. They include day laborers, guestworkers who exposed forced labor in Louisiana, reconstruction workers from post-Sandy New York, raided factory workers from Chicago, Palermo pizza workers from Wisconsin, and domestic workers from around the country.

These workers are being brought together by the United Workers Congress (UWC), an alliance of workers that are by law or by practice excluded from the right to organize in the United States. UWC is a project of Unity, an alliance of Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, Jobs with Justice, National Day Labor Organizing Network, National Domestic Worker Alliance, National Guestworker Alliance, and Right to the City Alliance. 

Contacts: B. Loewe, NDLON, 773-791-4668,  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

                Stephen Boykewich, NGA,718-791-9162,  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

###