5 Ways Unions and Workers Centers Can Defend Immigrant Members

By Sonia Singh, Working In These Times
December 20, 2016

This article was first posted by Labor Notes.

As the reality of a Donald Trump presidency sets in, unions and workers centers are gearing up for a massive fight to defend immigrant members, building on lessons from the past decade.

Undocumented workers are at risk both from the government and from their employers. Sometimes employers are under government pressure themselves. Other times they’re using the threat of immigration enforcement to discourage organizing or keep workplace standards low.

Besides workplace or home raids, over the past decade workers have faced:

I-9 audits, where Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigates employers to ensure workers have the right documentation to work legally
No-match letters, where the Social Security Administration notifies employers that the name or social security number on a worker’s W-2 form doesn’t match its records
E-Verify, an online system that checks workers’ eligibility to work, mandatory in some states and voluntary in others

The president-elect campaigned on promises to deport millions of undocumented workers and to target immigrants from Muslim countries. While we don’t yet know Trump’s game plan for attacking immigrant workers, here’s a checklist of five questions to ask as your union or worker center prepares to defend members.[...]

Read the full article:
http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/19750/5_ways_unions_and_workers_centers_can_defend_immigrant_members