The UFCW is standing up for the rights of workers everywhere in the face of increasingly aggressive and harassing tactics by the agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE):
Omaha, Neb.— Members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) and community members will discuss and condemn misconduct by agents of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) charged with enforcing failed immigration policies. At a national meeting on Thursday, the group will investigate worksite raids where workers have been routinely and illegally held against their will, denied access to telephones, attorneys and even bathrooms.
UFCW International President Joseph T. Hansen will join others in the civil rights, immigrant rights and labor movements to condemn the government's policies of detainment and physical force.
The meeting is scheduled for 9:30 AM on Thursday, August 16 at Omaha's Westside Community Conference Center (map).
Why does UFCW care about ICE? Here's one reason: on December 12 of last year, ICE raids on meatpacking plants in six states resulted in more than 12,000 hard-working men and women being caught up in ICE's net -- and more have been threatened since.
If you're a U.S. citizen or a legal immigrant working in one of these plants, why should you have to suffer detention and interrogation just because ICE suspects that some of your co-workers might be illegal immigrants? Is this kind of "collective responsibility" compatible with the maintenance of a free democracy? These are the questions UFCW is bringing to the fore -- not just for their members, but for all working people who care about their rights.
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You nailed it solid. The nativists don't understand that their "just enforce the law" position is resulting in the persecution of innocent people, and in the best case it means the detention of people whose only crime is desiring to work for a better life for themselves and their families.
Posted by Andy Heyman on August 16, 2007 at 9:44 AM
Posted on August 16, 2007 at 9:44 AM