Cannery workers fight frame-up

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discusses Central America Rosa Maria Rivera, a founding member of El Salvador's teacher's union, addressing June 23 Minneapolis Labor Conference on Central America.

Attended by over 80 people, mostly trade unionists, the conference approved a statement pledging to "do whatever we can" to get the U.S. government to withdraw all aid to the anti-labor dictatorships in Central America. The participants also denounced the U.S. war against Nicaragua, and The conference also voted to establish an on-going committee of trade unionists and antiwar activists to further the mobilizations in defense of the right to self-determination of the Central American people.

Watsonville, Calif., was known as the lugar de pajaros ("place of birds") when it was still Mexican territory. Now it is known as the "frozen-food capital." It is in the heart of the Salinas Valley and is a working-class town of 30,000 people.

The first time I was ever in Watsonville, I nearly forgot that this town was in the United States. The people in the main square, in the restaurants, at the movie theatre, and in most of the stores spoke Spanish and wore clothes that were typical of the Mexican provinces of Michoacan, Guanajuato, or Jalisco.

The Salinas-Watsonville Valley is the most productive vegetable-growing region in the world. It produces 80 percent of the vegetables consumed in the United States, both fresh and frozen. This is produced and harvested by 10,000 agricultural workers, while another 7000 workers are employed in the industrial food-processing plants. Eighty-five percent of these 17,000 percent (Chicanos) were born in the United States.

I returned to Watsonville this past May 6, at the invitation of the workers from the food-processing industry to celebrate "Cinco de Mayo" (a Mexican national holiday).

These workers are organized in Local 912 of the largest and most powerful union in the United States, the Teamsters union. It is widely believed that this union is controlled by a La Quinastyle mafia, not unlike the one that runs the oil workers' union in Mexico. The Teamsters union has a discriminatory and disparaging attitude toward workers who have immigrated from Mexico and other parts of Latin America.

The Teamsters and Mexican workers The president of the Teamsters, Jackie Presser, has said that the "illegals, whether Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, or Haitians, represent the most serious problem facing the United States. Besides being a threat to national security, their unwanted presence could cause an explosive situation." (El Diario, Jan. 24, 1984)

(continued from page 1: “A threat to all workers”) against employers will actually bring the employers into the enforcement apparatus of the INS, putting them in a position of checking employees' social security numbers and identification.

In any case, employers will be able to ill their labor needs through the "tem›orary foreign worker" provisions of he bill, which ensure a supply of low›aid workers who lack rights or protecions.

People who work with refugees and immigrant service organizations are already reporting cases of employers firing undocumented workers, even though the bill is not yet signed into law.

Hispanic organizations have warned that the bill will result in increased discrimination against all minority workers. "To protect themselves employers will feel pressed not to hire non-white, non-English speaking people," said Cindy Forster, a volunteer with the American Civil Liberties Union Immigration Project.

The employers have always exploited the vulnerable position of undocumented workers. The Simpson-Mazzoli Bill will intensify this exploitation by bringing in cheap labor, and then expelling these low-paid workers as soon as their labor power is no longer needed.

The immigrant workers are not represented on the executive committee of Local 912, although they are a majority of the membership. They are also not defended in disputes with the employer, whether it is a matter of overtime, seniority rights, or degrading treatment from foremen.

That is why some 1000 workers and their families came together to celebrate "Cinco de Mayo" in its fullest sense, by honoring what this day means to the Mexican people. They are demanding respect for their nationality, for their democratic rights, for their union rights, and their right to have work.

At this gathering, the workers put on a play about a real struggle that had been waged at the Watsonville Canning factory. It described the following actual events:

Juan Parra came from Jalisco 13 years ago. He still barely understands or speaks English. In 1981 he operated a supply vehicle with a trailer to deliver vegetables to the packing lines. Juan had shown signs of rebellion against the insults and threats of his foreman, Ken Miller.

One day, as sometimes happens, the trailer came unhitched, which caused the packing line to stop for a few minutes. The foreman blamed Juan for the incident. The trailer was hooked up and the line started to run. Juan was cleaning up the place while the other workers finished unloading the trailer.

The foreman ordered him in an insulting voice to "unload the trailer" and Juan responded, "that's not my job." The foreman then said, "What are you good for, you stupid Mexican This will ensure a permanent and highly controlled surplus labor force, expelling workers before they can unionize, and putting a permanent brake on all wages in the United States.

A provision in both versions of the bill will establish a "secure system to determine employment eligibility in the U.S." The House version requires a tollfree telephone number, which employers could call to validate social security numbers. The Senate version leaves it to the President to devise a system. Both versions smack of a police-state invasion of privacy in the style of the South African system of identity pass-cards for Black workers.

The trap of "amnesty"

The area where the Senate and House versions of the bill differ the most is around the "amnesty" provision. The House version offers legal status to undocumented persons who have lived in the United States continuously since Jan. 1, 1982. The Senate version requires persons to have lived here continuously since Jan. 1, 1977. There are further restrictions concerning learning English and studying U.S. history and government.

Opponents of the bill have warned that the "amnesty" provisions could actually result in deportation for many of those who apply for amnesty. Proving continuous residency will be difficult enough for those who have been living here without documents. son of a bitch." Juan could not contain his rage any more and, with the handle of the broom that he had been using to clean, he hit the foreman in the neck, causing him to collapse.

TDU organizes defense

Juan was charged with assault with a deadly weapon. The union, far from supporting him, formed an alliance with the foreman and the company. Only one small group, the Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU), decided to support Juan. TDU is a national rank-and-file caucus formed to reestablish democracy in the union.

Twin called on the AFL-CIO to support these goals.

But if their application is denied, they could be quickly deported due to the lack of due-process provisions in the bill. Moreover, newly documented residents, under the amnesty provisions of the bill, would be denied most types of federal assistance for three to five years. This includes food stamps, health care, etc.

The AFL-CIO labor misleadership has gone along with the phoney argument that this bill will protect jobs and end unemployment. Instead of laying the blame on the employers who export jobs and import cheap labor at will, the labor bureaucrats accept the argument that foreign-born workers are stealing jobs from "American" workers.

The Simpson-Mazzoli Bill aims to guarantee a large army of permanently low-paid immigrant workers who canThe employer and the leadership of the local union threatened to fire those workers who supported Juan. They also used "La Migra" (Immigration and Naturalization Service) against those workers who were testifying for Juan, arresting them a few minutes before they were scheduled to testify.

The TDU organized and mobilized the immigrant workers, and forced the charges against Juan to be dropped, the foreman to be fired, and the release of Juan's witnesses from "La Migra's" custody.

Juan has not been able to return to work yet. But the TDU locally has been getting stronger because it has championed the struggles for human and democratic rights of the immigrant workers.

All over the United States, the bureaucracies of the Teamsters union and the AFL-CIO are guilty of using the "illegals" as scapegoats to cover up the real problems that confront North American workers.

But I am confident that North American workers will understand (as those in TDU have already understood) what the top union officials do not want to understand because of their privileged posts-that immigrant workers are their natural allies, not their enemies.

labor conference not organize to defend their rights. This bill is a fundamental attack on the rights of all workers in this country.

Several organizations who opposed the reactionary Simpson-Mazzoli Bill got sidetracked into trying to persuade Congress to pass a less reactionary immigration bill proposed by liberal Congressman Roybal. This bill would have substituted a beefed-up border patrol for employer sanctions. But this is no solution.

Only when the U.S. working class comes to the defense of the right of the most exploited workers to permanent residency status and citizenship will we be able to defend the job rights of every worker. A united response by the entire labor movement is a precondition for putting the working class back on the offensive against the employers.

SOCIALIST ACTION JULY 1984 3

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workers are from Mexico; 70 percent immigrated in the last 30 years, and 15

• attack on immigrants