Happy International Workers' Day!

May Day Rallies Aim for Immigration Reform [Contra Costa Times] 

Exploiting immigrants: Labor laws need to protect undocumented workers, too [San Jose Mercury News] 

Bills to Protect California Immigrant Workers Introduced [San Jose Mercury News] 

A Pathway to Citizenship Should Create Workplace Protections [Huffington Post]

Five Ways Immigration Reform Will Help American Workers [Washington Post]

Immigration Raises Incomes in America [Slate] 

Palermo Villa Found Not to Violate Labor Protections With Immigration Check  [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel] 

FILED UNDER: Immigrant Workers

Five day hunger strike in solidarity with nine hotel workers facing firing after being subjected to E-Verify process

SAN DIEGO - Hotel workers and their allies launched a five-day hunger strike on Friday, April 8 to protest the unfair use of E-verify by the Hilton Mission Valley, amid hotel workers' year-long effort to organize a union. 

The sudden use of E-verify came in late March when a new management company took over the hotel and voluntarily subjected the hotel workers to the system. Hotel workers, clergy and community activists rallied at the launch of the hunger strike on Friday calling the hotel’s plan to fire the nine long-time hotel employees who the system flagged unfair.

Hotel managers told the nine employees they had until Monday, April 8 or Tuesday, April 9 to fix problems with paperwork or face termination.

FILED UNDER: E-Verify | Immigrant Workers

Three Shocking Examples of Guest-Worker Abuses [ABC News] 

Visas for high-skilled workers could double under bipartisan Senate plan [Washington Post]

Poll Finds Broad Support for Path to Citizenship for Immigrants [NY Times]

How Arizona Cheats Immigration Reform: Charging workers for identity theft [Salon]

El Patrón Es El Ladrón! - The Boss Is The Thief! [The Rebel Press]

FILED UNDER: Immigrant Workers | Immigration Reform

When Oscar heard that a poultry processing plant in Alabama was looking for workers, he thought he could apply the skills he learned from studying mechanical engineering in Cuba.

But after the 47-year-old arrived in Alabama from Miami, he was asked to fold chicken wings on the production line. Oscar had to fold them fast enough to meet a quota of approximately 40 chicken wings per minute – or roughly 18,000 wings per day.

“I did my job well,” he said. “But little did I know I was harming myself in the process. They don’t warn you that this can happen.”

After about a month, Oscar developed serious hand and wrist pain. He was diagnosed with tendinitis and carpal tunnel syndrome. When his injuries made him no longer useful to the company, he was fired.

Oscar’s story is all too common within the poultry industry, according to a new report released today by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Alabama Appleseed Center for Law and Justice.

FILED UNDER: Agricultural Workers | Immigrant Workers | Legislation

Employer Retaliation Against Immigrants Decried [LA Times]

The Right to (Look for) Work [NY Times]

McDonald’s Franchises in Pennsylvania Accused of Exploiting Student Guest Workers [Huffington Post]

New York Wants to Boost Food Manufacturing, but Will Communities Get a Raw Deal? [In These Times]

FILED UNDER: Immigrant Workers