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‘In The Same Boat’
UAW Sides With Immigrants In Fight For Workers Rights

From various points east, west, north, and south, the buses traveled through the heat of day and through the dark of night.

Many of the riders spoke only in a foreign language or in broken, labored English and were not always understood by those around them. They were immigrants, far from their land of birth.

Yet this was not their pilgrimage. They had already arrived and settled somewhere in the United States, a place they had hoped would be their land of opportunity. They were on a mission to fight for those liberties most of us were born with and accept as our birthright.

“They” are the Immigrant Workers Freedom Riders, some 900 immigrant workers and their supporters, who boarded buses in various cities around the country. Many International unions, labor councils, community organizations and religious groups joined in the event, speaking out around the plight of immigrant workers.

While the Freedom riders’ goal was to meet with members of Congress in Washington, D.C., their journey also gave them the opportunity to meet thousands of Americans and educate them about how immigrant workers are abused in this country despite existing labor laws.

While many would agree that working people in this country must fight to defend themselves against corporate greed, immigrants are even more vulnerable than workers born here. While struggling to feed their children and living in poverty, they are also faced with threats of being reported to the Immigration and Naturalization Service. While employers are quick to exploit immigrant workers, believing them to be hard-working and passive, these same employers are just as quick to call INS the moment immigrant workers start organizing a union and fighting for the most basic of civil rights.
The four goals of the Immigrant Workers movement are:
(1) protection of workers rights on the job,
(2) protection of civil rights and civil liberties,
(3) the right to reunite families, and
(4) legalization and a path to citizenship for the immigrant workers in this country.

Local 10 in Doraville, Ga., was one of the UAW locals that welcomed these modern day freedom riders. Local 10 recently became an amalgamated local with the addition of Android Industries which has a large majority of Hispanic workers. In their organizing drive, 100 percent of the workers signed union cards, a fact that shows the level of union support that exists among immigrant workers.

Two of the IWFB buses arrived in Atlanta on the afternoon of Sept. 29 with its passengers chanting in Spanish “Si, se puede!” which translates to “Yes, we can!”

In cooperation with the Atlanta Labor Council, Local 10 hosted a barbecue lunch for the freedom riders. Other Atlanta area unions and Jobs with Justice joined the supporters, congregating at a nearby Catholic mission. They marched 2,500 strong back to the Doraville local. The crowd was so large they had to hold the rally in the union hall’s parking lot.

“This is a question of human rights,” said Georgia UAW-CAP Chairman Chip Slaughter. “Whenever workers are exploited, immigrant or natural born, the labor movement should be fully involved because labor has a history of involvement in human rights and issues of social justice.”

Renowned civil rights leader Dr. Joseph Lowery, of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, spoke passionately to the crowd, ending his speech by saying, “We came here to America on different ships, but we are all in the same boat now.”