Main Street on the Move for Jobs and Immigration Reform - Day 1:
Main Street is moving! The Voces de la Frontera five-city tour got a strong start today kicking things off in Milwaukee in the morning and moving on to Chicago for an afternoon stop. The Wisconsin delegation will meet tens of thousands of people in Washington, D.C. on Sunday to demand the Obama administration come through on campaign promises to enact comprehensive immigration reform and to create jobs.
“The recent crisis has resulted in millions of people joining the ranks of the unemployed, and there is more to come,” said Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director of Voces de la Frontera. “It is essential that working people start to build a mass movement for full employment and strengthened labor rights—a pillar of which is passage of federal immigration reform this year. . It is only through our solidarity that we can challenge the federal government to meet the needs of Main Street and not Wall Street. This diverse delegation and the local people we meet represent both the hardship and the hope.”
Milwaukee:
Omar Damian Ortega worked for nine years as a welder for the same company in Milwaukee. He went to work every day, worked as hard as he could and built a life for his family. One day he was injured on the job. Ortega decided to file a workers’ compensation claim to collect the money he deserved but West Bend Mutual Insurance Company had other plans. Instead of investigating his claim, they investigated his immigration status, passing his information along to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Ortega spent five months in jail with pending deportation orders. He recently got out of jail but will spend at least the next year trying to fight his deportation order. Voces de la Frontera and the National Employment Law Project just requested that the Division of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties investigate his case since his labor rights have been blatantly violated. ICE policies should not allow immigration laws to be used to undermine labor law, a practice which degrades conditions and safety for all workers.
“The hardest part about this process is the separation from my family,” Ortega said at the Milwaukee press conference. Ortega has 18 months of restrictions where, among other things, he can’t work and can’t leave the state. His sister, Alejandra Acevedo, will speak on his behalf for the rest of the tour.
After hearing Ortega’s story at the press conference today, supporters took a first step in turning the current tour into future action. They signed a petition calling on West Bend to end the corporate strategy of evading Wisconsin’s workers’ compensation laws by investigating injured workers’ immigration status and reporting them in order to avoid payment.
Kurt Zunker spoke as the president of AFSCME Local 882, a union that represents airport, highway, facilities, fleet, parks and zoo employees. He emphasized the far-reaching effects of the loss of family-sustaining jobs—this union alone has lost 110 jobs since the end of December 2009 and is fighting to protect the jobs of many more.
A UW-Madison alum added her voice to the kick-off rally. Rachel Krueger, one of the 12 people going on the tour, spoke about the difficulty she has had in finding a full-time job since her limited-term employment with the Wisconsin Department of Corrections ended in April 2009. She expressed her solidarity with immigrant workers and their struggles.
Jeff Hoffman, a laid off Harley-Davidson worker and Dexter Keys who was laid off after 15 years at Iron Mountain both spoke about the need to work together for job creation. “We’re all in the same boat,” Hoffman said. “United we stand, divided we fall.”
Looking around at the diverse assemblage, Sheila Cochran, secretary treasurer of the Milwaukee Area Labor Council, focused on the need to stick together in this struggle. She cautioned against the people who would surely try to divide the group in the face of such unity.
“An injury to one is an injury to all,” Cochran said. “We are united workers asking to be treated with respect.”
Chicago:
After just a couple hours on the road, the Voces delegation made it to stop number two, gathering at the site of the Haymarket Memorial in downtown Chicago.
“This historic location is the perfect stop for the Main Street on the Move tour because it reminds us and inspires us of the courageous struggles of working people who asserted our dignity as human beings and won the eight-hour workday,” Neumann-Ortiz said.
A crowd of workers from the United Food and Commercial Workers, United Electric, and Teamsters gathered by the statue with labor leaders and community members, calling for immigration reform now.
Ricky Maclin spoke about the struggle he and his fellow workers at Republic Windows and Doors won in 2008, urging the crowd to stand and fight together. “Team work makes the dream work,” he said.
Another speaker, Maria Constantino, stepped up to the microphone to speak about her experiences at Pete’s Fresh Market where racial discrimination and sexual harassment are all too common. Many of her fellow workers are vulnerable as immigrants and fear job loss if they complain. Constantino called for immigration reform to empower these people to stand up for their rights. Those gathered in downtown Chicago hope reform will soon be a reality.
More than 100 buses are leaving from Chicago to join individuals from all across the country, including the Wisconsin delegation from Voces de la Frontera. All will arrive for a march and rally on Sunday, March 21. There is still space for anyone else interested in leaving from Chicago at 6 p.m. on Saturday March 20 from US Cellular field. Artemio Arreola from the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, said people should ask in their local churches and at Mexican grocery stores for more details about the buses.
Tomorrow, the Voces delegation will start the morning with a forum in Toledo and then head for Cincinnati, city 4 in the tour.
MAIN STREET ON THE MOVE: Day 2On day two of the Voces tour, a group gathered in Jerusalem Baptist Church in Toledo and outlined needs of workers everywhere. They called for fair contracts, fair compensation, benefits, safe work environments, a decent living wage, a meaningful, equitable pathway to citizenship and comprehensive immigration reform. Speakers representing the local NAACP chapter, UFCW (United Food and Commercial Workers) Local 75, the Lucas County Commissioner and the Toledo Urban League joined the Voces delegation at the microphone, emphasizing both job creation and immigration reform as two priorities.
“We gotta fight for what’s right for people,” said Bill Dudley, director of strategic programs for UFCW Local 75. “That’s what we do in the labor movement.”
Alejandra Acevedo, Dexter Keys and Rachel Kreuger recounted their individual stories of hardship, calling on the labor community to demand action by the government. And, Craig Oliver, a member of the Voces delegation and community activist from Racine, Wis., encouraged a coalition of the entire working class across lines of immigration status or race.
“Calling people illegals and wetbacks, or aliens—what’s an illegal worker?” Oliver asked. “A worker is a worker.”
Oliver said the civil rights battle of this generation is immigration reform. The time for change is now, he pointed out, concluding his comments with the well-known saying: “If they come for you in the morning, they’ll be back for me in the afternoon.”
Rita Fackelman lent her story to those of the Voces delegates, explaining her year-long battle against housing foreclosure. She lost her job and when she called her lender, found out that after 17 years of paying into a mortgage her house was going to be foreclosed on.
“What I went through fighting to keep my house was not something I would wish on my worst enemy,” Fackelman said.
The statewide group Empowering and Strengthening Ohio’s People, ESOP, stepped in to fight with Fackelman. Today, speaking from the other side of her ordeal, Fackelman is convinced big bankers must be stopped from wreaking havoc on the middle class.
The program today brought a range of people to speak, showing unity across causes and highlighting the interconnectedness of the immigrant rights and worker rights struggles.
After an entertaining lunch at Andre’s lounge (see photos below) the Voces delegation made the four-hour trek to Cincinnati. Tomorrow, they will join with the Interfaith Worker Justice of Cincinnati and Su Casa Hispanic Ministry before heading to D.C.
THE HEADS OF STATE...of Andre's Lounge - Toledo, Ohio
MAIN STREET ON THE MOVE: Day 3
The Evansville, Ind., Whirlpool plant is planning to fire all of its employees and move operations to Monterrey, Mexico by June. More than 1,100 people will lose their jobs.
“This is going to ripple through our community like a tsunami,” said Gary Gardner, the CWA-IUE (Communications Workers of America-International Union of Electronic, Electrical, Salaried, Machine and Furniture Workers) representative for the Evansville region.
The company is moving from Indiana, where the average wage is $17.40 per hour for a 40-hour standard workweek, to Monterrey where the average wage will be about $70 per week, according to Gardner, and the mandatory workweek will be 72 hours long. While Whirlpool is moving forward with plans to leave Evansville, they are enjoying their $19.3 million in taxpayer-funded stimulus money.
Supporting people fighting injustices like this is why Voces launched the Main Street on the Move tour. The 12-person delegation has made it through Day 3 and will arrive in Washington, D.C. on Saturday for City 5 of the trip.
“It is essential that working people start to build a mass movement for full employment,” said Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director of Voces de la Frontera. “We must support workers who are fighting to keep their jobs, build greater solidarity among working people and demand more from the federal government.”
The delegation spent Friday in Cincinnati and got the chance to meet local activists fighting for workers’ and immigrants’ rights before an evening rally at Su Casa Hispanic Ministry. The Cincinnati Interfaith Worker Center organized the event and brought together a group of community members, many of whom will also be in D.C. on Sunday.
“We need to unite and fight to be here and demand our rights,” said Alma Diaz from the Cincinnati Interfaith Workers Center. She and 200 others from Cincinnati will leave for the capitol on Saturday to do just that. One thousand people will leave from Ohio and join delegations from across the country to call on President Obama to fulfill his campaign promises of immigration reform.
Fourteen-year-old Heyra Avila will be one of the marchers. She said at the rally she is going because she knows if they all go, they can achieve their goals. “We’re not criminals, we’re people,” she said. “Si se puede.”
The Voces delegation will leave Cincinnati on Saturday morning at 5 a.m. to make it to D.C. in time to meet one group walking from New York City and a caravan of people arriving from Arizona. The tours will meet for a reception at the Wesley United Methodist Church in D.C.
MAIN STREET ON THE MOVE: DAY 4
Main Street on the Move made it to D.C.! We’re one delegate fewer because Craig Oliver could only come to Cincinnati, but the excitement level is still high. The morning plan was to meet at 4:30 a.m. in our Cincinnati hotel lobby, which we did…after the tech staff slept a total of zero minutes. Slow internet and technology glitches played a big roll in the sleep deprivation but luckily, two of the better-rested Main Street on the Move-ers took the first shift at driving.
The 10-hour trip from Cincinnati to D.C. went smoothly with just one emergency rest stop (which involved a much-needed bathroom) and a quick lunch (Arby’s and Wendy’s) before getting back on the road. Upon arriving in D.C. we got a sneak peek at the Wesley United Methodist Church musical group and a mini-stroll before meeting with two other tour groups also arriving in D.C. Walkers from NYC completed their eight-day, 250-mile trek in time for the march on Sunday, as did a caravan from Arizona that has been traveling and speaking about immigration reform since March 6.
All three groups were welcomed to D.C. and the Wesley United Methodist Church for a few hours of sharing stories and listening to music. One woman from the Arizona delegation brought with her the shoes of a child she met after his parents were taken away because of the current immigration law. “The separation of families is very serious,” she said.
The New York City delegation decided to march after hearing about four students walking 1,500 miles from Miami to Washington, D.C., to raise awareness about the need for immigration reform. The “dream walkers,” Gaby Pacheco, Carlos Roa, Felipe Matos and Juan Rodriguez are trying to send a message to the government to fix the immigration system so it doesn’t continue to fail people like them. The NYC marchers figured if these students could go 1,500 miles, they could manage the 250.
March for America planners hope all of us will be joined by 100,000 people in D.C. on Sunday. We hope so too! We’re all ready to be part of a historic march and influence the way immigration is handled in this country.
MAIN STREET ON THE MOVE: DAY 5
“What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!”
“Education, Not Deportation!”
“The people united will never be defeated!”
More than 200,000 people crowded into the National Mall with us as we chanted, clapped and yelled, demanding justice for immigrants. A three-hour long program with speakers from advocacy groups across the country preceded a 2.5 mile march through D.C. Religious groups from all faiths joined politicians, students, union members and workers in calling on Congress and Obama to pass fair, just and comprehensive immigration reform.
“If today we raise our voices in hope, one day we will raise our voices in victory,” said Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill.
Buses, trains and airplanes brought people from California, Pennsylvania, Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, Illinois, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Indiana, WISCONSIN and almost every other state in the country. Like the message we’ve been hearing and giving over the last week on our 5-city tour, the crowd and the speakers made clear the time is now for immigration reform. We cannot wait while families are being torn apart and people are being denied their rights. “Human beings are not illegal,” read one t-shirt in the crowd.
Chants floated across the National Mall in Spanish and English, showing the presence of Latino immigrant groups, but many other immigrant groups including Irish, African and Asian. A strong message of solidarity and common cause included organizational representatives for African American civil rights, including the NAACP.
If we maintain the pressure on the administration that went into coordinating this march, it will be possible to pass immigration reform and stop the escalation of criminalization and deportation. As we visit Wisconsin representatives on Monday and urge them to support reform, we hope you will call yours and do the same. All of us, together, can make a difference!
Senator Kohl: 414-297-4451
Senator Feingold: 414-276-7282
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