All Workers Deserve Rights

CWA President Larry Cohen, below, addressed 800 union members, their families, immigration advocates, faith leaders and community leaders as they rallied at the Arizona state Capitol.

In 2009, after consultation with faith and community leaders, the labor movement came together in support of a framework for immigration reform that reflects our shared values: dignity, fairness, opportunity, voice and justice.

The framework is based on the simple idea that working people are strongest when we work together and the labor movement is strongest when we are open to all workers, regardless of where they come from. It advocates for keeping families together, creating a road map to citizenship and halting the race to the bottom in wages and worker standards by employers who are taking advantage of our failures in immigration policy.

The framework proposes a data-driven approach to immigration that would determine future visas based on labor market needs as well as the improvement, not expansion, of guest worker visa programs that too often deny basic civil rights to immigrant workers.

In November, American voters soundly rejected the pro-corporate and anti-immigrant agenda advanced by those who have stood in the way of comprehensive reform. President Obama enters his second term with a mandate to fight for and pass immigration reform. Members of our unions, like the rest of the American public, strongly support reform that includes a road map to citizenship for aspiring Americans who love this country and call it home.

CWA remains committed to working together with one voice, along with our community partners, including civil rights, human rights and immigrant rights organizations, to pass fundamental reform that encompasses these principles. The time is now.

How Did California Grow Its Union Membership? Last year, most states saw a drop in collective bargaining rights. But California bucked the national trend by adding more than 100,000 new workers to collective bargaining unions. How? Latino workers. The Los Angeles Times reports, “After working hard to get here, many Latino immigrants demand respect in the workplace and are more willing to join unions in a tough economic environment.” And this isn’t a fluke. California’s success story is buoyed by forecasts that the US Latino population will likely double over the next two decades.