NationStates Jolt Archive

Important National May 1 Planning Meetings
Saturday April 22 Chicago, IL
UNITE/HERE office. 333 So. Ashland Ave, Chicago IL., from 9:00am to 6:00pm.




also, a couple of recent articles:

http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/local/14402483.htm
May 1 focus of migrant work stoppage
LAURA FIGUEROA
Herald Staff Writer

The plight of local immigrants rallying for immigration reform has garnered the support of three local chambers of commerce.

In turn, the support from the Greater Manatee Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce and the Gulfcoast Latin Chamber of Commerce has prompted leaders with the Mexican Council of Florida to divert their plans from activating a weeklong work stoppage to just focusing on May 1 as their primary day of activism.

After meeting for about an hour via teleconference on Friday afternoon, the three chambers agreed on a resolution that recommended employers "acknowledge the demonstrations planned for May 1, and respect the workers who may take part in them by following their normal leave policies," according to the resolution.

"We saw the opportunity to hopefully create a situation that may be somewhat positive rather than one that would be divisive in the community," said Steve Queior, president of the Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce.

On April 10, which was declared as National Day of Action for Immigration Justice, a reported 75,000 people gathered in Fort Myers in a rally organized by the Mexican Council of Florida, a grassroots group of Latino-owned businesses. A crowd of 400 rallied in downtown Bradenton, and roughly 100 were present at a rally held that morning in front of the New College campus in Sarasota.

Jim Delgado, president of the Latin Chamber of Commerce, and a key leader in the Mexican Council of Florida, said the number of supporters generated at the local rallies and nationwide helped demonstrate to business leaders outside of the Hispanic community that a week-long work stoppage was quite possible and could have detrimental results.

"What they saw is that we mobilized over 100,000 people," Delgado said. "And those were people who were already a little hesitant. After the march, all the feedback I got from people was that they were waiting to show their support for the week-long work stoppage. . . . The marches were about self-empowerment. Now with this precedent being set with the business community, this is about the empowerment of businesses as well. This is a community issue, not a political one."

Nationwide, immigration advocacy groups like the Immigrant Solidarity Network are calling on immigrants to participate in "A Day without Immigrants" on May 1. Initially the Mexican Council of Florida and the United Latino Immigrants of Florida were calling for a weeklong work stoppage from May 1-7.

Luis Ibarra, president of United Latino Immigrants of Florida, said though the group had been urging people for the past two months to participate in a weeklong strike, the group is ready to support the national initiative of rallying solely on May 1.

Already some local growers who rely heavily on a Hispanic immigrant work force were preparing in the event of a weeklong work stoppage during the heart of tomato-harvesting season.

Jay Taylor with Taylor and Fulton Farms met with workers and told them they could have May 1 and May 5 off.

Both days bear significance to the area's Hispanic community. May 1 is celebrated as "Labor Day" in many Latin American countries, and May 5, or "Cinco de Mayo," celebrates the historic victory by Mexican soldiers over French troops at the Battle of Puebla in 1862.

"It was our way of showing solidarity with our employees, and making them aware that they are an important and critical player in the economy of this country," said Taylor of his company's decision.

Billy Heller, chief executive officer with Pacific Tomato Co., said in speaking with his employees, he made them aware that no retribution would be taken on employees who planned not to work May 1.

"We're in the heart of the season," Heller said. "But this is an important enough issue for our folks that we want to show our solidarity."

This marks the first time that all three chambers of commerce have combined efforts, said Bob Bartz, president of the Manatee Chamber of Commerce. He added that the group plans on meeting again next month to discuss other issues.

"It's a win-win situation for all parties involved," said Bartz. "Everyone wanted to do what they could do to avert a weeklong walk out. That was the underlying premise."

The challenge now for the Mexican Council of Florida is spreading the word of keeping the strike to just one day, said Delgado. It took the council and groups like the United Latino Immigrants of Florida a month to promote word of the rally in Fort Myers. Now they have nine days to spread news about the strike being converted to one day.

After a two-week break, the U.S. Senate will reconvene Monday and potentially readdress immigration reform legislation that was being debated before the break.

Laura Figueroa, Herald reporter, can be reached at 708-7906 or lfigueroa@HeraldToday.com.

Resolution reached

The Greater Manatee Chamber of Commerce, the Gulfcoast Latin Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce issued a joint resolution Friday, expressing the need to balance the intent of Hispanic workers to express concerns they may have regarding immigration legislation, with the community's need for businesses to continue operating.

Resolution points:

• Our community, like those throughout Florida, is directly affected by issues surrounding immigration and employment.

• Currently, proposed legislation in Congress has precipitated demonstrations by Latinos/Hispanics throughout the country and additional demonstrations are anticipated.

• The three chambers of commerce encourage businesses to work together to minimize the impact of these issues on our economy and our working families.

• After meeting with the Mexican Council of Florida, we recommend that employers acknowledge the demonstrations planned for May 1 and respect the workers who may take part in them by following their normal leave policies.

The chambers encourage all firms to support this recommendation, and hope that doing so will be a strong step forward towards all groups in the region working together more effectively in the future.

-Source: Submitted by Bob Bartz, president Manatee Chamber of Commerce

, president, Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/25/nyregion/25boycott.html
A Boycott for Immigrants' Rights Picks Up Support on Long Island

By PAUL VITELLO
Published: April 25, 2006

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y., April 24 — In this Long Island village, where a third of the population is Hispanic and downtown sidewalks at lunchtime are fragrant with the smell of grilled fajitas and fried bananas, a group of business owners vowed yesterday to close their doors on Monday as part of a nationwide boycott in support of amnesty for the nation's 11 million illegal immigrants.

One of the businessmen, Ivan Carmona, is an American citizen who said that he crossed into the United States illegally in 1980 because he could neither find work in his native Colombia nor obtain a visa to work here legally.

He became a citizen in 1986, after an immigration amnesty.

"I come across the river, and I was looking for the same opportunities the Italians and Chinese and Irish come here for," said Mr. Carmona, who began as a dishwasher in Manhattan.

He worked as a carpenter, then started a construction business, and now shares ownership of a restaurant here, Pollos Mario, which he manages six days a week, opening the doors at 9 a.m. and closing them at midnight — a 90-hour workweek that he will interrupt on Monday for the first time in the two-year life of the restaurant.

"We are not terrorists," he said. "We must show we are here for working."

About 20 business owners made a call for a one-day boycott on the steps of Village Hall, standing under the American flag, the flag of Nassau County and the banner of the Workplace Project, an immigrant-advocate group.

The boycott of commerce, work and school is intended to reflect the impact that immigrants have on the economy, they said, and to protest many of the harshest proposals under review in Congress for dealing with illegal immigrants.

Not all immigrant advocates and leaders are supporting the boycott. Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles, an outspoken advocate of rights for illegal immigrants, has cautioned against taking part in an action that he suggested might cause a public-opinion backlash.

But here, and in a cluster of nearby communities that together form one of the hubs of Long Island's Hispanic population, there is an apparent consensus that without flexing its economic muscle, the immigrant community will lose the momentum some feel it has gained during the past weeks of demonstrations across the country.

"Our intention is to show those who write our laws that we value our workers in this land, a land made of immigrants," said Nelson Hernandez, the owner of a real estate company, Legacy Homes, who will join his 20 employees in showing support for a lenient approach to illegal immigrants.

Chris Lopez, the manager of a wholesale grocery supplier, Jimenez Wholesale in Freeport, that supplies more than 300 small groceries and bodegas on Long Island, said that immigration reform was a matter of survival for businessmen like himself and his clients.

"If they pass the worst bills, we could lose all our customers," he said. "It's better to close for one day than to close forever."

Mr. Lopez came illegally to the United States in 1979 from the Dominican Republic. He said he earned his citizenship after marrying an American, the mother of his four children. "One graduated just now from Stony Brook," he said. "And the other three are going to go to college, too."

Under the harshest measures passed by the House of Representatives, but not included in the major bills before the Senate, it would be a felony to live in the United States without visa documents, an immigration status that is currently treated only as a violation of civil law.

A Senate bill favored by immigration advocates, including the business owners who gathered yesterday, would permit most illegal immigrants to remain in the country legally, and to earn citizenship over time.

"For me, this is the best country," said Mr. Carmona, the co-owner of Pollos Mario, a two-story place with uniformed servers and $8 entrees that seem too much to eat in one sitting. "It gives me a chance to work, and that is all I wanted." He, his wife and a 19-year-old daughter live in a rented house in Flushing, Queens, and hope to buy a home when they can afford it.

Of his 32 employees, he said, about half are legal and the rest he cannot vouch for. "When I need a dishwasher, I hire the guy who comes for the job," he said, leaving unsaid two facts of life in America as he knows them: Illegal immigrants often take jobs that others will not. And he was once one of them.

Copy, paste works wonders.

a list of some local may day events (http://www.actionla.org/Campaigns/NoHR4437/events.html)

I don't know about anyone else, but I've been unemployed since Dec. 28th, so if my job interview goes well with Citizen's bank, I'm hoping to be working on May 1. :p

Eh..as long as they don't go about masquerading Mexican flags, I support them.

Demonstrations...
Is that any kind of way to spend Loyalty Day (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loyalty_Day)? :p

Eh..as long as they don't go about masquerading Mexican flags, I support them.

masquerading?

Demonstrations...
Is that any kind of way to spend Loyalty Day (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loyalty_Day)? :p

i gots your loyalty day right here

http://www.roosevelt.edu/chicagohistory/images/haymarket-riots.jpg

i gots your loyalty day right here

http://www.roosevelt.edu/chicagohistory/images/haymarket-riots.jpg
Yup, that's it.

*sigh* Ah, Loyalty day, the one day of the year you shouldn't be treasonous - unlike the rest of the year. ;)

I don't support may day on principal as i am a facist and may day is a commie celebration, this said it is also a @!*# one which celeberates all hippy stuff like the free love of life! euch!:mp5:

I don't like the fact may day is accepted by the British government it defeats the point of not doing work if its a day off anyway

really I just want to skip school and get drunk but I cant even do that because all the shops are shut!