University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

Immigrants and Los Angeles labor unions: negotiating empowerment, politics, and citizenship

(USC Thesis Other)

Immigrants and Los Angeles labor unions: negotiating empowerment, politics, and citizenship

PDF

Download a page range

Download transcript

Copy asset link

Request this asset

Transcript (if available)

Content

IMMIGRANTS AND LOS ANGELES LABOR UNIONS:
NEGOTIATING EMPOWERMENT, POLITICS, AND CITIZENSHIP

by

Belinda C. Lum

_________________________________________________________

A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(SOCIOLOGY)

December 2008

Copyright 2008 Belinda C. Lum
ii
DEDICATION
To My Family.
Thank you for your unconditional love and support.
iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This journey, with its many twists and turns, was motivated and inspired by
the amazing women and men of the Los Angeles Labor Movement. Their pursuit of
social justice, passionate commitment to change, and desire to build a better world
for their families and communities reminds me everyday that I can be a better
person. Special thanks to the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA),
who sponsored my participation in many of the campaigns studied in this
dissertation, and whose membership provided me with extremely important insights
on the state of the US Labor Movement.
I am indebted to the University of Southern California’s Department of
Sociology for their mentorship and institutional support. First and foremost, I thank
Dr. Leland Saito, who agreed to advise me on my dissertation research within weeks
of arriving at USC. His intellectual guidance was instrumental in the direction and
scope of this project. He motivated me to find a way to complete a comparative
project and always reminded me to investigate the contradictions. Despite the
obstacles I placed between myself and the completion of this project, Leland’s
constant support, patience, and advice helped sustain me even at the most difficult
times. Thank you for helping push me to the completion of the doctoral program.
Dr. Pierrette Hondagneu Sotelo was instrumental to my personal and professional
development. During a time when my committee was in flux, she provided the
stability and support that every graduate student needs. Her commitment and passion
for research that informs social justice campaigns is a constant inspiration. I am
iv
grateful for her personal and professional mentorship throughout my graduate career.
I am grateful to Dr. Janelle Wong who also agreed to serve on my committee within
weeks of arriving at USC. Her ability to provide important scholarly advice with a
pragmatic applied direction helped me in ways too complex to describe. More
importantly, her emotional support when I began to doubt my own abilities helped
sustain and strengthen me. Finally, thank you to the USC Sociology administrative
staff for their assistance over the years.
I am grateful for the financial support of numerous groups at the University
of Southern California. Thank you to The Graduate School; the College of Letters,
Arts, and Sciences; and the Haynes Foundation for their fellowship support during
all stages of my graduate career. I am grateful to the Institute for Multimedia
Literacy and the Summer Scholarship for Urbanism, Globalization, and/or East
Asian Studies for grant support. Thank you to the California Council for the
Humanities: California Stories Program which helped defray costs related to the
collection, translation, and transcription of interviews for this project. Very special
thanks to the Center for American Studies and Ethnicity for being my home away
from home. Through the generous support of the Irvine Foundation, the Center
served as a safe space where students from diverse backgrounds could congregate
and engage in important scholarly work. The faculty and students affiliated with the
Center provided me with important intellectual and emotional support. I am
extremely grateful to Dr. George Sanchez, who modeled through his everyday work
and actions, the type of professor and mentor I hope to be. Thank you for your
v
steadfast support, and more importantly for giving me a community of friends and
scholars that I will work with for the rest of my life.
During my journey through graduate school, I was blessed to find many
friends and colleagues that helped me survive. To thank all those who helped me
would require the writing of a dissertation length acknowledgement, however, there
are a few friends who deserve special recognition. First and foremost, my eternal
gratitude goes to the Despotic Dissertation Group –Carolina Bank Munoz, Lorena
Munoz, and Rigoberto Rodriguez who were instrumental in providing critical
feedback and analysis, but also kept me accountable. Who could have known that
the cross-country bus ride where I met Carolina would be analogous for the post
Freedom Ride journey we shared. I am honored to be friends with such an amazing
activist scholar. Lorena, always a partner in crime, thanks for your unique vision of
the world and for helping me find balance in tumultuous times. I owe a special thank
you to Rigo, a sociological visionary, trapped in the body of an urban geographer.
Thank you for your friendship and, more importantly, for inviting me to be part of
your beautiful family while away from my own. You were my rock through all of
this. I’m looking forward to our new deep and deeper south adventures. Thanks to
Cynthia Duarte for showing up at the Ragazzi Room, without fail, and keeping me
accountable every step of the way. Thank you to my dear friends Julie Park, Zoe
Corwin, Theresa Gregor and James Thing, who gave me rainbows, fun, family,
encouragement, and the kick in the butt when I needed it most. Special thanks to my
vi
colleagues at the Center for American Studies and Ethnicity for friendship, support,
and their constant intellectual engagement and innovation.
The friendships that sustained me, even before I began graduate school,
helped me see this journey through to the end. I am so blessed to have the love,
friendship, and support of Sobeida Vizcarra and Nicole Guidotti Hernandez. The UC
Santa Cruz community gave me the strong foundation I needed to make it through
the PhD process are owed my deepest gratitude, especially: Rosie Cabrera, Sayo
Fujioka, Dr. Dana Takagi, Dr. Hiroshi Fukurai, and Dr. Candace West. Special
thanks to my new friends and colleagues at the University of San Diego. They
provided the unconditional trust and faith I needed when taking the last few steps to
completion. I am especially thankful for the community of students that remind me
everyday of where I’ve come from; the importance of strong mentorship, support,
and guidance; and the possibilities for a better tomorrow.
My final thanks and acknowledgements are for my family. Words can never
fully express how much their love and support has meant to me over the years. The
memory of my grandparents, who died when I was very young constantly motivated
me to find and tell the unknown story. Anne Purcell Whitaker, and my bonus family
–the Purcell’s, always shared so much of their love, laughter, and support over the
years. I am eternally grateful. My father, Nelson Lum, with his strength and
conviction taught me the importance of standing up for what I believe in and the
importance of personal integrity and loyalty. His unconditional love and support
provides me with a strong foundation for the work that I do. My mother, May Lum,
vii
whose generosity of spirit and pure kindness reminds me everyday about the
importance of sharing and giving. Her love and devotion helped guide me during
times when I felt lost. Finally, my brother, Anthony Lum one of the hardest working
men I know, reminds me that perseverance can help get you through even when the
right path to take is unclear. I dedicate this dissertation to my family, because
without them, I would not be where I am today.

All my love,

Belinda
viii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Dedication ...
Acknowledgements ...
Abstract ...
Preface ...
Chapter One: Introduction ...
Chapter Two: Chinese Daily News Case Study ...
Chapter Three: Service Employees International Union, Local 434B Case Study ...
Chapter Four: Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride Case Study ...
Chapter Five: Conclusions ...
Bibliography ...
Appendix A: Interview Schedules ...
Appendix B: AFL-CIO Union History ...
ix
ABSTRACT
“Immigrants and Los Angeles Labor Unions: Negotiating Empowerment,
Politics, and Citizenship” examines the ways immigrants impact the infrastructure
and ideological practices of the organized labor in the United States. This project
provides an in-depth examination of two unions and one large-scale immigrant rights
campaign and asks how unions succeed in an increasingly anti-union, anti-worker
environment. The Chinese Daily News and the SEIU 434b case studies highlight the
importance of creating organizations that actively engage with workers’ everyday
lives, not just the conditions that impact them in the workplace. The Immigrant
Workers Freedom Ride case study analyzes a campaign that models itself after a
social movement as a way to address increasing racial tensions within service
industries, and within unions. While some unions struggle with issues related to
immigrant participation in unions, or how to incorporate immigrants and immigrant
rights into their agenda, the IWFR highlights the complex nature of race and ethnic
relations in work, unionism, and social movements. Immigrant workers’ large
presence in all labor markets, but particularly in the service industry, creates new sets
of identity politics that social institutions like unions must address. During this
campaign, organizers and unions needed to substantively engage in creating
experiential common ground between immigrants and African Americans, where
immigrants learned about the historic Civil Rights experiences of Blacks and Blacks
learned about contemporary experiences of immigrants both in migrating to the
United States as well as at work and home.
x
These three case studies, which reflect three different stages and types of
union mobilization of immigrants, highlight the important ways in which race,
immigration, and citizenship shape and structure both workers lives and the success
of unions. The outcomes of the respective campaigns contradict the logical or
expected outcomes; instead, this data and findings of this dissertation suggests that
successful negotiation and understandings of differences, and broader
conceptualization of citizenship within organizations can help, hinder, or create
different forms of political empowerment for all workers.
xi
PREFACE
“You are the union!” This mantra encapsulates the ideological
empowerment strategies labor unions, because it symbolizes the importance of
motivating workers to create change in the workplace through social, political, and
collective action. Ideally, it is with workers’ voices and participation that unions can
adequately address inequities in the workplace. Taken literally, the “you are the
union” slogan can be a transformative tool for creating and enacting a democratic
organizational practice that allows all workers agency and political leverage.
However, as demonstrated in the chapters that follow, the ultimate success of a
union, their campaigns, and the labor movement, more broadly, depends on both the
implementation of union strategies and its ability to connect to larger social issues
affecting its membership.
Central to this dissertation is the story of two unions, the Service Employees
International Union (SEIU) and the Newspaper Guild/Communication Workers of
America and their respective campaigns to build membership, win contracts for
workers, and serve as resources for their memberships. SEIU 434b’s membership is
comprised by primarily poor immigrant and minority women that care for poor, sick
and homebound patients that cannot afford the costs of continuous hospital or
hospice care. Many workers care for multiple clients in order to make enough money
to support their own families. These long-term care providers work long, arduous,
and erratic hours, providing their family members or clients with help in all aspects
of their lives. Some job duties are as benign as running errands to pick up
xii
medication, or keeping clients on a regular schedule of activity or therapy. However,
the job also includes the most demeaning of tasks including: cleaning patients, lifting
them from their beds in order to use the toilet, cleaning up bodily fluids. In addition,
many workers must tolerate abusive and stressful work conditions related to working
with clients angered by their personal health, loss of independence, or who suffer
from dementia or other mental health issues. Long-term care workers often labor in
isolation, without other assistants or care workers helping with tasks, or to
commiserate with about work conditions. The long-term care union membership is
highly diverse, with immigrants from 20 different countries of origin, speaking 13
different languages. These work conditions and the demographics of the union
present significant obstacles in developing and organizing a collective movement in
support of these workers.
The other union central to this thesis is The Newspaper
Guild/Communication Workers of America, ran an organizing campaign with the
workers of the Chinese Daily News. This campaign attempted to unionize all
workers in the Monterey Park affiliate of the Chinese Daily News. These
professional Taiwanese immigrants worked as reporters, advertising salespeople,
production specialists, researchers, and editors. They were sponsored to the United
States on H1-B work visas by the Chinese Daily News Corporation. Workers were
predominantly first generation immigrants that, at the beginning of the campaign,
knew very little about US labor laws. These workers routinely worked 10 to 12 hour
days up to six days a week without proper lunch or coffee breaks, or overtime pay. In
xiii
short, the company exploited the workers’ lack of familiarity with common place
protocols and practices required in US workplaces. Some CDN workers had lived in
the United States and worked for the company for more than 15 years, while others
had resided here for less than two years. Workers were predominantly monolingual
Mandarin speakers, with limited (if any) understanding of English. Despite the fact
these workers spent long hours on the job, had steady incomes and did not need
second or third jobs to support their families in the United States or Taiwan.
Language, work conditions, demographics of membership are significant
factors that these unions faced. Taking all these variables into consideration, who
had the most success in their respective union campaign and political organizing?
Research from this dissertation provides a surprising answer to this question.
Logically, one might guess the union with workers that labor at the same location;
are from the same ethnic background and national origins; speak the same language
and dialect; and have greater financial stability. However, it was the union, whose
membership is from all over the globe; speaks multiple languages; work in isolation
at clients’ homes or apartments; work multiple jobs and lack the financial means to
contribute time to help build a campaign that gained greater power and resources for
its membership. This study finds that SEIU 434b, despite the numerous potential
difficulties they faced in creating a collective movement, was more successful in
their unionization activities due to their ability to create a union whose guiding
principals focused on the social, political, and personal needs of their membership.
xiv
“Immigrants and Los Angeles Labor Unions: Negotiating Empowerment,
Politics, and Citizenship” provides an in-depth examination of two unions and one
large-scale immigrant rights campaign and asks, how do unions succeed in an
increasingly anti-union, anti-worker environment. . These two case studies highlight
the importance of creating organizations that actively engage with workers’ everyday
lives, not just the conditions that impact them in the workplace. The Immigrant
Workers Freedom Ride case study analyzes a campaign that models itself after a
social movement as a way to address increasing racial tensions within service
industries, and within unions. While some unions struggle with issues related to
immigrant participation in unions, or how to incorporate immigrants and immigrant
rights into their agenda, the IWFR highlights the complex nature of race and ethnic
relations in work, unionism, and social movements. Immigrant workers’ large
presence in all labor markets, but particularly in the service industry, creates new sets
of identity politics that social institutions like unions must address. During this
campaign, organizers and unions needed to substantively engage in creating
experiential common ground between immigrants and African Americans, where
immigrants learned about the historic Civil Rights experiences of Blacks and Blacks
learned about contemporary experiences of immigrants both in migrating to the
United States as well as at work and home. These three case studies, which reflect
three different stages and types of union mobilization of immigrants, highlight the
important ways in which race, immigration, and citizenship shape and structure both
workers lives and the success of unions. The outcomes of the respective campaigns
xv
contradict the logical or expected outcomes; instead, this data and findings of this
dissertation suggests that successful negotiation and understandings of differences,
and broader conceptualization of citizenship within organizations can help, hinder, or
create different forms of political empowerment for all workers.

1
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
The history of organized labor in the United States is intricately intertwined
with the development and maturation of a distinct national identity. United States
history very clearly highlights the understanding that citizenship is synonymous with
'whiteness' and 'masculinity'. Organized labor's history cannot be divorced from that
narrative. From the inception of American unionism, in order to be a member, one
had to be white, male and, and a citizen. Past and present struggles by organized
labor to establish itself as a powerful social institution parallel broader societal
conflicts surrounding the politics of belonging in the United States. Examination of
contemporary attempts by the US labor movement to refashion it as inclusive clearly
indicates the numerous challenges organizations face when addressing broader social
changes. For the Labor Movement, obstacles include: increased gender and racial
diversity in the workforce, shifts in the organization of global capital, and constantly
changing immigration, business, and social welfare policies that impact not only
work and production, but also the workers and workforce. The research for this study
highlights how labor unions negotiation of social change highlights the evolution of
meanings of race and citizenship particularly as it relates to work and political
empowerment in the United States.
Recent scholarship on the labor movement (highlighted in greater detail later
in this chapter) views change in the labor movement as a natural outgrowth of socio-
demographic shifts; negating very real tensions around differences such as race,
gender, and citizenship that exist within unions, regardless of their attempts to adapt
2
to these mandates. Current research neglects to address how continually changing
meanings of race and citizenship are negotiated in organized labor's empowerment
strategies --and how these negotiations reflect broader social divisions and
inequalities, as well as the social construction of differences. This oversight allows
for a selective amnesia regarding labor's past, and the erasure of unions' complicity
and collusion in racist, sexist, and xenophobic conflicts. The erasure of organized
labors past creates divisions and fractures within unions.' The "you are the union"
mantra that asserts that organized labor's collective membership defines what the
union is, as well as its political agenda. Failure to address this diversity hinders the
trajectory and potential for developing a racially and gender inclusive social
movement. Using three different case studies, the Communication Workers of
America, Local 39251 --the Chinese Daily News, the Service Employees
International Union Local 434b--homecare workers, and the Immigrant Workers
Freedom Ride, this dissertation highlights the ways labor unions struggle to not only
organize immigrant workers, but also adapt structurally to macro level pressures
based on race, citizenship, and constantly changing definitions of 'worker'.
Furthermore, this project expands current research by examining how social
institutions and organizations, such as unions, struggle to adapt and change in order
to be more inclusive of diversity.
This research project is situated at an important historical moment when
social changes of the Civil Rights Movement and demographic shifts facilitated in
large part by the Immigration Act of 1965, have dramatically changed the ethnic and
3
racial make-up of the labor force. These shifts, in conjunction with technological
advances that concentrate global capital in urban centers (Sassen 1998) have
restructured work and employment, as well as understandings of worker identity.
The post-industrial economy in the United States transitioned from its dependence on
factories and manufacturing as sources of employment to technology and the service
sector (Lopez, 2004, Milkman 2001, Waldinger 2004). Decentralized production
practices facilitated the expansion of a sub-contracting system that makes workers
more vulnerable to exploitation because of the lack of state regulations and
enforcement (Bonacich and Applebaum 2000). This vulnerability is compounded by
organized labor's own internal crisis over how to redefine itself in relationship to the
changing American workforce. In his book, Unions in a Globalized Environment:
Changing Borders, Organizational Boundaries and Social Roles, Nissen writes,
“American unions face the twenty-first century in a precarious position. Their
capacity to institute needed programs and initiatives is in doubt, and it is not even
readily apparent what exactly is needed to make unions once again central to the
lives of working people in the United States” (6, 2002). Workers are no longer the
white male citizens working in the industrial factories that were strongholds for
organized labor, and symbols of US economic prosperity (Milkman 1997, Roediger
1991). The global economy eliminated workers’ individual economic prosperity
associated with factory work, and instead increasingly reinforces differences along
class lines because of falling wages and the disappearance of the middle class factory
job (Milkman 2001). It is overly deterministic and simplistic to credit economic
4
shifts as the sole force changing social environments that structure workers lives.
Policy changes governing both industry and the general populous;
deindustrialization; the growth of both service and professional sectors of the US
economy; along with the influx of African Americans into the public sector
(Waldinger 2001) and immigrants into technical/professional and service sectors
(Portes & Rumbaut 1998) are just a few of the macro-level factors that changed the
complexion of industries unions had successfully organized.
Following drastic declines in union density during the 1980's, organized labor
needed to make large-scale changes to its organizational structure and ideological
practices or become obsolete. In 1995, at the apex of American Unionism’s
membership troubles, the constituents of the AFL-CIO voted new leadership into
office. The change in leadership changed the vision and direction of the Labor
Movement’s future because it forced organized labor to transition and change in
order to address the diversity of US workers. The decision to change strategic and
political trajectories was not met without heated debate that led to broad fractures
and disillusionment with the labor movement. The hostile and contentious debates
surrounding the election of newly leadership reflected the ongoing struggles around
worker identity, diversity, and citizenship. Deeply embedded within these debates
were identity politics and reactions to changes in who "American workers" are.
At the forefront of this campaign were newly elected leaders: John Sweeney,
Richard Trumpka, and Linda Chavez-Thompson, also known as the ‘New Voice
Campaign (NVC).’ Promising widespread organizational change the NVC was
5
predicated on the principles of building a representative and diverse union with
connections to workers’ communities. The changing philosophical approaches and
ideological shifts called for large-scale organizational and structural changes within
labor unions that allowed for greater inclusion of the diverse workforce not only in
the general membership, but as part of the overall political agenda and platforms of
unions. What remain unclear are how changes were actualized and the degree to
which unions responded to the new socio-political mandates prescribed by the new
leadership.
Now, twelve years after the official reconfiguration of the national labor
movement, questions remain about how the change in leadership and the shift in
ideological and public policy orientation impacted American Unionism. Although
there is significant movement towards changing the ideological foundations of
unions, this evolution of policy should not be viewed as all encompassing or
inclusive of all unions in the labor movement, nor should it be viewed as widely
accepted in practice or application. Battles over changing the union's anti-immigrant
policy stance, or more recent moves by the Change to Win Coalition
1
to disaffiliate
themselves from the AFL-CIO unless more drastic organizational changes are made,
point to the persistence of fractures and disagreements within the labor movement
2
.

1
The Change to Win Coalition consists of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, UNITE-HERE, Service Employees
International Union, United Farm Workers, Union of Commercial Food Workers (UFCW), and the Carpenters Union.
Beginning in August 2005 each of these International Unions began disaffiliating themselves from the AFL-CIO in order to
emphasize their displeasure with the decisions and direction that John Sweeney had taken the federation. The greatest point of
tension existed with the coalition's belief that there were too many resources going towards political lobbying efforts in
Washington DC, and not enough resources dedicated to organizing workers.

2
Greenhouse, Stephen. "Between Union Leader and Protégé, Polite but Firm Disagreement on Labor's Future." New York
Times. December 7, 2004.
6
This project, although impacted by these fractures, moves away from rearticulating
the day to day shifts in National AFL-CIO's policies or internal arguments over the
direction of labor, and instead examines both the everyday interactions and strategic
plans of particular unions in order to interpret and understand how competing social
narratives are incorporated into action and social change.
Nowhere are the changes and challenges within union organizing more
evident than Los Angeles, where researchers locate the resurgence of a 'New Labor
Movement' (Mantsios 1998, Milkman 2000; Nissen 2002). Between 2001 and 2002,
Los Angeles labor unions recruited over 90,000 new, predominantly immigrant,
members (Milkman 2000). However, along with this reinvigoration, the Los
Angeles labor movement also witnessed growing tensions between its African
American and immigrant (predominantly Latino) workers. This division is most
evident in terms of labor market competition where historically in Los Angeles and
nationally, immigrants--particularly those from Mexico and Central America,
displaced African American workers as corporations try to cut back on labor costs by
actively recruiting immigrants into their labor pools. This division presents
significant problems for organized labor because these fractures are most evident in
industries and sectors where unions currently have strongholds. Organized labor
must negotiate these tensions in order to create the inclusive mass mobilization of
workers that the labor movement desires. More importantly it is in the negotiation
and development of these mobilizations that meanings of race and citizenship are
articulated, shaped, and redefined. What race and citizenship means, is not solely
7
defined by these work interactions, but also the experiences –past and present, which
inform and structure these relationships.
Change within unions is not simply a story about an organization's capacity
to incorporate changing socio-demographics within an industry; rather it needs to be
situated within the broader scope of response and incorporation of social ideals,
mores, and understandings of change and difference. Just as in the past, today's labor
movement cannot be divorced from broader ideological challenges to the meanings
of race, citizenship, and worker identity. Closely examining and studying ways that
social institutions deploy and utilize understandings of race, immigration,
citizenship, and worker identity in their actions, strategies, and political agendas
illuminates the ways that these axes of difference play significant roles in structuring
social life. In addition, this research allows for a better understanding of the
development and institutionalization of social meanings within mezzo level
organizations.
In this chapter, I lay out the research questions informing this study. I provide
historical overview that helps contextualize the current state of the American Labor
Movement. Second, I examine recent research that situates this project in
relationship to current work on the labor movement. Third, I provide a theoretical
overview that frames analysis of this project, but also highlights contributions that
this project makes to understandings of race, citizenship, and labor in the United
States. Finally, I provide an overview of the methodology utilized for conducting the
empirical case studies and an overview of the dissertation chapters.
8
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
This project is designed to highlight how the evolution of understandings of
race, citizenship, and worker identity structures the contemporary labor movement.
Using Los Angeles labor organizing as a backdrop, this dissertation asks three main
questions:
1. Given the history of exclusion based on race, gender, and immigrant
status, how do contemporary unions negotiate difference in their
organizational practices?
2. In light of the dominant historical understanding of 'worker' as white,
male, and citizen, how have immigrants changed what it means to be a
'worker' in the context of the US Labor Movement?
3. How have unions and their immigrant membership redefined and changed
understandings of citizens and citizenship?
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
Development of American Unionism
Between 1840-1880, the proliferation of 'free white labor' from Europe was
directly connected to the relatively undefined categorization of 'white' in the 1790
Naturalization Act (Frye Jacobson 1998). This time period as Frye Jacobson (1998)
notes in Whiteness of a Different Color included,
a spectacular rate of industrialization in the United States, whose
voracious appetite for cheap labor --combined with political and
economic dislocations across industrializing Europe--brought
unprecedented numbers of migrants to New World shores; second, a
growing nativist perception of these laborers, themselves as a political
9
threat to the smooth functioning of the republic, and third,
consequently, a fracturing of monolithic whites by the popular
marriage of scientific doctrines of race with political concerns over
the newcomers fitness for self government (41).

These nativist beliefs regarding the 'fitness' of immigrants' ability to contribute to
self-governance, it should be noted, often came from workers who themselves were
only a generation removed from the migration experience. These sentiments and
fractures based on citizenship were central to the formulation of trade unions. Over
time, however, these nativist sentiments amongst 'white' workers eroded --being
replaced by the need to secure jobs against the influx of Asian and Mexican migrants
to the United States particularly between 1870 and 1930.
The American Federation of Labor (AFL) founded in 1890 and the
Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO) established in 1935 were adamant in
their opposition to immigration and advocated for the immigrant exclusion laws
enacted during those time periods. Samuel Gompers, President of the AFL said,
“Immigration is working in great injury to the people of our country” (as cited in
Briggs, 2001, 73). However, this exclusionism should not be viewed as an
outgrowth of changing socio-demographics, but also as an extension of the changing
role of the state and its relation to capital. The government sought to not only
participate in protectionist campaigns that secured the jobs of 'American' workers,
but also take an active role in generating economic job opportunities for workers and
companies. Furthermore, these statements did not reflect the union's eventual
racialized inclusion of some white immigrant groups, such as Irish, Germans, and to
10
a lesser extent Italians during this time period. The racialized hierarchy of workers
had precedent within unions and was integral to understanding what groups were
included or excluded from the trade unions during this early period of organized
labor. As will be discussed at length later in this chapter, the racialized assimilation
of white, immigrant labor market is integral to the hegemonic construction of
'worker' as synonymous with white, male, and citizen.
The history of organized labor in the United States is inextricably intertwined
with understandings and development of the nation-state, its ideals, and its
relationship with capital. The concurrent growth of American Unionism and
maturation of the U.S. nation-state led to a formulation of unionism unlike those
witnessed in Europe where there was a convergence of political parties and class
identity that are still present today (Mink 1986). Instead, in the United States,
Supreme Court decisions centralized political power and created dynamics that
pushed labor to the national level, without a class-based political party affiliation.
One such decision directly impacting the early labor movement was nationalization
of immigration policy --by stripping individual states and local governments of the
ability to create immigration directives (e.g.: Anti-Chinese ordinances implemented
in San Francisco in the 1870’s), in order for labor unions to continue exclusionary
policies --they needed to be part of the national political spectrum (ibid).
Exclusionary policies of organized labor were built by attempting to secure
privileges, access to resources, and capital gains for their membership. The
11
consequence however was the exclusion of people deemed 'other' -namely women,
minorities, and immigrants. As Gwendolyn Mink (1986) notes, exclusionism was:
A response to the economic transitions of the late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries, trade-union nativism developed from the
conjuncture of new immigration and disruptive economic change. It
was supported by a liberal tradition that was, in main circles,
culturally or racially explained, by a nativist tradition that demanded
conformity to the political culture, and by a racist tradition that ranked
peoples in a racial hierarchy, and it conditioned the direction labor
would take in American politics (53).

These longstanding racial hierarchies fueled by the legacy of slavery, and the large
influx of immigrants into the US labor market escalated organized labors' resolve to
continue its exclusionist practices. This included not only lobbying for exclusionist
immigration policies such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, but also restricting
union membership and advocated for 'closed shops'. It should be noted, that
immigrants included white migrants from European nations outside the western
block including Italy and Hungary as well migrants originating from Asian and
South American countries. The consequence of this exclusionary type of
mobilization is that it prohibited a class-based mobilization regardless of ethnic
origin or citizenship. Mink (1986) notes, “As it politicized the labor movement, the
immigration question nationalized labor politics. But it also neutralized the politics
of class" (p. 51). The central problem that plagued unions in the past through the
present day, was the unions' inability to represent "all American workers" (Frank
1999).
12
From the perspective of trade unions, workers' concerns about job security
and low wages due to the rapidly increasing number of low-wage immigrant workers
precipitated a xenophobic environment that fueled their political engagement.
Furthermore, the state's non-interventionist style of governance during the early
years of unionism sent the message to workers that government sided with capital
(Mink 1986). These factors fueled trade unions exclusionist policies largely based on
racial and ethnic group affiliation. Inclusion into trade unions was based on
citizenship, (which often meant workers only one generation removed from
migration) and whiteness --a racial categorization that included migrants from
Western Europe and subsequently Irish and Italians (Mink 1986, Frye Jacobson
1999, Roediger 1999). During this era of industrialization, union membership --and
by extension 'being American' and 'worker' was developed in opposition to being a
non-western European immigrant. The battle for job security was not simply about
maintenance of unskilled jobs, but eventual upward mobility to supervisory roles on
the jobs. In short, union membership and the resources it secured were about
consolidation of power. For some workers, this power manifested in the ability to
create or maintain jobs --and dictate who worked and who did not.
Consolidation of power was not only about the ability to control a worksite,
but also concerned a broader narrative that attempted to create a social hierarchy.
Evelyn Nakano Glenn argues, “1870-1930 was a time of considerable ferment in
meanings of citizenship and labor and in race, gender, and class relations owing to
the abolition of slavery, industrialization, urbanization, massive immigration, and
13
imperialist expansion" (pg 3). Simultaneously, during this same time period union
membership grew (Briggs 2001) and at its peak represented 35% of all workers.
Unionism's development and history therefore must be viewed as part of a racial
project where the meaning of whiteness expanded to include previously excluded
white ethnic groups, and a broader campaign to realign power, resources, and
privileges with whiteness. Furthermore, companies were complicit in this
consolidation of power by sanctioning 'union busting' particularly of African
American, Mexican, and Asian unions, thus creating greater tensions between
workers (Frank 1999). By undercutting minority unions, corporations could
continue differential pay scales, cut labor costs, and as a result further reinforced
power and privileges associated with whiteness.
During unionism formative decades (1880-1920), white workers consolidated
power through use of violence, exclusionary practices, and partnership with partisan
US politics. Workers from excluded immigrant groups, such as the Chinese or
Mexicans, did not stand by passively accepting sub-standard wages, discrimination,
and exploitation. In various industries where immigrants were excluded from the
'mainstream' labor unions that worked in conjunction with the AFL or CIO,
immigrant workers formed their own unions in order to combat work inequities as
well as protect themselves from attacks by white workers. In numerous industries
including railroads, cigar making, mining and canneries, immigrant laborers
organized themselves to not only protect themselves from attack, but also as a way to
14
address the wage inequities based on race that they witnessed in their respective
industries.
Immigrant workers, particularly Mexican, Chinese, Japanese, and Filipinos,
that comprised the majority of the non-white immigrant workforce at the turn of the
twentieth century, labored in jobs with little chance of upward mobility (Frank 1999;
Mink 1986). In addition, the prevalence of contract systems of labor (Friday 1994)
made prospects of acquiring employment more difficult because workers often had
to be 'in favor' with contractors. As the contract system of labor was dismantled,
worker solidarity became increasingly important. Workers often found themselves
forced into accepting wage inequities or be replaced by other immigrant workers
(Friday 1994, Mink 1986). Often, in early strikes called by these immigrant unions,
companies used harsh tactics including depriving workers of food or shelter (e.g.:
Chinese Railroad Workers), deportation (i.e.: Los Mineros (Mexican miners in
Arizona),
3
or the firing and hiring of other immigrant workers (i.e.: Salmon canneries
in the Northwest). Despite the hazards associated with unionization for these groups,
many continued to try and organize against inequities. Efforts often took ten,
twenty, or in some cases thirty years before workers were successful in organizing
against companies (ibid). For example, for Los Mineros (the miners) in Arizona,
Mexican mine workers began their unionization efforts in 1919 in order to gain equal
pay with their white counterparts. During the first ten years of the campaign, these
men sent delegations to managers, called for work stoppages, and strikes. In

3
Los Mineros. 1994. Part of PBS's "American Experience" Series. Produced by Hector Galan.
15
response, companies starved workers, and ultimately called authorities to deport
workers. The battle to gain union recognition took almost fifty years, from 1903-
1947. In some cases, wins were only obtained after developing multiethnic unions,
where conflict between different groups were cast aside in favor of a class based
solidarity and identity --where unification was founded on similar station within the
industry (Friday 1994). These attempts by immigrant workers to organize
themselves are important to acknowledge because they highlight how workers acted
as agents of change, and resisted discrimination from fellow workers and
corporations. Despite obstacles they faced, workers continued to try and find ways to
win concessions from company ownership. Struggles that minority and immigrant
workers faced are largely absent from the chronicles of labor history. The absence of
substantive discussions of the ways that these groups both unionized and combated
individual and institutional forms of discrimination gives the false impression that all
'American’ union workers were white. Furthermore, it erases ways that citizenship
and race were deployed by labor organizations in regards to whites and other migrant
groups. This erasure creates the false impression that integration was effortless
therefore negating the very violent racist, sexist, and xenophobic history endured by
minority and immigrant workers at the hands of organized labor.
Large numbers of immigrants entering the US labor market, labor market
competition creating demands for cheap labor, and divisions based on citizenship are
conditions that precipitated exclusion of Asian workers of various ethnicities
between 1880 and 1954. Similar concerns ultimately led to the end of the Bracero
16
Program in 1964. The program, which began in August 1942 via a bilateral
agreement between the US and Mexico faced numerous challenges. Particularly after
World War II, numerous campaigns were waged in the United States by groups such
as LULAC that sought to protect the civil rights of Mexican American's first, and
encouraged curbing clandestine or illegal Mexican migration (Gutierrez 1995).
These dynamics are not that different from factors experienced in the contemporary
moment. Although nativist sentiments are no longer being fueled by groups such as
Denis Kearney's "Workingmen's Party
4
" that actively advocated for race based
exclusionism, nativist sentiments persisted based on perceived threats to job security,
and wage or benefit equity. The inability of these immigrant unions to win
immediate concessions from companies is due, in large part, to the relatively small
memberships, and lack of political capital that could effect change.
Although the specific struggles of minority immigrant workers are largely
absent from labor history, recent historical texts particularly regarding the cannery
industry in California, discuss at length the experiences Asian and Mexican cannery
workers faced in their organizing campaigns and dispel the myth that only white
workers were organized and active in trying to obtain equitable pay and fair
treatment on the job. Ruiz's (1987) book, Cannery Women, Cannery Lives: Mexican
Women, Unionization, and the California Food Processing Industry,1930-1950,
highlights the important work of Mexican women leaders in the United Cannery,
Agricultural, Packing and Allied Workers of America (UCAPAWA)/Food, Tobacco,

4
For more information on Dennis Kearney's Workingmen's Party, see “It’s Your Misfortune and None of My Own: a New
History of the American West” by Richard White (1991).
17
Agricultural, and Allied Workers of America (FTA). Although this union ceased to
exist in 1950, Ruiz notes that, "UCAPAWA/FTA provided an American model of
union democracy. It was the first organization to incorporate minorities and women
as both officers and members. The development of local leadership, along with the
union's decentralized nature, ensured worker autonomy" (Ruiz 1987). The legacy of
the union, as Ruiz highlights, was both in its ability to incorporate diverse groups of
workers into its union and develop at the local level, leadership skills within its ranks
that lasted beyond the history of the union itself. Furthermore, her work highlights
that incursions by other unions did not prevent these marginalized groups from
protesting inequality (ibid).
In Chris Friday's (1995) book, Organizing Asian American Labor: The
Pacific Coast Canned-Salmon Industry,1870-1942, he highlights the ways
successive generations of Asian Americans in the salmon cannery industry
"negotiated to empower themselves and make their lives more tolerable within large
and rather harsh structural constraints" (1994, 1). This research highlights three
significant points that are still pertinent to today's labor movement and economy.
First, Friday's periodization highlights the diversity of Asian ethnic groups that
worked in the cannery industry, and the types of intra-racial exploitation that
occurred, particularly as part of the contract labor system. Second, in tracking the
fight for unionization, Friday's work highlights the internal and external battles that
Chinese, Japanese, and Filipinos faced in gaining union recognition. Efforts spanned
three decades, and the union was not recognized as part of the CIO until 1938.
18
Finally, Friday notes that unionization of the cannery industry in the Pacific
Northwest was finally achieved through the development of strong multi-ethnic,
multi-racial coalition that included Chinese, Japanese, Mexicans, blacks, Puerto
Ricans, Hawaiians, Koreans, Chileans, Peruvians, and European Americans (Friday,
1994, 172). By beginning to understand the commonalities between their social and
economic circumstances, this diverse group of workers successfully organized and
empowered themselves (Friday 1994).
The importance of these unions is not found in winning successful contracts,
as opposed to their existence and perseverance in the hostile social and political
environments throughout the country at the turn of the twentieth century. These
unions are the foundations upon which later immigrant led mobilizations were built.
These unions taught others how to utilize multiethnic models and collaborations
across ethnic lines and language differences. These tactics were first used during
these early campaigns (Almaguer 1994; Friday 1994). Some of these lessons were
lost. Later campaigns involving minority based unions, however, moved away from
a strictly 'immigrant' identity, and adopted membership standards that privileged
citizenship and exclusion of some immigrant workers.
Persistence of Nationalism and Exclusionism
Organized labors predisposition towards nationalist, nativist, and
exclusionary activities were not confined to the early periods of unionization in the
United States. For the past one hundred years, these nativist campaigns took on
19
many forms including "Union Label
5
" or "Buy American" campaigns that
encouraged consumers to be cognizant of what products they bought, and served as
the union and US based companies’ answer to increased outsourcing and global
production (Frank 1999; Mink 1986). In addition, unions continued restrictionist
policies, barring membership to American and foreign-born minority groups and
women in order to try and protect jobs. Exclusion of minority and immigrants were
rationalized as a way to protect American (white) workers' economic well-being, the
exclusion of women was used to protect the jobs of men--particularly in the post
World War II period, after women had initially entered the workforce in order to
maintain the manufacturing production levels (Frank 1999). Exploring the
persistence of nationalism and exclusionism in the context of the US labor
movement provides a framework for understanding how citizenship and the politics
of belonging became one of the increasingly important issues related to work and
unionism specifically, as well as assimilation into the U.S. society. Union
membership served as a marker of social citizenship and civic engagement where
individuals exercised political agency.
Industrial unionism in the 1930's developed a very strong presence within the
American workforce. This time period also marked a time when groups previously
been excluded from unions based on race or gender, were acknowledged and
incorporated into the national labor movement through the work of the Committee of

5
Union Label campaigns were publicity campaigns that asked buyers to look for labels indicating that union labor was used to
make the products. This campaign was designed to try and prevent foreign manufacturers from gaining a strong hold in textile
markets in the United States.
20
Industrial Organizations (CIO). Ethnic groups such as southern and eastern
European's, working class African American's, Mexican Americans in the Southwest
and Asian American's in the Pacific Northwest, who had in some cases organized in
violent and turbulent environments while receiving threats from white counterparts --
were finally given some access to the labor movement. One of the main reasons for
the insurgence of diversity within unionism was the growth of the Committee of
Industrial Organizations between 1930 ad 1950. Organizers declared that the CIO,
"speaks for all the working men and women of America, Negro and white...[and]
fights to bring benefits of industrial organization to all working people in the only
way it an be done--by organizing all workers, excluding none, discriminating against
none" (Steppan-Norris and Zeitlin, 2003,3). It is important to note that the CIO’s
organizing occurred, in many campaigns, in opposition to the existing discriminatory
policies in the AFL. Fueled by Communist doctrine, the CIO at this time steadfastly
promoted a class based agenda, "The CIO united the country's working men and
women, of all creeds, colors, and nationalities, under a single banner... not of "trade"
or "craft" but of "class"(ibid). Most importantly, the CIO contributed a broad based
class-consciousness to American Unionism that is still present today (Steppan-Norris
2003). The CIO link to the Communist Party provided strong ties to class politics.
This linkage, however, did not create a transition away from citizenship or racialized
union organizing practices. In fact, the Marxist rhetoric of the CIO is part of a
broader process of acculturation of later generations of white immigrant ethnic
groups.
21
The Committee of Industrial Organization’s (CIO) growth during the New
Deal Era was largely responsible for the shift towards a more diverse union --
however it should be noted that "it is probably significant...that the birth of the CIO
came a full decade after the flow of immigrants from Europe was cut off by legal
restrictions on-entry to the United States, when the foreign born populations had
largely stabilized"(ibid). Furthermore, available data on the CIO suggests that
inclusion of immigrant groups in labor unions was predominantly second generation,
meaning that these members were in fact United States citizens, not immigrants
(Cohen 1990; Milkman 2000). Activism in labor unions and other political
engagements was part of a larger movement towards 'Americanization' and
assimilation. For Mexican Americans in the southwest, this involvement in labor
unions was, "at its core an attempt by the children of the immigrant generation, and
those who had arrived in the United States as youngsters to integrate themselves into
American society (Sanchez 1993). Second-generation immigrant activism, in some
cases was the extension of unionization battles for recognition that started by their
parents or grandparents. Although the CIO successes during this time period shifted
unionism closer to a class identity orientation that sought to erase race and ethnic
differences, this did not eradicate it.
The rise of the CIO during the 1930's and 1940's marks an important time
period for American Unionism. While labor historians cite this era as an example of
the diversification of unions, it should be noted that this claim to diversity is based
on the increased numbers of racially homogenous non-white unions that were
22
officially accepted as part of the umbrella of the national labor movement. While
labor during this time period became more diverse demographically, this did not
necessarily translate to racial integration. Unions remained racially homogenous,
and served as a place where workers from groups that faced discrimination in the
workplace to not only address job related issues, but as a support network where
these groups could actively engage in combating racial discrimination. Increases in
minority unions served as an important building block for the Civil Rights
Movement of the 1950's and 1960's. The minority membership base of these trade
unions became the power-base and future leaders within the Civil Rights Movement.
Battles for integration and equity fought within various trades by unions, extended to
larger societal battles for equality in the United States. For example, A. Philip
Randolph, President emeritus of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, played an
instrumental role in helping African Americans battle for recognition within the
labor movement of the 1940's. He subsequently became an important leader within
the Civil Rights Movement, organizing such events as the 1957 prayer vigil in
support of the Civil Rights Bill, and a 250,000 person march on Washington in
support of Civil Rights (Anderson, 1987).
While there are examples, like the Memphis garbage workers strike that link
unionism to the Civil Rights Movement, this should not be misconstrued as a strong
working relationship or coalition between labor and the individuals and
organizations working on Civil Rights. Despite current attempts by organized labor
23
to refashion itself as a strong civil rights organization,
6
the labor movement was
largely absent from this social movement. Dan Clawson (2003) writes,
Just as labor missed an important opportunity to connect with the
women's movement, so too the 1960's and1970's involved all too little
connection between the labor and civil rights movements. Unions
typically endorsed the goals of the civil rights movement and
supported key acts of legislation; the UAW made substantial financial
contributions. But unions (and white workers) resisted implementing
policies that would end their own discrimination and their
acquiescence in employer discrimination. A fusion of labor and civil
rights would have had enormous potential, but only scattered
instances began to realize that potential (98).

Endorsement of legislation and policy without structural shifts within the public and
private sector labor force highlight how vastly different ideas and actions can be.
Structural inequality, for labor organizations, failed to adequately address how race
created divisions within their own movement. Organized labor's inability to address
discrimination within their own ranks had long lasting repercussions on their
organizing capacity in the decades following the civil rights movement.
Deindustrialization and Union Decline
Although unions grew in absolute numbers through the 1970's, they were
unable to keep up with the rapidly expanding workforce (Bronfenbrenner 1998). At
its peak in 1946, 37% of the workforce was represented by a labor union. In 1980,
density was at 21% --the number dipped below 15% in 1995. The initial decline can
be attributed, in part, to passage of the Taft-Hartley amendments to the Wagner Act,
which placed strict limits on union organizing and mutual aid tactics while

6
See Appendix 2 for AFL-CIO's historical timeline
24
simultaneously giving employers more latitude in opposing unionization efforts
(ibid). However, organized labor's decision to service current membership rather
than developing more aggressive worker organizing efforts and the strength of the
economy during the 1950's and 60's delayed the ultimate political impacts of these
amendments.
In the 1970's and 1980's, however, the political and economic climate
changed for organized labor. The anti-union, pro-business policies became deeply
entrenched --fueled in large part by the decline in the economy. Rapidly changing
technology changed production practices in manufacturing jobs and increases in
foreign competition --in short, large-scale deindustrialization in American cities
changed the prosperity that workers and companies once benefited from. The
Immigration Act of 1965, which lifted many of the existing restrictions and quotas
on immigration to the United States, assisted in creating an alternative source of
cheaper labor. Corporations benefited from the increase of immigrant workers
because this labor force allowed them to cut overhead cost and decrease the overall
cost of manufacturing products. In some cities, the simultaneous opening of the
public sector for African Americans created more opportunities in the service sector
for immigrants to fill. Union's inability to adequately adjust to these changes led to
the impotence of the unions.
Deindustrialization in urban centers, on the one hand, pointed to broader
political economic shifts that impacted workers globally. As foreign competition for
manufactured goods developed, it led to widespread closure of factories throughout
25
the United States and other western industrialized nations. While the economic tolls
led to, in some cases, the complete closure of factories that resulted in the
abandonment of entire towns. The unintended consequence was a crisis over what
worker identity meant during a time of widespread unemployment and the
disappearance of manufacturing in the United States. As Ruth Milkman (1997)
highlights in her book, Farewell to the Factory, while at first it seemed as if factories
would find a way to rebuild and become stronger manufacturers, in the end workers
were faced with uncertainty regarding their job security, constant humiliation on the
shop floor, and a weakened union that could no longer represent workers needs or
adequately negotiate satisfactory work and pay benefits. Many workers felt trapped
because they did not want to give up their factory jobs which provided a solid middle
class life, but also lived with the reality that factory life would never be the same
(Milkman 1997).
In the U.S. context, the process of deindustrialization in conjunction with the
rise of a global capitalist market created an economic crisis for US laborers. The US
economy was dependent upon manufacturing and factory work for providing both
profits for companies and work for US citizens. As the new global economy began
to take effect, these industries became obsolete --creating unemployment --
particularly in factory rich areas of the United States such as the Rust Belt (Lopez
2004).
Although research focuses on ways that the external forces of
deindustrialization impacted union density and organizing capacity, these economic
26
shifts are responsible for less than one-third of union decline in the United States
(Chaison 1991). Compounding the deindustrialization and deskilling of American
factory workers was organized labor's inability to adjust to other changes in the
workforce. Organized labor, at its height, represented just over one-third of the US
labor force. However, what remains unqualified in many accounts is the fact that 9
out of every 10 union workers were men. In 1940, women comprised 28 percent of
the labor force (Smith and Bachu, 1999)
7
, as compared to 71 percent in 1999
(Clawson, 2003). This change is significant because it reflects the shift to dual
income households, and the relative prevalence of women playing an increasing role
in the US labor market. Despite the large-scale entry of women into the workforce,
unions do little to develop organizing campaigns addressing the needs of women
workers. "From 1975-1985 pay equity and comparable worth seemed the wave of the
future, and the issues continue to top the charts in the AFL-CIO's "Ask a Working
Woman" survey, but neither pay equity nor child care feature in very many of today's
organizing campaigns" (Clawson, 2003, 53).
Problems unions faced due in large part to their inability to maintain capacity
during the mid-1970's through 1980's were compounded by the anti-union, pro-
business policies of government. President Ronald Reagan’s administration was
particularly harsh in its policies towards unions. During an air-traffic controllers
strike in 1981, rather then bargaining with the unit, Reagan fired the workers
outright, sending a strong message to union workers that government would not

7
From the US Census Bureau Population Division, Working Paper “Women’s Labor Force Attachment Patterns and Maternity
Leave: a Review of Literature”
27
intervene in labor disputes, and if government did intervene they would likely side
with employers. Furthermore, domestic and foreign policy, during the Reagan and
Bush, Sr. administrations created economic incentives for expanding US businesses,
and moving production into 'free trade' zones. Privileging the corporate bottom-line
--profit, corporations continued to outsource production overseas and across borders
at greater rates, allowing them vast amounts of saving on labor cost.
Despite government sanctions and cutthroat corporate strategies, the downfall
of the union was blamed on the lack of adequate leadership and an ineffective
organization:
They would argue that labor leaders failed to organize the
unorganized, mobilize existing members, confront employers and
develop either a new vision or an effective political strategy. Leaders
were elitists and exclusionary, purged of their most effective and
militant activists, and remained too focused on the narrow
institutional needs of their specific organization. In short they were
complacent (Matsios, 2000, xvi).

Unions' decisions during the 1960's and 1970's to focus energies on current
membership without adapting or reconfiguring organizing strategies proved
detrimental because they could not adequately respond to political, economic, and
social changes impacting workers. For unions, this historical period created dire
circumstances for the national labor movement. Unions, that once controlled
production sites, had to make severe concessions or deal with the consequences of
having jobs exported to other countries. With drastically diminished membership
numbers, and an increasingly immigrant and minority workforce, in addition to a
28
shift away from manufacturing into the service sector, organized labor was pressured
to change, or become irrelevant.
New Labor Movement
The recent scholarship on organized labor highlights what researchers call,
"The New Labor Movement (NLM)" (Bronfenbrenner 1998, Mantsios 1998;
Milkman 2000). Specifically, the NLM refers to the resurgence of the labor
movement post-1995, after the change in national union leadership and the
subsequent shift in the national labor movement's public policies and campaign
strategies. In 1995, organized labor witnessed a contentious national leadership race
that encapsulated the crisis (described earlier) unions were facing. In short, did labor
become more inclusive, or stay the course? Internally, the national labor movement
was facing intense pressure to change from some of their most powerful unions,
including AFSCME, the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International
Union (HERE), Union of Needle and Industrial Trade Employees (UNITE), the
Service Employees International Union (SEIU)--the very unions witnessing dramatic
changes in industry dynamics and the demographic makeup of their membership.
Research on the NLM focuses on three main themes: ideological and political
shifts associated with the New Voice Campaign; 2) Reallocation of resources
towards organizing campaigns; 3) Creation of a diverse and inclusive 'worker'
identity. These reflect what researchers viewed as problems of the past that needed
to be addressed, and proof of change and success in a 'reinvigorated' labor movement
(Mantsios et al).
29
Ideological and Political Shifts
In 1995, the New Voice Campaign led by John Sweeney, Richard Trumka,
and Linda Chavez-Thompson responded to calls for change by creating a platform
that tried to address both existing inequities within the labor movement and the
challenges of the new global economy. Central to this campaign were four main
principles the New Voice Campaign felt necessary for rebuilding its membership
base. First, significant resources must be invested in assisting local, state, and
national labor organizations organize. Second, the labor movement must promote
participation and diversity. Third, American Labor needs to build and maintain a
political presence. Finally, unions must build international solidarity with workers
beyond U.S. borders (Sweeney, 1998). Touting a platform of egalitarianism and
equal representation with the promise of a new and improved union, the New Voice
campaign was elected to office. The change in AFL-CIO leadership and these four
principles inform the heart of what some scholars call the New Labor Movement
(Mantsios 2000, Milkman 2000). Researchers argue that the new national leadership
for the union marks an important change in the trajectory of organized labor because
of its promise to make organizational and structural changes (ibid).
These stated ideological shifts embodied specific types of structural changes
within national organized labor. Researchers note that the New Voice Campaign
wanted to move away from viewing labor unions as a "service organization and more
on unions as organizers of social movements"(Mantsios 2000, 48). Rather than
focusing solely on gaining union contracts, organizing campaigns encouraged
30
needed to acknowledge that issues impacting working people were not restricted or
confined to the workplace. Sweeney writes, "organized labor must reach beyond the
workplace and into the entire community and offer working people beyond our ranks
the opportunity to improve their lives and livelihoods" (as cited in Mantsios 2000,
50). Focusing on broader social issues is a distinctive shift away from focus on site-
specific contracts, and served the broader purpose of trying to incorporate more
people, even the 'unorganized,' under the umbrella of union activities. Furthermore, it
reinforced the idea that organized labor was part of, and integral to developing a
social movement.
While existing research emphasizes the importance of organized labor's new
vision of "social movement unionism" little is said about how and why these shifts
happened. While leading the Service Employees International Union between 1984
and 1988, John Sweeney changed the fortunes of this union by increasing the
number of staff members working in the union, adopting a more aggressive style of
organizing by recruiting 'new labor militants,' doubling the per capita tax, and
diversifying the industries the union organized (Piore 1994, Waldinger et al. 1998).
The structural changes made within the AFL-CIO ten years later are often considered
an extension of Sweeney's demonstrated organizational prowess during the 1980's.
What remains largely missing from existing literature are types of local level
campaigns, led by a collaboration of community based organizations, non-profits and
unions that influenced these ideological shifts through their demonstrated successes
prior to being codified as part of the new labor movement.
31
For example, in the Los Angeles area during the early 1980's, prior to the
reinvigoration of the labor movement, many community workers organized against
the forced sterilization campaigns imposed upon Latina immigrant women. Many
key organizers eventually transitioned into working with the International Ladies
Garment Worker Union (ILGWU)
8
, trying to secure fair pay, and safe working
conditions. Most importantly, what became apparent during these early campaigns
was regardless of immigration status, these workers and activists could impact local
politics and elections. This was witnessed early on in their active support of
candidates such as Xavier Becerra's campaign to become the California State
Assembly member for the 59th district. For many organizers, it was not until their
active participation in that campaign that they realized the political empowerment,
mobilization, and leverage that immigrants could exercise regardless of their
citizenship or documentation status. These strategies changed how Los Angeles
unions mobilized workers, but also how they envisioned their capacity in
relationship to the broader political spectrum of the region. Furthermore, the growth
of non-profit and community-based organizations working with new immigrant
communities witnessed numerous successes in activating membership participation,
in ways that unions were failing. These dynamics point to ways that the shift in
labor's ideology were not just an extension of Sweeny's SEIU strategy, rather they
were influenced in part by successes of community mobilization efforts in
relationship to labor's impotence.

8
This group eventually became part of the union UNITE
32
Although the influx of immigrants is often cited as one reason for widespread
disempowerment of unionization, this lack of power was not consistent across
different geographic regions. For example, in the janitorial sector in Los Angeles,
the industry suffered from large-scale loss of union density. However, the janitorial
industry in New York and San Francisco, unions still remained strong and did not
suffer the same losses to membership numbers (Waldinger et al.1998). A number of
factors impacted SEIU 399's effectiveness in Los Angeles --while in the past they
successfully represented demographics of their workers, having a significant amount
of Black shop stewards, as the industry grew and began hiring more Latino
immigrants, the union failed to adequately organize immigrant workers, and as a
consequence janitorial work in Los Angeles became increasingly non-union.
Existing literature discussing the centrality of the Justice for Janitors campaign
frames the growth and successes of the Justice for Janitors campaign, as part of a
broader movement within unionism to include immigrant workers. The point is not
to negate the value of the work of Justice for Janitors --however framing the
campaign as part of a broader attempt to organize immigrant groups without also
contextualizing both the differential impact of unionism across geographic region, as
well as the union's complicity in the loss of power paints a monolithic picture that
does not adequately explain the complex process of organizing diverse groups, or
why unions, despite a resurgence, faced difficulties in organizing the increasingly
immigrant workforce.
33
Another central component of the “New Labor Movement’ is how changes in
workforce diversity became visible, particularly in Los Angeles. Facing the impacts
of deindustrialization in the 1980’s the manufacturing industries and jobs
disappeared (Waldinger 1996, Pastor 2001), and union membership fell from 34% of
manufacturing workers in 1971 to 19% in 1987 (Pastor 2001). Los Angeles and the
greater Southern California region reinvented and ‘reindustrialized’ itself in two
ways –connections to the military industry and the boom of high tech firms linked to
manufacturing and the emerging media industries. Consequently, new jobs and labor
demands were created (ibid). Reindustrialization was further fueled by continued
migration flows from Latin America and Asia that met the growing labor demands
and kept wages low (ibid). In Los Angeles, both high skilled industries such as
media, engineering, and technology, in addition to the low skilled industries, such as
garment and janitorial work were filled by immigrants. While numerous scholarly
works discuss ways that global economic changes impact the work force, labor
markets, and industry particularly in urban centers (Lopez-Garza 2000, Sassen 2001.
Waldinger et al 2003), there is little discussion within literature on labor unions
discussing both geographic and economic dynamics that allowed for a resurgence of
the labor movement. These works do not ask if one of the reasons that the New
Labor Movement is geographically centered in Los Angeles because of divestment
from unionism in the 1980's? Examination of geographically specific successes in
the Labor Movement highlights the importance of external factors that contribute to
either growth or decline of unionism, as exhibited in Los Angeles.
34
The stagnation of unionization experienced by organized labor particularly as
economic globalization expanded and matured serve as indicators of the broader
political economic changes occurring worldwide. It is important to note that while
on the one-hand globalization meant the loss of middle-class factory jobs, there was
also simultaneous growth of service industries. On the surface, the change in the
labor sector and the labor force appear to be simplistic demographic shifts, however,
with these changes came ideological challenges regarding what it meanings of
worker, citizenship, and inequality. The internationalization of the workforce within
the United States brought about new claims to rights and access to resources from
the state that were not bounded by citizenship. These claims are central to ongoing
discourse and debate regarding all aspects of immigration –but become salient when
examined in relationship to work.
Reallocation of Resources Towards Organizing Campaigns
One of the central tenets of the New Labor Movement is to recuperate from
the decision to focus solely on existing membership in the 1970's and 1980's, which
largely ignore recruitment of new membership and leaders. Research on reallocation
of union resources (Bronfenbrenner, 2001) focuses on three areas: evaluation and
reconsideration of existing resources; development of community partnerships; and
leadership development. Ability to effectively utilize and mobilize these resources is
central features of research on the contemporary labor movement.
In the most simplistic fashion, some reform within the national labor
movement occurred with changing the fiscal relationship between individual union
35
and the AFL-CIO. As noted earlier, upon taking office John Sweeney imposed a
higher per-capita tax on unions in order to garner more financial resources for the
national labor movement (Milkman, 2004). Financial resources were then
designated towards organizing efforts at the national, state, and local levels. Reform,
however, was not simply a monetary matter, but also an issue of where funds were
designated.
One of the main reforms made after John Sweeney and the New Voice
Campaign took control of the leadership in AFL-CIO were efforts to build new
campaigns, or re-envision new uses for existing resources in order to create greater
potential for exercising political power. Sweeney tried to centralize many of these
processes by strengthening the Field Mobilization Office of the national AFL-CIO,
by building a larger, experienced staff and simultaneously committing the energies
of that office to building stronger coalitions with other national agencies as well as
local level labor and community based organizations. Resources impacted included
the Central Labor Councils, the 'Union Cities' initiative, and Labor in the Pulpits.
These three union programs were given additional financial and staffing attention to
bolster and strengthen relationships between unions and communities. Increased
investment in both the Central Labor Councils and the Union Cities initiatives
provided stronger links between both local and state levels of the labor movement --
therefore increasing communication and the ability to support a broader subsection
of labor campaigns (Needleman, 1998). Resources impacted Labor in the Pulpits by
36
helping develop a coalition with an interfaith group of clergy and develop coalitions
with faith-based communities in order to promote union workers' rights.
Existing research highlights the successes involved with the 'inclusion' of
relationships with non-profits and faith-based organization (Bronfenbrenner 1998;
Milkman 2000) very little is said about tensions that existed prior to this 'new'
organizing strategy, or the persistence of ideological differences. Research on
worker centers, for instance, highlight the fact that these organizations arose out of
the need for organizations to protect the rights of non-unionized, immigrant workers
from on the job exploitation (Fine, 2005), The rise of worker centers, particularly in
major urban centers, highlights the lack of success --and possibly willingness, of
particular unions to organize workers. Furthermore, as Edna Bonacich and Richard
Applebaum (2000) highlight in their book, Behind the Label, the new economy
becomes increasingly hard to organize particularly in industries where contractors
and shops have high turnover rates.
While there is an unprecedented amount of resources being dedicated
towards organizing, it is questionable the extent to which unions are successful.
While researchers point to a 'resurgence' in the labor movement in Los Angeles,
citing the fact that "over 90,000 new, predominantly immigrant workers, have joined
unions in Los Angeles alone" (Milkman, pg 82) it remains unqualified that 70.000 of
those workers were brought into the union through a political agreement that
officially recognized SEIU's long-term healthcare workers union. Absent these
political agreements, the relative significance of the increased numbers of union
37
members are tempered, however, the statistics do indicate that new membership in
unions is predominantly immigrant.
Leadership Development within Unions
Research on the current state of labor focuses heavily on leadership
development within unions. Within the literature, leadership development is
discussed in two different ways: external recruitment of new organizers, and
professionalization of existing membership. Central to both of these areas is the
populist mantra within unionism that states, "You are the union!" This statement
refers to the ideal that the union is only as strong as its membership --and that the
actions and involvements of the union reflect the beliefs of their constituency.
Framed this way, the relative success of these leadership development strategies is
directly connected to numeric increases in both membership and organizers. Missing
is a significant critique about the ways in which these initiatives adequately address
the ideological concerns around race, citizenship, and gender that are discussed at
length earlier in this chapter.
Existing research highlights the work of "Union Summer" an initiative that
began in 1996, that offers 1,000 college students and young workers, a summer
internship where they gained first hand experience organizing around living wage
and fair housing issues (Mantsios 1998). Over half of the Organizing Institute's $2.5
million dollar budget was committed to this campus-based recruitment. Steve Early
(1998), critiques this type of organizer development because it failed to recruit
leadership from within the communities that workers resided. Additionally, these
38
recruits "lacked a meaningful connection to the unions the serve" (ibid). While this
initiative helped replenish the number of organizers in the labor movement, this
program did not adequately address who unions should organize, and how to develop
strategic long term connections between organizers, workers, and communities.
While the New Voice Campaign committed additional monetary resources
aimed at trying to create a strong foundation for leadership, the very inability to
define what leadership meant to unions, communities, and workers created a
fundamental disconnection between organizers and those they wanted to organize.
Furthermore, these leadership campaigns operated in absence of a true understanding
of the complex ways that race, culture, and citizenship are central to the lives of
modern workers.
The New Economy, Workers, and Unionism
At the height of unionism's strength during the 1940's and 1950's,
manufacturing of goods and services was central to economic viability and growth in
the United States. Local, state, and national economies depended on the ability of
factories to produce enough goods and service for domestic consumption and export,
At the local level, the livelihood of individuals in 'factory towns' depended entirely
on the success and productivity of the factory in their town. Unions prospered
because they organized specific job sites, and did not face foreign labor competition.
The economic co-dependence of companies and their employees meant higher wages
and greater job security for factory workers. The localized nature of the economy
facilitated the growth of unionism and economic prosperity for blue collar workers.
39
As noted previously, deindustrialization --the wide-scale outsourcing of
manufacturing and textile industries overseas and to Mexico had a dramatic impact
on unions. It resulted in both the decrease in union density and large-scale loss of
middle-class factory jobs (Milkman, 2000). Just as importantly, it pushed unionism
towards its political and ideological crisis, because unions now had to decide
whether to accommodate the current unionized workforce, or find ways to expand
not only organizing efforts by their membership. Organized labor’s decision to only
accommodate the needs of existing members is only one part of unionism’s decline
between 1975 and 1995. Understanding broader economic conditions and changes
in the global capital scheme helps contextualize what industries unions experienced
loss of jobs and membership in, as well as what industries and sectors witnessed
growth in both categories. Equally important to address are ways that changes in the
economy and capital accumulation impact ways that organized labor works and
organizes.
Deindustrialization in the United States was precipitated by economic
development in non-western countries. As the economies in countries such as
Indonesia and Mexico developed, they provided cheaper production alternatives --
including cheaper labor supplies for corporations. In addition, foreign countries
developed economic policies that favored corporations and facilitated the
development of factories in their countries. In addition, US economic policies did
not impose high tariffs of taxes on imports which would deter companies from
moving factories across borders and overseas. Over time, with the development of
40
increasingly efficient technology and transportation systems, in addition to the rising
cost of labor in the United States the economic benefits of moving factories to other
countries were too great to ignore. During the 1970's and 1980's companies closed
factories in the United States; automobile, textiles, and clothes manufacturing
industries moved factories overseas where companies could lower production costs
drastically (Pastor,1998). In essence, the industries that were the strong holds and
standard bearers for economic prosperity and the middle class factory job diminished
and workers found themselves jobless and, in many cases, geographically displaced
due to the closures of their cities and towns.
Deindustrialization in the United States was part of broader transformations
in the organization and distribution of capital globally. While relocation of
manufacturing and production plants outside of the United States decimated factory
work, it also led to a restructuring of work and the economy in the United States.
Capital accumulation was relocated into urban centers --into what Saskia Sassen
terms "global cities" (Sassen 1999). Largely dependent on information technology,
capital can be transported across oceans and borders at the push of a button (ibid).
The two areas of growth for work in the United States were technology based
industries and the service sector. The evolution of the economy also marked a
transition in the power-base for unions. The tremendous growth of the service
sector, which included industries such as hotel, restaurant, and janitorial, were
integral to the reinvigoration of the union. Once depended on factories for the
majority of their membership, the continuation of the labor union became
41
increasingly dependent on their abilities to organize the service sector (Milkman,
2004). The difference, however, was that unions were no longer organizing US
citizens --instead unions needed to develop campaigns that included the workforce of
the service sector --immigrants. Ironically, the very conditions that led to the
downfall of unionism in the 1980's precipitated the transition and rebirth of unionism
in the new millennium (ibid).
Changes in the economy in conjunction with the impacts of Civil Rights
legislation led to two major transitions. First, the opening of public sector jobs led to
a large influx of African American workers moving out of service sector jobs into
government work. Second, the demand for labor continued to grow --therefore new
migrants filled service sector jobs. In different regions of the country, the immigrant
populations looked very different. In the southwest, immigrants originated from
Mexico and Central America. In Los Angeles, there was also a significant influx of
immigrants from Pacific Rim countries including Korea, Vietnam, and China. These
workers transformed, not only the demographics of the workforce, but the very way
unions needed to approach organizing. Unions that were adequately prepared to
transition their organizing strategies recognized that there were two important
characteristics of the new labor force that they needed to address. First, the unions
recognized that the shift of the economy meant that organizing would no longer be
site specific and that the influx of immigrants meant that companies felt that they had
a continuous labor supply. This meant that current immigrant workers could be
considered expendable. Second, they needed to address the linguistic and cultural
42
diversity of the workforce and hire organizers that were familiar with these
dynamics. One part of this dynamic that worked in favor of organizers was the fact
that many immigrants --whether from Mexico and Central America, or Pacific Rim
countries ---originated from countries with strong labor unions and movements. This
familiarity helped in organizing efforts helped accelerate campaigns to increase
union membership in service industries.
The impacts of globalization led to considerable increases in union
membership in the service sector, but also highlight the ineffectiveness of organized
labor in other arenas. This is particularly poignant in technology related industries --
-particularly since this work can be outsourced (much like factory work) to other
states or countries. For example, works for computer or software support have been
moved out of state to place like Idaho, where the labor laws provide companies
protection from unions. In the United States, different labor laws in different states
allow companies to move work sites to "right to work" states (e.g.: Iowa), where
there are anti-union mandates in place in order to facilitate commercial growth in the
state. Other companies such as Dell Computers have outsourced call centers out of
the country to India --where the workforce is highly educated and can service
computer customers needs (Bhagwati et al. 2004). In global industries, such as
Spanish Language Media, unions have largely failed to both organize media
organizations such as Univision or Telemundo (which is owned by General Electric).
Despite the fact that these companies are based out of Miami and Los Angeles, and
are, in some cases, owned by US based media companies --unions have been unable
43
to transition their practices to assist workers in these industries that get paid less than
half of what US broadcasters receive in their same company (Miller, et al 2005).
These failures are largely linked to a lack of knowledge about organizing
immigrants, as well as ineffective international coalitions that could assist with
organizing international workers that come to the US to work in these industries.
Finally, examination of the new economy and international migration --in the
United States and in Europe shows a significant gender shift in who is migrating to
the United States to work. Compared to earlier migration flows to the United States,
contemporary migration has witnessed a significant increase in the number of
women immigrating and working in the US labor force (Mollenkopf, 2003). This
gendered shift in migration can be linked to the growth of service sector jobs such as
nursing, domestic workers, and garment work (Sassen, 1999). In some cases, there
are gendered migration flows from specific countries --for example, the demand for
trained nurses has led to higher numbers of Filipino women migrating to the United
States to work (Salazar-Parrenas, 2001). These shifts are integrally linked to
changes in capital --because while migrants come to the United States to find work --
their remittances are integral to the national economies of their country of origin.
These gendered migration patterns also highlight very specific changes in unionism
as well as some limitations. Unions that have experienced successful campaigns
have seen an increase in the number of immigrant women not only in membership
but their leadership ranks. These unions rely heavily on the social networks of
immigrant women workers both on the job and off. Immigrant women serve as
44
organizers, shop stewards, and are active in membership activities (Milkman 2004).
Despite the increase of women in unions, however, unions have done very little to
address issues specific to working women in their agenda, relying instead on racial
or ethnic affiliations and largely ignoring platforms specific to the lives of immigrant
women (Clawson, 2004). Current labor patterns in the United States do not indicate a
potential decrease in the number of women migrating and working in the service
sector. Unions’ relative success or failure to organize will become increasingly
dependent upon immigrant women.
Currently, US organized labor relies heavily on the recruitment and
organizing strategies of unions in the service sector for their growth and
membership. However, the restructuring of the economy highlights both the
successes and limitations of unions. On the one hand, the economic shifts that
precipitated the growth of the service sector along with specific unions' capacity to
organize this sector has led to a growth in unionism that has not been seen since the
1940's. However, the increasingly global nature of work also highlights the inability
of some unions to look beyond old models of conducting union businesses which has
therefore incapacitated them as their industry has changed. These are the challenges
to unionism in the United States in light of economic and capital restructuring.
Race, Citizenship, and Labor in the United States
Previous sections of this chapter highlight linkages between the historic
foundations of unionism, citizenship, and racial hierarchy in the United States.
Understandings of what it means to be an "American worker" and "union member"
45
are inextricably intertwined with a racial hierarchy that privileged whiteness,
citizenship, and masculinity within the United States labor force. Evelyn Nakano
Glenn (2003) argues, "citizenship and labor [are] sites for both maintaining and for
challenging race and gender inequality in society" (pg 264). In order to understand
how citizenship structures the relationships between workers, as well as relations
between workers and employers; and workers and the state --citizenship must be
dealt with as part of a broader socially constructed process that is interlinked to
power regimes that work both for capital accumulation, and developing social
hierarchies. For white workers, historically, union membership served as tools for
controlling job sites; establishing power, and garnering resources. Unions with
African American, Asian or Mexican immigrant membership bases existed because
of the racialized labor processes employed at their job sites. These differences were
actualized in terms of pay differentials, variation in the types of work --with minority
workers placed in jobs with the highest risk and lowest pay. In essence, minority
unions' existence was directly connected to power garnered by white, male workers.
When examining these minority unions, what is often lost is the important role
citizenship played in both union practices and membership. Union membership
privileged worker citizens -even if immigrant status was only one generation
removed. Workers in these unions at the turn of the century were often second-
generation, and unions served as a resource for differentiating worker citizens from
new immigrant workers entering the labor market. These unions also adopted anti-
46
immigration policies. Unionism, therefore, were synonymous with an acculturation
process (Sanchez, 1993) and created another hierarchy within the labor market.
In order to understand the ways that race and citizenship have historical
importance, Almaguer (1994) argues that the turn of the 19th century is integral to
understanding race relations today. He says,
The discursive dimensions of this racialization project in California
and the material structuring of racialized group relationships are best
understood as unfolding within the context of capitalist
transformation of the region and the ensuing competition between
various ethnic populations for group position within the social
structure (Almaguer 1994, 3).

The foundations of unionism, and the construction of the 'American' workers
as white, male, and citizen is directly connected to the capital transformations of that
time period. Additionally, the deployment of citizenship as a demarcation of
difference between workers of the same racial and ethnic group represents how
worker identity was defined by more than just race. Glenn (2003) argues, "For non-
white people and women, citizenship has always been a malleable structure"(55).
What citizenship means is directly related to the social, political, and institutional
imperatives of the time. Glenn also argues that, "of these institutions, the one most
closely entwined with the formation of American citizenship has been the labor
system (ibid).
The US labor movement is integrally intertwined with this labor system, and
as the economy transformed so has the meaning of race and citizenship. The labor
movement’s (lack of) responses to changing meanings of race and citizenship, as
47
well as variations in operational definitions of citizenship are largely responsible for
the erratic nature of union success and failure in the new economy. The new
economy restructured the work system in the United States. Capitalist transformation
(highlighted in the previous section) created new industries and sectors of the US
economy. In the past, racial hierarchies were easily identifiable based on the
racialized division of labor. The global economy, however, has systematically
changed how race and citizenship operate in the US labor force. Today, because of
globalization, social networks, and a variety foreign policies and colonization,
immigrants migrate with specific understandings of race, class, and gender prior to
the migration experiences (Espiritu 2003).
Labor unions' address inequality and diversity as an innate response to the
demographic shifts in the industry. Each union, however, constructs the meaning of
race and citizenship differently. Some unions respond to the increase of immigrant
workers in their ranks by focusing on formal citizenship. The organizing of these
workers attaches work and political influence to the nation-state. These unions track
immigrant workers into a process of naturalization and acculturation by offering
resources necessary for becoming a legal resident and subsequently a voting citizen
of the United States. Not unlike minority based unions of the 1920's, immigrant
workers become part of an institutional system that attaches the meaning of union
membership to that of citizenship. The process of immigrant worker empowerment
is therefore synonymous with an acculturation processes where differences can be
mitigated by the political power associated with citizenship status. The limitations,
48
however, are immigrant workers who are ineligible for naturalization, and therefore
cannot access these resources and privileges. Race and citizenship, in this model
become conflated because it is assumed that workers, regardless of current
citizenship status, are working towards becoming full citizens who participate in all
aspects of US social life.
The second way that contemporary labor unions address diversity in the
workforce is by adopting a universal social citizenship model that advocates a
"workers rights as human rights" model. This model attempts to expand the
definition of citizenship to include everyone who works within the borders of the
United States. Advocates argue that every human being is entitled to the same access
to resources and privilege regardless of formal citizenship or documentation status.
These unions utilize a neo-Marxist rationale to promote their social citizenship
platform. In essence, they argue that workers contribute to the overall well-being of
the economy and as such should receive the same resources as all workers.
Privileging worker status allows for an erasure of racial differences within industries.
Race or immigrant status is secondary to worker identity in this framing. Worker
identity should supersede tensions between different ethnic and racial groups.
While these models no longer exclude immigrants or racial minorities, they
largely ignore race and citizenship tensions that exacerbated by the new economy.
In the past, a distinct racial hierarchy existed where white, male, citizens garnered
power and privilege at the expense of immigrant and minority workers. However,
the new economy blurred those lines. Racial or pan-ethnic categorizations that once
49
informed organizing practices within unions are no longer as pronounced. The
economic globalization that reshaped the labor market also restructured and reshaped
ownership and production structures in the manufacturing of goods. Immigrant
workers are not only exploited by white corporate ownership, but also by fellow
immigrants that employ them. In the new economy, ethnicity and culture are salient
features of the labor market. Specifically, the contract system of labor that
developed, particularly in the global manufacturing of goods and textiles, highlights
the fact that immigrant contractors will sub-contract piece work to other ethnic
immigrant groups –paying sub-par wages and forcing workers to endure long hours
(Bonacich and Applebaum 2001). These ethnic differences play a more salient role
in structuring workers lives than the racial differences seen historically. These
specific dynamics do not mean that race is irrelevant to the lives of immigrants. As
Espiritu (2004) argues, immigrants are racialized prior to the migration process and
are largely influenced not only by the experiences of previous migrants and the
proliferation of racialized identities through both social networks and global media.
The context in which immigrants arrive is laden with hegemonic understandings of
race, race relations, and the social position of immigrants. Labor unions therefore try
and organize workers within the context of a complicated and complex racial and
ethnic landscape. While some unions at local levels attempt to adopt models that best
fit the racial and ethnic makeup of their industry, their ability to address diversity and
difference are often hindered by limited understandings of the ways in which the new
economy changed employment dynamics in the industry. As a result, these unions
50
try to employ worker identity as a commonality between all groups --largely
ignoring the very real tensions between racial and ethnic groups. In industries that
witnessed outsourcing to other countries, or displacement of white workers or ethnic
minority citizens with immigrant workers –using class or worker identity as a proxy
for race and ethnic differences fails to adequately address the intra-ethnic and intra-
racial conflicts that permeate social life in the United States. The practices of unions
in this context fail to move beyond pre-existing theories of race because they fail to
adequately address the complicate ways in which power is disseminated in a global
economy.
METHODOLOGY
This project utilizes collective case studies that examine two labor unions and
one national labor campaign. Research was conducted between September 2002 and
September 2005. In addition to participant observation, a total of forty semi-
structured interviews were conducted between September 2003 and September
2004.The following sections outlines the methodological components of this study in
further detail.
Qualitative Components: Labor Union Case Studies
This project uses collective case studies that are designed to “inquire into the
phenomenon, population, or general condition” (Stake, 1998, 89). The cases do not
have to be similar or distinct, rather they are chosen with hopes that the data
collected will create better understanding of specific social phenomena, or assist with
the theorization of an even larger set of case studies (ibid).
51
Case Study Design
Union case studies consist of three different components: archival
documentation, interviews, and participant observation. Each sub-component is
explained below.
Archival Documentation is used to provide a history of the selected union.
These documents are gathered via Lexis-Nexis search and union records.
Documentation that contextualizes the formation of the union, longevity of the
union, demographic composition of the union, changes in leadership, and history of
policy stances, history of actions and strikes are reviewed. These documents provide
background information that contextualizes the role of the union within the industry,
and helps determine its relationship with various local, state, and national affiliates
and governmental agencies. Furthermore, I also review newspaper and article
clippings as a way of understanding public perception of these institutions. This
component is critical because it provides a historical interpretive frame for
understanding the positionality of these unions in the New Labor Movement.
9

Interviews are designed to examine the guiding tenets, principles, and
philosophy of each union. In total forty-seven interviews were conducted --twelve
with Chinese Daily News, seventeen with SEIU, eighteen with the Immigrant
Workers Freedom Ride. Interviewees were union leadership, field organizers, as

9
Gaye Tuchman’s chapter, “Historical Social Science: Methodologies, Methods and Meanings” in Strategies of Qualitative
Inquiry, Volume 2 edited importance of using a historical interpretive frame in Sociological Qualitative Research. Examples of
research providing organizational histories situating social movements are Mary Pardo’s book Mexican American Woman
Activists: Identity and Resistance in Two Los Angeles Communities (1998) and Susan Coutin’s book, Legalizing Moves:
Salvadoran Immigrant Struggles for US Citizenship (2001)by Norman Denzin and Yvonna Lincoln highlights the case study
methodology .
52
well as rank and file members of active in the campaigns. Interviews of leadership
focused on perceptions of the challenges their industry faces, about who their
membership is and what the needs of workers in the industry are, guiding tenets of
the union, and policymaking. Field organizer and membership interviews examine
the everyday practices of the unions ranging from membership drives, to decision to
take direct actions, in addition to what is interpreted as the issues impacting workers
lives. Interviews were semi-structured and utilized open ended questions thus
allowing the researcher to ask for points of clarification, follow-up questions.
Eight interviews were conducted with a Chinese, Mandarin speaking
translator that conducted simultaneous translation between Mandarin and English.
Four interviews were conducted entirely with simultaneous translation, while during
the remaining four, interviewees spoke in English when possible. In these cases,
approximately half the interview was conducted in Mandarin and the other half in
English. The same translator also transcribed interviews into English from Chinese.
Fourteen interviews were conducted with a Spanish to English simultaneous
translator present. Nine of these interviews were conducted using simultaneous
translation the entire time, with the remaining five conducted in Spanish two-thirds
of the time and English the remaining third. The same simultaneous translator
transcribed interviews into English transcripts. All translated manuscripts were
checked by a third party for accuracy.
Although each interview varied because of the interviewees’ union
affiliations, amount of time on a campaign, and their relative familiarity with the
53
interviewee, there were specific baseline questions that provided the interviewer with
general demographic data and background information. The interview templates
covered three basic informational themes: 1) Demographic information including
age, education, job title, country of birth, number of years living in the United States,
family members in the US, outside the US, marital status; 2) Information about union
affiliation, including: first interaction with organization, length of union
membership, reason for joining the union, and campaign participation; 3) Questions
specific to the campaign studied, and the lessons interviewees learned. The
interview templates used for each of the three case studies are provided in Appendix
A.
Interviews were recorded and transcribed for accuracy. An interpreter was
used when speaking with interviewees whose first language was Spanish and
Mandarin. Of the 42 interviews conducted for this dissertation, 6 were conducted in
Spanish, and 5 in Mandarin. Bi-lingual transcribers were hired to produce interview
transcripts in English. Interviews were than cross-checked by another Spanish or
Mandarin Speaker for accuracy. All interviews followed protocols set by the
University of Southern California Institutional Review Board’s (IRB). In addition,
all names of confidential informants have been changed in compliance with IRB
protocols for human subject confidentiality. Finally, interviews took place in a wide
array of places including offices for work, informant's places of residence, coffee
shops, and at union halls. Participant Observation was used to gather first hand
information on a variety of activities conducted by unions. Observations included
54
membership meetings and drives, Get Out the Vote (GOTV) campaigns and precinct
walking with members, community actions and pickets, community meetings, and
participation in the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride 2003. These observations
allowed me to engage with people integral to this study and helped me develop first
person understandings of the social, political and economic environments facing
workers. In many cases, participation in these events helped develop contacts that
were then used to set up interviews.
Research Sites
Three different Los Angeles County based labor unions are utilized as
locations for this study: The Chinese Daily News, the Service Employees
International Union (SEIU) Local 434b, and the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride.
The unions were chosen based on their ongoing mobilizations, large proportion of
immigrant members, and the industries relationship with international migration.
Case Study One: CHINESE DAILY NEWS
The Chinese Daily News is the largest Chinese language paper in the United
States. It is owned by a Taiwanese media company, the United Daily News, and has
its US branches in New York, San Francisco, and Monterey Park. The majority of
workers for this company are Taiwanese immigrants who speak little, to no
English.
10
Despite working long hours, workers make on average salary of $24,000
per year and are denied workers compensation, overtime, and fair working
conditions. On March 16, 2001 workers in the unit, which includes advertising,

10
For More information please see: http://www.newsguild.org/gr/gr_display.php?storyID=740
55
business, circulation, news and production, voted to join the Communication
Workers of America
11
and became known as The Newspaper Guild/Communication
Workers of America, local 39251.
This case is unique due to the company’s response to unionization. Despite
the fact that 95% of workers in this unit signed union authorization cards and voted
for unionization; and were recognized by the National Labor Relations Board, the
company has refused to negotiate with the workers and the union. Instead, the
Chinese Daily News opted to launch a million dollar campaign and hired Larry
Wong, a ‘consultant’ who specializes in union busting, while company lawyers have
tied up the National Labor Relations Board with appeals –all of which the local
NLRB ruled as unfounded. After four years, the Chinese Daily News conflict with
workers has not been resolved despite numerous community campaigns in support of
workers
Case Study Two: SEIU Local 434B
SEIU 434b was formally recognized in January 1998. Comprised of Los
Angeles based home care workers, this union is comprised of over 12,000 workers.
SEIU first started organizing workers 10 years prior to its formal recognition by the
NLRB. These union actions have historically revolved around recognition of
homecare workers as county employees as opposed to independent contractors for
the city. In addition, this SEIU has an ongoing struggle for fair wages for
employees.

11
For more information please see: http://www.cwa-union.org/international/uniteddailynews/cdn.asp
56
This union is an important case study for numerous reasons. Workers in this
union are the working poor. This multiethnic union is comprised of worker from all
racial and ethnic backgrounds, but has a significant number of African Americans
and immigrant members from China, Thailand, the Philippines, Armenia, and
Mexico. Furthermore, this union does not have a physical site to organize, and as a
public sector union is in constant negotiation with state agencies for improved
worker benefits and work conditions, in addition to recognition of its membership.
Membership for this union is recruited with help from the California State
Controller's office due to an agreement made while Grey Davis was the controller.
This union case study provides an important case study for understanding union's
relationship with the state, and negotiations associated with the development of a
multiethnic union. Furthermore, examination of how a public sector union maintains
capacity is particularly important since the government sector is the only area that
consistently represented one-third of the workforce despite declines in all other
sectors and industries.
Case Study Three: Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride of Los Angeles
This case study includes participant observation of the Immigrant Workers
Freedom Ride (IWFR) that traveled across the country from Los Angeles to New
York from September 23
rd
, 2003 to October 5
th
, 2003. Eighty-seven citizens and
non-citizens from Los Angeles representing various unions and community based
organizations traveled through sixteen different cities to bring attention to immigrant
workers and immigrant rights. They were part of a larger caravan of buses leaving
57
from 8 other cities, traveling through 103 different cities, and 48 different states. In
total, there were approximately 900 freedom riders that participated in the nation-
wide campaign. Although the national AFL-CIO is largely credited for organizing
the IWFR, in actuality, the ride was primarily financed by the Hotel Employees &
Restaurant Employees International Union (HERE), the Service Employees
International Union (SEIU), UNITE, and the Laborers.
This case study allows for the examination of the partnership between unions,
community based organizations, and individuals in creating an immigrant rights
agenda and movement. In essence, this campaign represents the enactment of the
New Labor Movement agenda and principles that organized labor professed to
endorse. Interviews of lead organizers, the majority of which work for unions,
community based organizations active in the development of the ride, and Immigrant
Worker Freedom Ride participants focus specifically on how each envisions an
immigrant rights movement, how priorities are developed, and how action plans and
strategies are implemented. This case study allows for examination of the
connections between the national and local level agendas, as well as potential
obstacles to organizing an inclusive, pro-immigrant agenda.
Methodological Rationale
The three case studies utilized for this project enter into the respective studies
of unionism from very different organizational moments. Two case studies, examine
union locals –the Chinese Daily News at the beginning of its campaign, and SEIU
434b a well established Los Angeles union working on promoting its union goals and
58
objectives. Studying these two unions, despite the differences in their organizing
stages, highlight the ways that issues of race, ethnicity, citizenship, and
empowerment are constantly negotiated within organizational structures. The third
case study, the IWFR, is an example of a campaign specifically designed to address
the issues of difference that unionism historically ignored, and actively organize and
advocate for immigrants. Furthermore, by focusing on connecting the historic Civil
Rights experiences of African Americans to contemporary Immigrant Rights issues –
the union tries to address issues central to present day racial tensions in both the
workplace and urban communities. Examination of these case studies provides
useful data on the many ways that organizations operationalize strategies of change,
define and construct meanings of citizenship, race, and work; and finally construct
understandings and meanings regarding immigration, immigrants, culture, and
identity.
Methodological Considerations
Within Sociology methodological debates around the role of researcher exist.
While some advocate a positivistic orientation that privileges the idea of objective
truth that the researcher advances through the practice of research, others reject the
notion of absolute or objective truth citing the inherent bias involved within research.
Instead they advance the claim that the researcher is inherently biased and as such
cannot produce "objective" knowledge.
Following the methodological orientation of Buroway or Bourdieu, this
research stems from an explicitly personal place, and is intimately informed by my
59
own biases: political, social, and experiential. Furthermore, as acknowledges in his
work, it is through the very interaction and act of interviewing that knowledge is
produced and created, because often it is not until the question is asked that an
interviewee begins to reflect on their own experiences in a particular way.
This research project began as a personal foray into topics central to
understanding my own social position on the one hand, but also experiences around
migration and work that my grandparents and parents faced in the United States.
Their stories and experiences remained a mystery to me, and are largely absent from
the pages of the textbooks of my youth. My desire to recuperate my own history was
tempered by a very real need to produce work that would shed light on contemporary
social justice campaigns. This does not negate the importance of past history, but it
helped me focus my own work on current campaigns that could have impacted the
livelihood of my grandparents were they alive today. These experiences and my own
belief systems inform all parts of this project --from its inception, the execution, and
ultimately the production of knowledge in the pages that follow.
CHAPTER LAYOUT
Chapters Two, Three, and Four present the findings of the empirical research
from the three case-studies. Chapter Two chronicles the Chinese Daily News
organizing campaign. This case highlights difficulties with organizing workers of a
foreign owned, multinational corporation. This cases highlights the limitations of a
unionization campaign that focuses solely on winning a contract for a work site,
when the immigrant membership are only granted temporary work status in the
60
United States. Chapter Three discusses findings from the SEIU 434b case study.
This case highlights SEIU 434b’s emphasis on formal citizenship and civic
engagement in its organizing practices. This model of organizing is extremely
inclusive of immigrant membership and empowers workers to be active in local,
state, and national politics. The emphasis on naturalization, citizenship, and voting
has some distinct limitations for immigrant workers that are ineligible for US
citizenship and by extension the union’s ability to work long-term with this
population. Chapter Four highlights the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride
campaign. This union organized effort utilizes and organizing model that emphasizes
a social citizenship model that empowers immigrant workers involvement in both
unionism and political campaigns by trying to expand the definition of citizens to
include everyone regardless of immigration documentation status. In conclusion,
Chapter Five highlights how the New Labor Movement changed and impacted labor
unions. In addition, this chapter discusses the limits to those changes; the ways that
the meaning of citizenship is operationalized in the practices of unions; and
examines the redefinition of work and worker in the new global economy.
61
CHAPTER TWO: CHINESE DAILY NEWS CASE STUDY
“We work long hours, sometimes into the very late hours of the night or early
morning. We don’t get extra pay or time off later on, it’s just expected that we will
work whatever hours they [the Chinese Daily News] wants. I don’t feel we have a
choice because, all of us need the work –to live here in the United States, to support
our families here and back home, the bosses know we don’t have a lot of chances to
do anything else”

“They say we should be grateful for what the company has done, --letting us come to
the United States to support our families. They see the union as a sign of disrespect
–that we are becoming greedy like Americans, instead of just taking what we’ve been
given and just being good workers”

“This corporation ignores the will of its workers, ignores United States’ labor laws,
and has done absolutely everything they could to make sure that this Monterey Park
site remains non-union despite the fact that that the company’s headquarters in
Taiwan is organized. The actions we saw on this campaign go beyond hypocrisy –it
challenges our very understanding of whether these global corporations have to
answer to anyone”

INTRODUCTION
The Chinese Daily News campaign is a story of worker exploitation,
corporate anti-union strategizing, and a union’s efforts to restructure to meet the
needs of professional immigrant workers. Just as importantly, this case highlights
one of the first major New Labor movement campaigns that focused both on
professional (non-service) sector, and Asian immigrant workers. Both these groups,
despite seeing high levels of growth post-1965, were underrepresented in ongoing
labor movement campaigns. Although Asian and Asian American descent are indeed
part of the growing service sector of the U.S. labor global labor market, --specific
62
research highlighting these workers, particularly in relationship to the labor
movement, is limited within the existing literature.
The plight of the Chinese Daily News workers served as a rallying point for
Asian Pacific Islander (API) worker and labor organizations. For organizations, this
racially homogeneous group of workers was easily identifiable, labored in a work
environment with co-ethnics, and whose experiences mirrored that of other Asians
who, despite holding jobs in professional or skilled industries, faced workplace
exploitation. The CDN campaign represented an opportunity to address a different
type of exploitation that Asian workers face in the United States, despite the popular
belief that this racial group is the ‘model minority.’
Labor organizations –particularly those related to the media industry, viewed
this campaign as a way to enter into the burgeoning ethnic media market ---the only
part of the print media industry whose circulation and readership witnessed growth
versus stagnation. Although protests and union sponsored rallies involving
immigrant and minority communities in Los Angeles, as compared to other
geographic locales, are relatively commonplace, the face of “immigrant organizing”
in the context of unionism
12
, remains an endeavor largely affiliated with Latino
populations despite the rapid, exponential growth of foreign-born Asian populations
in the region (Asianweek, 2004). Existing research on organized labor in Southern
California highlights successful campaigns in largely Latino work-force industries --

12
It is important to note, that in Los Angeles, there are significant amounts of Asian immigrant organizing efforts being
conducted by non-profit organizations such as Korean Immigrant Workers Advocates, the Garment Worker Center, Pilipino
Worker Center, Thai worker Center and others. These efforts, however, occur outside the purview of labor unions. For more
information on these organization sees: Janice Fine (2006). Worker centers : organizing communities at the edge of the dream.
Ithaca, ILR Press/Cornell University Press.
63
especially those jobs that are in the service sector of the economy (e.g. Justice for
Janitors); little attention is paid to efforts to organize Asian workers working in
Latino dominant industries or other segments of the workforce.
The Chinese Daily News campaign is important because it exemplifies the
contemporary globalized ‘professional’ immigrant
13
workplace and provides unique
insight into the ways immigration status and citizenship becomes the new weapons
of corporations for disciplining their workforce. CDN is the largest daily Chinese
language newspaper in North America, which, at the time of this August 2003
protest, had refused for two years to acknowledge the union that 95% of the 152
predominantly Taiwanese immigrant workers in Monterey Park had approved in
2001. This campaign sought ‘wall to wall’ organizing recognition, which means that
they wanted the bargaining unit to include everyone at the site including journalist,
technicians, production assistants, and delivery people. These workers affiliated
themselves with the Newspaper Guild-Communication Workers of America (TNG-
CWA) and authorized TNG-CWA to serve as their collective bargaining agents and
became known as TNG-CWA local 39521. Their campaign for union recognition
and a ratified contract lasted five years and ultimately ended in failure.
This chapter focuses on the unsuccessful Chinese Daily News Campaign
waged by The Newspaper Guild-Communication Workers of America from October
2000 until September 2005. While the protracted five year battle for union

13
Professional immigrants are those who migrate to the United States to under the Immigration and Naturalization Act’s
professional needs provision. These immigrants tend to be highly educated and move into middle class or upper middle class
professions. For more information regarding professional immigrants see Portes and Rumbaut (1996), pg 5-6, 58.
64
recognition provides a plethora of information, this chapter focuses on three specific
aspects of this campaign. First, I examine the role that culture played in the
company's strategic response to workers' unionization campaign and its subsequent
tactics used to invalidate the NLRB election. Second, I highlight ways that culture
and citizenship were used as central tool for the creation and implementation of a
counter-organizing campaign. Finally, I examine the TNG-CWA response to the
"culture wars" and the consequences of TNG-CWA's decision to focus their
campaign around a business/contract model that erased very real differences that
these immigrant workers based on race, citizenship, and culture.
The Chinese Daily News highlights some of the difficult realities unions face
in the global marketplace. Unions, particularly those organizing immigrant
populations for the first time, face challenges from the new dynamics of global
capitalism and their own inexperience and lack of familiarity with organizing in
these conditions. Immigrant workers face unique social, political, and legal
conditions that workers with citizenship are protected from. In the case of the CDN
workers, their H1-B immigration visas
14
were dependent on employer sponsorship
which makes them more susceptible to exploitation. The Communication Workers of
America had a long history of organizing winning campaigns in the US

14
H1-B visa is a non-immigrant visa in the United States under the Immigration & Nationality Act, section 101(a)(15)(H). It
allows U.S. employers to employ foreign guest workers in specialty occupations. The regulations define a “specialty
occupation” as requiring theoretical and practical application of a body of highly specialized knowledge in a field of human
endeavor including, but not limited to, architecture, engineering, mathematics, physical sciences, social sciences, medicine and
health, education, law, accounting, business specialties, theology, and the arts, and requiring the attainment of a bachelor’s
degree or its equivalent as a minimum. Likewise, the foreign worker must possess at least a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent
and state licensure, if required to practice in that field. H-1B work-authorization is strictly limited to employment by the
sponsoring employer - except that many H-1B work for body shops who then place them with third party employers.
65
telecommunications and media industry. However, technological changes and the
downsizing in telephone and newspaper industries decreased union membership
numbers.
The following case study serves as an example of how a union attempts to
address new diversity within the industry. For the CWA organizing a new labor pool
of immigrants on visitors visas, as opposed to citizens, created difficulties in
developing a public campaign. The central question the union needed to negotiate
centered on how to create solidarity between these immigrant workers and the
greater American labor force. The CWA made the decision to run a campaign that
focused on the class status of workers without regard to nationality or citizenship.
This decision, as highlighted later in this chapter, created numerous problems when
attempting to combat the union busting campaign waged by the country. Class based
approaches negate the importance of culture, ethnicity, and immigration status in the
lives of workers.
The problems the union faced in this campaign were not solely centered on
identity politics. The strategies the unions deployed reinforced the company’s
strategy for union busting. CWA’s focus on winning a contract and failure to larger
social issues such as immigrant rights and immigration reform created a
disconnection between important issues in the lives of the workers the union wanted
to organize and the union itself. In addition, focusing on creating legal challenges to
corporate policies created numerous delays in moving the unionization campaign
forward. Despite winning these legal challenges, the time delays allowed the Chinese
66
Daily News time to intimidate workers, create greater challenges to unionization, and
employ scare tactics designed to derail the unionization drive.
The CDN case study highlights the importance of the decisions that unions
make as they develop campaigns to support immigrant workers. What are the
consequences of focusing solely on class identity and not ethnic and racial identity?
How can unions connect to the lives of workers in relevant ways? Why are
immigration status and culture important in the configuration of union strategy?
These factors are not unique to the CDN, but to the labor movement at large.
Although the New Labor Movement promotes greater diversity and a pro-immigrant
platform, many unions have not encountered or experienced a campaign that called
for the engagement of strategies that take these into account. The global economy
presents challenges both in terms of the flexibility of the labor force and the ability
of corporations to withstand unionization campaigns. The CDN provides a unique
case study for understanding how a union develops strategies to try and work within
this new economic framework.
UNION AND COMPANY BACKGROUND
The Chinese Daily News (CDN) is the largest Chinese language newspaper
in North America with over 200 employees at four different locations with large
Chinese populations: Monterey Park, San Francisco, New York, and Toronto. The
CDN began publishing a daily newspaper in Mandarin in 1976 and currently reports
an unaudited circulation of over 100,000 copies. The CDN directly serves the
Chinese immigrant diasporas in North America and functions as a conduit between
67
their current location and home. The newspaper provides its audience with a wide
array of stories that address local and national issues that impact Chinese
communities, but more importantly, it provides readers with important stories on
political and social issues in Taiwan and China. CDN is owned by Taiwan's United
Daily News, a newspaper that is unionized in Taiwan. Despite having four different
offices outside of Taiwan, the Monterey Park office of CDN, is the only branch that
opted to hire union busters as a way to prevent workers' organizing efforts.
In October 2000, the Monterey Park office management of the Chinese Daily
News announced that it was rescinding a scheduled pay increase as part of their
overall 'financial restructuring program. Management required that all employees
sign an "employment at will" declaration that allowed the company to terminate
workers positions at any time. While this is a particularly daunting threat for
workers with citizenship in the United States, this was extremely dangerous for the
CDN workers because their entrance into the United States and work visas were tied
to corporate sponsorship by CDN. The "employment at will" declaration was
viewed as direct threats by the company to not only terminate their jobs, but also
workers' ability to stay in the United States. Logan (2003)
15
notes, "most employees
believed that their non-citizenship status and limited command of English would
prevent them from obtaining alternative employment" (7). The declaration and the
rescinding of a scheduled pay increase were the catalysts and primary issue
motivating workers to mobilize and organize a union. Prior to this specific incident,

15
Logan, John (2003). "The Long, Slow Death of Workplace Democracy at the Chinese Daily News" in The New Labor
Review.
68
workers already had a number of work grievances against company policy and
management that included unhealthy working conditions and long hours with no
overtime pay. The CDN was investigated by the California Department of Labor's
division of Labor Standards Enforcement for alleged violations of the state and
federal wage and hour laws (ibid). The workers reported being forced to falsify
documents that were subsequently given to inspectors. For Cheryl, a worker that the
company targeted for her union organizing activism, testified at the State of Asian
Pacific Islander Workers hearing convened in May 17th, 2002 by the California State
Assembly Committee on Labor and Employment and Asian Pacific Islander
Legislative Caucus that,
Managers required us to work late into the night, some of us who
have families wouldn't get home to have dinner or even put our
children to bed. We couldn't afford to lose our jobs and they knew
that. We never got paid for the extra work, it was just expected that
we do it.

Workers noted that their individual interactions with the managing staff regarding
the late nights, low pay, and unfair requests were largely ignored. Supervisors would
simply tell them to go back to work, leaving the issues unaddressed. This
discontentment, in conjunction with the rescinded pay increase served as the ultimate
catalyst for the organizing campaign. In interviews, workers noted that although
they were unhappy with the personal toll that the company policies played in their
lives, they were more afraid of not having a job and by extension not supporting their
families --both here and in Taiwan. Li, a thirty-three year old woman, who had
worked for the company for three years said, “I knew I was unhappy, just like some
69
of the others, but I thought I could bare it. I needed to work. When they announced
that we would not get our pay increase, I got mad and so did so many other people –
it’s when I realized that I probably wasn’t alone in thinking that this was wrong.”
The collective sense of anger and disappointment generated discussions about the
conditions of their work, but a desire to try and do something to change the things
that bothered them. The 152 workers of the CDN began a mobilization campaign,
where they not only assessed the relative discontent amongst workers, but also
decided to unionize in order to try and provide them with a powerbase to leverage
against the company and create change.
Counter to the stereotype of the docile Asian worker, within one month of the
start of the campaign, 95% of the employees signed union authorization cards. Since
the requirement for a union election is 50% +1 (www.nlrb.gov), both the number in
favor of joining the union and the speed at which the workers and organizers
affiliated with the Newspaper Guild/Communication Workers of America received
union authorization cards are a testament to workers desire to improve the conditions
of their workplace, and find some semblance of protection for their jobs. Sarah, an
organizer that had worked on the campaign for six months noted, "Workers really
wanted to improve the substandard conditions of their employment. The long hours,
bad pay, in addition to the mistreatment many of these workers faced from
management were all motivation to unionize. Unlike other campaigns I've worked,
we had no trouble getting authorization cards from workers." After the election, the
union requested that the Chinese Daily News grant recognition based on
70
authorization cards. CDN denied this request stating that "secret ballot election was
the only proper method of disclosing the true wishes of the employees" (Logan
2003). The parent company subsequently appointed a new manager of the Monterey
Park offices and stated that this new manager would address workers' grievances.
The company felt that the change in management was enough to address the
demands of workers and that there was no need for a union since the workers’
grievances were being answered or dealt with by the new manager. However, it was
this very manager who the company believed to be the solution to worker problems
that ultimately authorized the harsh and brutal anti-union campaign discussed at
length later in this chapter.
THE NEWSPAPER GUILD/ COMMUNICATION WORKERS OF AMERICA AND THE
CHINESE DAILY NEWS
The American Newspaper Guild was established in 1933 and initially
represented editorial workers who were traditionally independent. In 1937,
following its affiliations with both the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and the
Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), it expanded its membership to include
commercial departments as well. This union has worked on a number of campaigns
that reflect the social and political shifts and changes of American history --working
to promote racial equity in the 1960's by addressing racial discrimination in news,
industry hiring, and promotion. In the 1970's they changed their name to the
Newspaper Guild and it worked to confront gender discrimination in the industry. In
the early 1990's the union recognized threats of globalization to their industry and in
71
1993 voted on a strategic plan that addressed the need for increasing membership
mobilization efforts and investigating potential mergers. At its 1995 convention,
members of the Newspaper Guild and its membership of 40,000 workers endorsed a
merger with the Communication Workers of America and in 1997 officially became
a sector of the CWA.
The CWA first became a national union in 1947, when it merged a number of
localized worker associations and organizations that represented telephone workers
since 1919. While the CWA's organizing has been solidly grounded in the
mobilization of telephone industry workers with important victories against both
Southern Bell and AT&T, it was in 1966 that CWA began mobilizations outside its
traditional telephone worker stronghold by beginning public worker organizing.
Between 1966 and 1980, CWA organized groups including parking enforcement
agents and Board of Election Workers in New York City, and City and County
workers in New Jersey. In the mid 1990's, the CWA expanded to represent
education workers, and served as the organizing units for graduate students for the
State University of New York, clerical and technical workers at Indiana University in
Bloomington, and incorporating the Union of Technical and Professional Employees
that represented non-academic professional and technical workers at the University
of California. The CWA has a track record of attempting to address inequities that
minorities and women face in their industry. Since 1970, the union has created an
infrastructure within its national, regional, and local divisions to address both
treatment of women and minorities, and leadership development for members of
72
marginalized groups, and standing Committee on Equity that continuously assessed
the treatment of women and minorities and proposed policies and procedures that
would improve working conditions for these groups.
Currently CWA represents over 700,000 workers in both public and private
sectors. Members are employed in a wide array of industries including
telecommunications, broadcasting, cable television, journalism, publish, electronic
manufacturing, government, health care, and airline customer service. It is affiliated
with the AFL-CIO, the Canadian Labor Congress, and the worldwide Union
Network International.
TNG-CWA, not unlike other media based industries, has witnessed dramatic
changes. Newspapers experienced continuous decreases in their circulation numbers
and ability to maintain readership --particularly in an increasingly digital world.
Technological advances mean that corporations need fewer workers in order to
produce their newspapers. Over the past two years, American newspapers have been
forced to cut upwards of 2100 jobs --300 of which were from the Los Angeles Times
(Unrich, 2006). With the overall downsizing of newspapers and significant job loss
in the industry, it’s not surprising that TNG-CWA witnessed attrition of its overall
membership numbers.
While most parts of the newspaper industry experienced stagnation, job loss,
and decreased market shares there was one subsection of the newspaper market that
experienced growth --the ethnic and language specific media (ibid). Ball-Rokeach
(2006) notes, "the ethnic media is the fastest growing media in the print world, and
73
this is happening without much help from established publishing houses,
philanthropists, traditional journalistic trade associations, or the government." This
ethnic market growth in newspapers is not an anomaly, in fact, other ethnic media
markets such as television and film report significant market share and financial
growth. Univision communications, which owns print, television, and production
mediums has reported significant income increases for 3 consecutive years
(Univision Communication SEC Filings, 2005). Telemundo, a wholly owned
subsidiary of NBC Universal, reports increases as well, while NBC's profits have
remained steady (GE SEC Filings, 2005). Market insiders attribute these increases
in all mediums to the tremendous growth of immigrant communities in the United
States, and the desire of these groups for labor unions working in these industries, it
has become increasingly important to find a foothold in these industries and with
these workers. Workers at ethnic media corporations are disproportionately non-
union, paid sub-standard wages compared to their American counterparts who may
work out of the same newsroom, and low levels of health benefits.
The Chinese Daily News campaign marked TNG-CWA's first significant
foray into an ethnic media market. This step was important not only because of its
potential for re-infusing their union membership, but also because it gave them
entrée into the only growth market in the newspaper industry. For this union, the
Chinese Daily News affiliation tested the union’s ability to forge strong international
ties and test its ability to adapt its institutional practices to fit a company that, while
operating within the United States, did not identify itself as a fundamentally
74
‘American’ company. The CWA needed to envision strategies and tactics to address
both decentralized international corporate management and work conditions that
might be very different in each of its geographic locations.
UNION BUSTING: REINFORCING WORK RELATIONS THE TAIWANESE WAY
Despite strong support for unionization by the Chinese Daily News workers,
CDN's management immediate response was to take measures to prevent the
establishment of a union. It is important to note that CDN's parent company, The
United Daily News, is fully unionized in Taiwan but has chosen to try and fight
unionization efforts in the United States. Not unlike other multinational corporations
the United Daily News opted to hire a consulting firm to help them remain union free
in the United States (Daewoo: unionized in Korea; SAAB: unionized in Sweden)
16
.
Transnational corporations pose specific problems for unions, both in the US
and abroad. While unions in the US are independent from the government, in other
countries organized labor is considered an integral branch of the government.
Unionization is a function of government as opposed to independent collective
action. In some cases, as exemplified by Daewoo of Korea, companies were fully
unionized when the organization was considered a mid-size firm. The products,
while exported on a small scale, were largely sold within Korea. However, through
foreign investment and in this case acquisition by General Motors, the company
grew exponentially and resulted in greater production demands. The company’s
Korean workers called strikes to protest increased demands and low wages, however,

16
Cooke, William (2001). "Union Avoidance and Foreign Direct Investment in the USA" in Employee Relations, 23:6.
75
the company made the decision to move parts of production to other areas in Asia
with looser labor demands in order to cut costs.
Efforts to remain union free are motivated by a company's desire to
simultaneously have easy access to US business markets while simultaneously
maintaining low labor costs and reduced overhead expenses. A reason why
companies may be unionized in a foreign country and not in the US is due to the fact
that unions in the United States are not attached to the government, constitutional
laws, or the nation state in the way that some unions are in countries (e.g. Mexico).
Companies that wish to keep their production centers in the United States opt to open
shops in ‘Right to Work’ states that actively promote the ability to have non-
unionized production spaces. It is important to note, however, that companies that
have union shops in foreign countries and non-union shops in the United States are
in industries closely related to manufacturing and trade –not the service industry.
Consulting firms specializing in corporate 'union busting' strategies are not
new. These groups have been in existence since the 1940's, although the growth of
the anti-union industry is a more recent occurrence. According to Bronfenbrenner
and Hickey (2002), it is estimated that during the 1990's American employers spent
over $200 million a year in direct payments to consultants, but the true value of the
anti-union industry was upwards of $1 billion per year when cost of management and
supervisor time off are accounted for. These consulting firms specialize in assisting
management deploy a series of tactics such as "captive speeches, employee
interrogations, one-one meetings between employees and supervisors, 'vote no'
76
committees, anti-union videos, threats of plant closures, and discriminatory charges"
(Logan, 2002). These tactics were considered commonplace in post-1970 anti-union
campaigns, due in large part to the growth of the consultant industry (ibid).
Union busting takes on many forms in the United States. In immigrant heavy
industries –particularly where workers are undocumented, one strategy includes
calling Immigration & Naturalization Services to raid the facility. The result is the
deportation of large numbers of migrant workers, usually before they received pay
for work completed. Another tactic used both within the US and abroad is
reorganization prior to acquisition. Firms will initiate a first round of lay-offs in
order to gain greater synergies (efficiency by preventing redundancy with the
company acquiring the firm) which are then followed by lay-offs resulting from
technological upgrades and improvements. These layoffs successfully diminish the
number of unionized workers and the strength and negotiating power of the union
because of the decrease in numbers and the fear of losing jobs. Finally, another form
of union-busting that is facilitated by the global economy is the mass lay-off of
permanent workers whose jobs are outsourced, or replaced by part-time or
subcontracted workers. The result is a reduction of the overhead related to labor
costs.
CDN management employed the services of the Burke Group -- a Malibu,
California based anti-union consulting firm. This group employs over 60 full time
consultants and is one of the largest firms that specialize in counter-organizing
campaigns (Logan, 2003). The Burke Group has consultants that live in 23 different
77
states, and has recently focused on healthcare campaigns, and campaigns involving
multicultural and multi-lingual workforces --sites of the strongest union organizing
efforts. While the anti-union consulting business was largely a white, male
enterprise in the 1970's and 1980's --in recent years, the industry has diversified in an
effort to mirror the demographics of the workforces they specialize in working
against. What makes The Burke Group a leading consulting firm in this industry is
its diverse roster --their consultants are fluent in Spanish, Portuguese, French,
Filipino, Creole, and several dialects of Chinese.
17
Furthermore, they hire extremely
knowledgeable consultants who are experts in the field or industry. Included among
their consultants specializing in healthcare campaigns is an ex-president of the
California Nurses Association, 8 former healthcare industry executives, and 5
registered nurses. This is just one example of how they strategized and infiltrated
organizing sites.
Familiarity with work culture and the ability to hire consultants with first
hand familiarity with Chinese and Taiwanese culture and practices made the Burke
Group the ideal consultant group to work on the Chinese Daily News campaign.
This fact, combined with CDN's commitment of personnel and significant financial
resources were the foundations upon which the anti-unionization campaign were
built. Previous research highlights the proliferation of retaliation tactics that include
the firing of 'militant or 'problem' workers (most often those viewed as union
leaders), one on one meetings designed to dissuade workers from signing cards, and

17
Labor Information Services webpage: www.laborinformationservices.com. Burke Group files financial reports under the
name of Labor Information Services Incorporated.
78
legal strategies designed to stall unionization proceedings. Working in tandem with
Larry Wong
18
, the Burke Group consultant, CDN created culturally specific variants
of commonplace intimidation tactics designed to impact the Taiwanese workers.
The hiring of Larry Wong and the way that the CDN positioned him within
the organization signaled to organizers and workers that they were going to
experience a long and drawn out battle for union recognition. One worker notes,
The bosses in Taiwan told us that the new manager that they hired
would come here and address our complaints. Instead, the new boss
came in and he ignored all of our concerns. He hired Larry Wong and
put him in this really nice, big office in the building. Putting Mr.
Wong there made sure that we knew how important this guy was.

The placement of the consultant within the corporate offices of the CDN created a
very distinct hierarchy that privileged the consultant and his subsequent advice above
the needs of the workers. Creating a space, such as 'a luxury office suite' that is
viewed as permanent versus temporary, reinforces the idea that workers concerns are
unimportant and that the company is willing to invest sizable resources towards
defeating the workers’ unionization efforts. Having the consultant onsite creates the
instant impression that all worker actions (whether related to work or organizing) are
under surveillance and serves as a disciplining mechanism by limiting workers’
participation in ‘anti-company’ activities by heightening workers’ fear of retribution
and retaliation. (The specific threats and tactics employed by Larry Wong are
explored further in the section on individualized union busting tactics). Sarah notes,

18
The hiring of Larry Wong, of the Burke Group was integral to the CDN management's ultimate success in this campaign.
The company provided him with an office suite within the CDN Monterey Park buildings where he could run the anti-union
campaign onsite, but he could also conduct some limited 'direct persuader activity (consultant-employee contact) (Logan 2003,
State of API Labor 2003). He provided the company with ethnic-specific that could be used to dissuade workers from joining
TNG-CWA.
79
When we heard that CDN management had hired the Burke Group
consultant and gave him an office in the building, we knew that it
would be a long battle. The hard part was the knowledge that the
workers were going to be under constant observation and that they
would most likely have to endure a lot of pressure from management
regarding their participation in the union drive. We knew it was going
to be bad, but I don't think we knew it was going to be as hostile as
what happened.

Sarah’s comments allude to one of the most pressing problems facing organized
labor --how to create worker organizing strategies strong enough to withstand the
incursion of professional union busting firms and consultants. Since these
individuals have greater access to the workers than union organizers often do, it
creates a distinct problem in documenting and addressing unfair and unlawful
intimidation tactics. Furthermore, it allows the company to prey upon workers and be
more persuasive in changing workers desire to join a union. This style of union
busting was very effective because it allowed the company to heighten the sense of
jeopardy immigrant workers felt, in ways that were unique to their social position in
the United States and Taiwan.
Ultimately, the greatest asset that Larry Wong and the Burke Group brought
to the CDN management was the ability to create a broad based, long-term anti-
union campaign that depended on the ability to stall the federal and local NLRB
process, and work at creating attrition. Anti-union tactics employed by CDN can be
loosely grouped into three categories: 1) time delays; 2) individualized intimidation,
or; 3) part of a continuous smear campaign designed to redefine 'American' unions as
counter to what was in the best interest of the company's immigrant workers.
80
Despite the fact that workers are granted protections from retaliations and/or
workplace mistreatment resulting from their participation in a unionization campaign
under the National Labor Relations Act, the CDN case study provides ample
evidence for ways that workers are disenfranchised throughout their unionization
efforts. It should also be noted that regardless of my categorizations of this anti-
union campaign, tactics were employed simultaneously.
TIME DELAY TACTICS USED BY CDN
Time is of the essence in unionization campaigns. For unions, it is crucial
that the process of organizing enough workers into the bargaining unit in order to
have an election certified by the National Labor Relations Board, and granted
collective bargaining status occur in the shortest period time possible. Remaining
unnoticed by management allows unions to coordinate the strongest mobilization
foundation possible and prevent corporate incursions (Bronfenbrenner 2003). For
corporations such as CDN, time provides the opportunity to thwart the union through
a number of legal, organizational, and individualized tactics. Corporations can often
stall union organizing prior to an authorization card campaign
19
. However, because
workers gathered authorization cards from 95% of the workers the company needed
to first use legal measures and appeals to create time for them.
The CDN management argued that the election "was 'illegally tainted'
because it alleged that some supervisors had solicited support for the union which is

19
Authorization cards are the forms signed by workers that states they support a particular union --in this case the
Communication Workers of America, to serve as their collective bargaining unit.
81
not permitted under labor law" (Maio, 2004).
20
The ensuing argument over the
alleged actions of supervisors, whether supervisors can be involved in union
organizing, and which workers actually 'supported' the union (specific union
response discussed at length in next section) were the central issues causing the legal
quagmire causing the long-term delay in the unionization campaign. In August
2001, Thomas Lenz, an attorney representing the Chinese Daily News, argued that
"120 Chinese Daily News workers, nearly matching the voter base in the March
2001 election, signed petitions stating they did not want to be represented by the
CWA" (Logan 2003). The regional National Labor Relations Board ruled against
the company, stating that even if one disqualified the 7 votes the company
categorized as 'supervisors' --there were still enough votes in favor of unionization
and upheld the election. CDN appealed the hearing officer's decision to Washington
where it languished for four years without a decision.
Gary, an organizer who had worked on the campaign for almost two years,
discussed the types of strains that campaigns of this duration took on all involved,
specifically the workers. He said,
I don't think any of us thought that the case would just sit there at
NLRB in Washington for so long. We had won once here in Los
Angeles, but three years and counting, it's just too much. We've heard
all sorts of reasons, high turnover of the board, or whether supervisors
can be involved in union organizing activities. Whatever it is, it’s
taken a toll on the workers who want a union. The company has
slowly tried to break the will of the workers --and succeeded with
some.

20
Maio, Pat. (2004). "National Focus on Labor Fight at Chinese Language Papers" in Los Angeles Business Journal. July 5,
2004.
82
The legal maneuvers by the CDN lawyers focused on seemingly small discrepancies
such as spelling of names, or dates that varied between the union and the Chinese
Daily News. While these seem minute or inconsequential, the legal challenges
created the time necessary and the opportunity for the corporation to fight
unionization outside the legal system. While the National Labor Relations Board
ideally serves as an arbiter of conflicts between companies and employees, the
board’s inability to render timely decisions regarding the company's appeal worked
in favor of CDN management and allowed them to employ a series of actions against
workers.
The Chinese Daily News utilized a number of intimidation tactics designed to
both influence workers to change their authorization vote in favor of unionization,
and secondly to instill enough fear in workers that it prevents any type of union
organizing from occurring in the future. Highlighted in greater detail in the next
section, one of the most frequently used tactics used were individualized meetings
with workers. During the time delay created by the legal appeal, the CDN union
busting team and supervisors identified workers who, some organizers suggest, could
be easily persuaded to change their vote, or workers who could used as an example
of what happens to workers who try and organize or defy the company.
The Chinese Daily News used the time gained during their NLRB appeal to
focus their energies on trying to change workers' votes for union authorization. With
a small bargaining unit of 141, and a relatively close vote of 78-63 in favor of
unionization, the company needed to persuade a minimum of 8 people to change
83
their vote
21
in the event that NLRB called for a new election. The company initiated
a number of different strategies to ensure that a new vote would fail to authorize
unionization.
The time period during the CDN appeal to the NLRB proved fruitful for the
company. Installing the union busting consultant into the CDN offices, served the
crucial role of having an individual that carefully observed the everyday workings of
the offices; the relationships between workers; identify leaders and followers; and,
assess which workers were most vulnerable to direct intimidation. This information
provided important insight on how to derail unionization by applying appropriate
forms of intimidation and pressure.
Not unlike other anti-union campaigns, the easiest way for a corporation to
communicate their anti-union message was through demotion and/or firing of
workers. The simple act of ‘letting a worker go’ communicated to others that any act
perceived as insubordination had dire consequences. This is certainly not a new
tactic, nor is it innovative, but the consequences take on different meanings for
immigrant workers than it would for American counterparts. While researchers point
out that the threat of job loss is effective because it threatens a worker’s immediate
and future economic well-being (Bronfenbrenner 2001, Lopez 2003, Milkman 2003)
for immigrants in the US who enter via the use of work visas, the loss of work takes
on additional meaning. Ping, a 28 year old machinist, who had lived in the U.S. for
the past 6 years said,

21
In order for a union to be recognized by the NLRB, 50% +1 of workers must vote in favor of union authorization. For CDN
Workers, 72 workers needed to vote "yes".
84
I live simple here, not like Americans. Just the things I need to live. I
need to send money home to my family. If I lose my job, I worry
about what happens to my parents who need the money, or how my
brother gets. I’m not the only one working, but my pay helps keep
everything ok. The paper sponsored me here….so I cannot just get
another job like other people do. Whatever I do, I can’t get new
work, but have to make sure that they will sign my papers. It’s not
easy.

For Ping this made her feel trapped, in large part, due to both the scarcity of jobs in
her field and the difficulties associated with finding another company willing to
sponsor the work visa necessary for maintaining her residency in the United States.
This feeling of isolation makes the cultural differences more stark for immigrant
workers, creating a stronger sense of dependence on the company’s that sponsored
their visa to the United States.
For Li, the economic repercussions were compounded by many, social,
psychological, and emotional consequences.
If I don’t work, how would this look to people who know me, here
and at home. I am supposed to provide, help, and send money to
support everyone. Why even be here if I am not helping? What will
my family say if they can’t upkeep things because I can’t send them
money? It won’t look good if I return home with nothing to show for
the time here. Nobody would understand because there are supposed
to be opportunities here.

While the economic and social repercussions associated with unemployment are
similar, regardless of immigrant status, the restrictions placed on both pursuing other
forms of employment and residency in the United States create additional barriers
therefore heightening feelings of jeopardy and fear for these workers. The decision
to join or continue with an organizing campaign has different meanings for these
85
workers because of the consequences that they face outside of the work environment.
For some workers, the threat of losing their job and the associated loss of personal
and social capital was impetus enough for them to change their vote to back
unionization.
When I first decided to join the union, I thought that since so many of
us were doing this together that it wouldn’t be hard. But now that it
has been almost two years, many of us just don’t think this is going to
happen. I have too much to lose, and I can’t get fired. I know some
really believe, they risked their jobs and were fired, and still fight, but
that is not me. I feel bad, but my family depends on me and this job,
and they need to be first.

The ability of the corporation to use the time gained by filing appeals with the NLRB
had the desired impact. It provided them with a time to effectively persuade workers
against unionizations, as well as eliminate the ‘problem’ workers by finding ways to
fire the workers, and as it will be highlighted in detail later in this chapter, effectively
control the dialogue and discourse around culture, identity, and work.
CULTURE, IDENTITY, AND THE UNION CAMPAIGN
With the help of Larry Wong, the CDN designed an anti-union strategy that
hinged upon identity, culture, and perceived common experiences. The company’s
successful use of cultural commonalities, simultaneously with the creation of a
discourse that constructed the workers’ identity as both outsider and other in the
context of the United States were instrumental in their ability to dissuade workers
from joining a union. In addition, as will be discussed at length in the final section
of this chapter, the union’s inability to address or incorporate these same factors into
86
their campaign, gave credence to the corporation’s assertion of a Taiwanese national
identity for both workers and the corporation.
Culture and identity played a significant role in two areas of the campaign:
the one-on-one meetings the management called with specific workers, and in the
company’s approach to utilizing the US legal system. These two processes, together,
worked to try and differentiate the Chinese Daily News and its workers from both
“American” companies and workers. They attempted to construct an image of
foreigners or ‘others’ as a way to escape both the US labor laws and legal system,
and to create affinity between company and worker.
The one-on-one meetings conducted by the management focused on
reminding workers of their dependence on the company, but also of the fact that they
were foreign workers in the United States. Some of the interviewees discussed their
experiences at the meetings: Lin, a thirty-eight year old, Taiwanese woman who had
worked in production for the past eight years said,
The first time I got called into the supervisor's office I was scared. It
was very late in the night, and did not know what my bosses wanted.
When I got in there, I saw that I was the only one, then I really
worried. I sat down and they just started talking...asking why I joined
the union, why I disrespected them after all the company provided for
me, and that I dishonored my family.

In a another individual meeting, Kerry, a new immigrant who lived in the U.S. for
just over a year, focused on both the use of cultural intimidation and threats to threats
to job security along at the time of the interview recalled,
87
The supervisors asked me how I could be so ungrateful. They said
that since they sponsored me here to the United States that I should be
more loyal. I wouldn’t be here in the US if it weren’t for the
company. They kept saying things like, an American Union can’t
help Taiwanese workers at a Taiwanese company. Things are
different and they don’t understand.

Kerry’s story highlights the importance of perceived differences in culture and
values in the anti-union campaign. For Kerry, and the administrators at the CDN,
Taiwanese culture was viewed as superior to the ‘American’ culture. Playing on
these cultural differences allowed the CDN to try and build a sense of loyalty and
affinity towards the company.
For George, a middle aged immigrant who had lived in the US for about 2
years discussed the ways that social networks played an integral role in both how he
learned information, but also in how he chose to act in the meetings with supervisors.
He notes,
Some of my friends already had meetings with the boss, so I knew
what they were going to say. They didn’t really know if I had voted
for the union or not, but they tried to act like they knew. They said
‘you know American unions aren’t like the ones back home…they are
corrupt, and greedy. Things here are different. It isn’t the same and
they won’t really help you because they don’t understand us
[Taiwanese], our culture, our ways, and our families. It’s different.

These examples point to the ways that individual meetings were utilized to play on
different types of fear by invoking culture and honor to instill shame in the workers,
or highlighting workers’ outsider or non-citizen status to play on fears regarding the
‘temporary’ nature of immigrants residence in the US. Focusing strategically on
vulnerable individuals, allowed the Chinese Daily News to leverage their power by
88
creating a sense of isolation, which countered the claims of solidarity and collectivity
promoted by the union. Isolation, however, is not simply a function of the
individualized meetings. Instead, it must be seen within the broader legal and
political landscape that immigrants negotiate as part of their daily experiences. It is
associated with larger structural inequalities that prevent immigrants, regardless of
documented status, from fully participating in all the rights, privileges afforded US
citizens. The company tried to create a more acute sense of isolation by highlighting
worker’s conditional work status in the United States. The questioning of workers’
loyalty served the dual purpose of reminding workers that the ability to work and
reside in the US is integrally tied to the company’s sponsorship of their work visas.
Reinforcing the dependence on the corporation, and the very tenuous nature of their
residency in the US, heightens the type of jeopardy these immigrants face. In
addition, by framing both workers and the work they produce as distinctly
“Taiwanese” creates the perception that there is little legal or structural recourse for
workers to pursue. The sense of inevitability that this narrative invokes was
designed to make workers resign themselves to the current conditions of their work,
or lose the stability created by their job. This threat is particularly powerful given
the unequal ways in which immigrants can make claims to political, social, and legal
rights.
Emphasizing a ‘Taiwanese” identity for both workers and the corporation, the
Chinese Daily News reinforces the restricted access to rights immigrants have in
relationship to the US justice system, while simultaneously attempting to set up an
89
additional segment of its corporate legal strategy. CDN essentially claimed that as a
Taiwanese company, it did not need to comply to US based labor organizing laws.
In the end, the corporation successfully used social, legal, and political isolation as
an effective weapon for combating the union organizing campaign.
The power of creating a sense of isolation, whether based on fear of
retaliation and retribution, political disenfranchisement, or playing on the prevailing
social conditions impacting immigrant life –is that it created the opportunity for the
company to simultaneously try and find ways to create greater affinities between
themselves and their workers. By focusing their efforts on reminding workers of
their ‘outsider’ status, and the differences between the meanings of being a
Taiwanese worker as opposed to an American worker, the corporation successfully
invoked a specific set of understandings related to citizenship and rights, and in some
instances made a compelling argument that because of a shared national identity,
cultural values and beliefs, that the company was in a better position to care for the
specific needs of the workers. Or at the very least, the corporation was better suited
than ‘corrupt American unions’ to improve workers well-being.
Sandy, who spoke at length about the cultural conflicts she experienced,
notes,
The managers kept telling me that the unions here in America can’t
really help us. He said that they do not know the Taiwanese way, and
they just wanted money… I don’t think it was about money for the
union helping us, but at the same time, my boss was right too…they
don’t seem to understand how things are in Taiwan. They just told us
to focus on the contract…..the other stuff didn’t matter. But it did…to
90
me and others. Being Taiwanese, it is how we work, who we are, and
it is part of everything we do…especially for this company.

For workers like Sandy, the cultural familiarity she felt when listening to her boss or
working for the company provided a type of stability that positively reinforces
cultural identity.
The fact that some workers felt disconnected from the union that represented
them, made it easier for the Chinese Daily News management to prey upon those
fears, and create fissures of doubt and opportunities to be viewed as a compassionate
company attuned to the everyday experiences of their workers, despite the fact that
there was an ongoing contract dispute. Highlighting shared citizenship and culture,
provided a useful tool for the corporation to juxtapose what it means to be Taiwanese
against workers common sense understandings and perceptions of what it means to
be “an American.” Being ‘American’, in this context, was defined as opportunistic,
self-involved, and greedy without regard to the impact of actions of other people and
communities. In contrast, being ‘Taiwanese’ was constructed as being a culture that
valued family, respect, and collectivity --in essence; it was the antithesis of
American identity. Collapsing the day-to-day experiences of these immigrant
workers with negative constructions of American culture and by extension American
union actions, were a powerful tool that the CDN management exploited in order to
defeat unionization attempts.
The counter-organizing techniques used by the CDN provide a unique look at
the ways in which companies employing large numbers of immigrant workers are
91
evolving their strategies for combating union organizing. While they still rely on
intimidation, threat of job-loss, and isolating workers as central techniques for
influencing a worker’s decision to participate in an organizing campaign ---it is the
ways in which citizenship, immigrant status, and culture are deployed as tools to
dissuade workers that must be examined. While the literature highlighting the
increasing importance of increasing immigrant workers in order to sustain and/or
increase union membership –few studies highlight how anti-union strategies are
being adapted to prevent organizing of this population. Although organized labor
should be more aware of the political and legal limitations that immigrants face in
the United States and adapt strategies accordingly, the following section highlights
the ways that some unions have difficulty adapting their long-standing approaches to
organizing to fit the social, political, and cultural realities of immigrant workers.
TNG-CWA IMMIGRANT ORGANIZING, CULTURE WARS, AND THE LIMITS OF
CONTRACT UNIONISM
Close examination of the worker mobilization efforts waged by the
Newspaper Guild/Communication Workers of America highlights the difficulties
unions face when trying to win contracts and union recognition for immigrant
workers. The well organized counter-organizing campaign waged by the Chinese
Daily News tested the union’s effectiveness, and challenged them to find new tactics
to sustain their campaign. The counter-organizing campaign by the CDN did not go
unchallenged –by workers or the union. Close examination of the union’s actions
and their framing of the organizing campaign highlight the limitations of their
92
existing strategies in addressing immigrant workers and international companies.
This section highlights their response to the anti-union campaign and their attempts
to utilize their traditional organizing methods to win recognition for the Taiwanese
workers of the Chinese Daily News.
At the beginning of the campaign, union organizers were very optimistic
about winning union recognition and negotiating a contract. Jennifer, an organizer
who was part of the original team that helped work with the CDN workers on the
development of their union organizing campaign notes,
When we first began working with the workers of the Chinese Daily
News, it looked like it was going to be a relatively easy campaign, or
at least easy compared to the other campaigns I’d been involved with.
The workers were clearly dissatisfied with working conditions, how
they were treated, and the lack of compensation for the extra hours
worked. I mean, in one day over 90% of the bargaining unit signed
authorization cards. As an organizer, that’s a dream. It means that
you have consensus and don’t have to do as much work to try and
convince people who are on the fence that unionization is a good
thing. These workers were ready for a change and committed to
making it happen.

Not surprisingly, union campaigns face numerous hurdles in getting off the ground,
not the least of which is opposition from companies. However, when a campaign
has wide-spread support of workers as well as the resources of a strong national or
international union, it provides a strong foundation for recognition. Another original
organizer, Michael, who worked on the campaign for a year, explained why they
were caught off guard by the resistance in this campaign,
We knew that many of the pieces you needed to have in place in order
to establish a bargaining unit was there. Since we also did a wall-to-
wall bargaining unit, it meant that we could leverage this against a
93
potential stop in production. We weren’t prepared for how far this
company would go to prevent unionization. The parent company was
unionized in Taiwan, so it was hard to foresee the lengths they would
go –hiring professional union busters, installing them inside building,
and intimidating workers. When we learned what was happening, we
filed the complaints and took legal actions, but we couldn’t really do
much to prevent what was happening on a daily basis. Over time, we
began to see the initial strength of numbers diminish.

Lack of preparation and precedence of experience from past campaigns can only
account for some of the problems that the unionizing campaigns faced. As a union,
TNG/CWA had a long history of facing aggressive anti-union campaigns, and
resistance to collective bargaining. What made this campaign different for the union
was that it was in unfamiliar territory in terms of organizing ethnic media,
corporations with headquarters in Taiwan, and a unit comprised entirely of
immigrants. This posed problems in trying to construct a publicity campaign to
counter the efforts of the corporation.
From the start, TNG-CWA struggled to find a way to adequately create a
campaign that addressed the specific struggles of the Chinese Daily News workers
while simultaneously garnering support from the general public and members of
other union members and potentially sympathetic organizations. The initial strategy
deployed by TNG/CWA deployed focused specifically on the organizing efforts of
the workers, the number of people authorizing representation, and the hardships of
the worker, without regard to race or citizenship. At a rally in support of the workers,
a member of the CWA governing board said,
94
This company neglects and disrespects the very workers they depend
on to produce their papers everyday. Recognizing these workers’
right to organize is fundamental. This is about workers rights, having
a fair contract, and being paid a fair wage for their work

By specifically focusing on workers’ wages and rights, as well as the corporation’s
actions, the union organizer created dialectic parallels between labor’s traditional
division between workers and employers, as well as the ongoing struggles that
workers face when trying to obtain collective bargaining rights. Absent from his
speech, however, is a larger discussion of the workers immigrant status and how it
fundamentally impeded upon the ways in which contracts are won. Focusing on
class-based affiliation was consistent in the approach used by organizers throughout
the campaign. Michael notes,
Union work requires that we create an understanding or message that
workers –all workers can associate with and understand. I think this
is a universal message that whether you are in a union or not –if you
work you know what it feels like to be treated unfairly, not make the
money you are worth while the company or its management reap the
benefits of others work. The goal is to create bonds between workers
involved in a campaign and the public, so we concentrate on creating
an accessible message.

This strategy is not that different from other union campaigns –past or present. The
creation of a class-based narrative that highlights the degradation of workers has
been a staple of the union organizing campaign. However, this strategy conflated the
meaning of worker with whiteness and citizen. While this strategy did provide a
useful narrative line and structure for the campaign, it could not adequately address
the complex issues faced by the Chinese Daily News workers. Although the focus
on workplace violations and contract dispute were in fact true, the omission of
95
immigrant status and citizenship meant that the public narrative was over-simplified
and negated some of the most important facts that structure both company and
worker reactions to both organizing and counter-organizing efforts. The fact that the
union chose to create an initial campaign that made the race and citizenship of
workers invisible speaks to the ongoing problems that unions have had in trying to
create campaigns designed to address workers who no longer fit the hegemonic
construction of the ‘American Worker.’ Class-based and economic rhetoric has a
long stranding tradition within union organizing, and as such provided a comfortable
foundation for building their campaign; however, it also restricted the union from
creating greater discussions regarding hardships that professional immigrant workers
face in the US Labor Market. When asked how this operation differed from other
efforts, Jennifer pointed out that,
I felt that as an organization, we had so little experience working with
ethnic media. We knew that for our union, it was an area that we
needed to expand to, but I don’t think that we could say that we were
very familiar with the organizations, structures, or even how they
differed from US papers and communication related firms. So we
relied on the skills and resources we had in place –using strategies
that did not differ from other campaigns.

For the union, the lack of familiarity led to the development of campaigns that were
similar in substance to ones that were run before –without regard to the ways that the
change in demographic of workers, or differences in type of company that they were
organizing against could have different repercussions or consequences. At a public
rally held by the TNG-CWA, the Newspaper Guild’s International Organizing
Director, Bruce Meachum said,
96
The Chinese Daily News workers, like all workers, have the right to
organize without fear of reprisal, and should be paid a fair wage for
their work, and be guaranteed access to the same provisions of all
workers –breaks for lunch, pay for overtime, and a workplace free of
fear.

In later statements, representatives for the Newspaper Guild called the Chinese Daily
News workers the “poster child for the Employee Free Choice Act
22
,” legislation
designed to strengthen protections for workers’ freedom to form unions by requiring
employers to recognize the union after workers sign cards authorizing union
representation.” However useful the story of the Chinese Daily News workers was
to the development and proposal of this legislation, it fails to address to the specific
types of intimidation immigrant workers are confronted with.
When the anti-union campaign started at the Chinese Daily News, the union
addressed it as part of broader set of corporate tactics that were employed by many
companies trying to resist collective bargaining. However, the union’s decision to
focus on intimidation tactics, including the one on one meetings, public disciplining,
and the threat of job loss, without regard to workers citizenship status, ethnicity, and
the ways culture played an important role in the campaign created a discourse that
privileged a class narrative in efforts to make the campaign seem more “American.”
The decision to focus the union response speaks to the difficulty that organizations
have in changing the ways they incorporate immigrant related platforms to their
agenda. Larry, who came into the CDN organizing campaign approximately one

22
The Employee Free Choice Act took three years before it came to a vote. The Employee Free Choice Act (S. 1041) was
introduced for the 110th Congress in the Senate on March 29, 2007 by Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA), and in the House on
February 5, 2006 by Reps. George Miller (D-CA), Robert Andrews (D-NJ), and Peter King (R-NY). The bill provided for:
Certification on the Basis of Signed Authorizations, First Contract Mediation and Arbitration, Stronger Penalties for Violations
While Employees are Attempting to Organize or Obtain a First Contract.
97
year after it began talks extensively about the types of pressures he witnessed
workers enduring. He was particularly aware of the struggle to understand the
cultural clash that was occurring and essentially dismantling the unionization
campaign.
The types of pressures workers felt were familiar –but different. I
know this may not make sense ---the individual meetings between
management and workers were not new, but what they were told in
the meetings had a different twist than what we normally heard. Job
threats were not new, but pointing out differences between the
Taiwanese way and the American way –or the attacks saying we
[CWA] were a greedy American union that didn’t understand …I
don’t know that we had any way to really respond other than to tell
the workers that they had to stay strong. In order for the campaign to
be successful, the workers needed to know that the union had their
best interests in mind, and that what they were hearing were lies.

The union’s decision to focus their energies on persuading the workers to hold out
for a contract did not go without consequences. Some workers felt that the union’s
limited response to the company’s criticisms, and lack of understanding of
Taiwanese culture or how workers’ visas depended on having corporate sponsorship,
meant that the union could not really provide them with the security they needed.
When ping was asked to discuss the stresses felt when confronted with the possibility
of losing her work visa, said,
How do I respond when the managers say that I can be sent back to
Taiwan? Can a company do this? Can the union stop that from
happening if I am fired? I was never sure, and then people got fired --
the company gave different reasons but I knew it was because these
people supported the union. I know that I want a better contract, but a
job is better than no job at all. The union knew what was happening
and told us we had to be strong, that they would file legal documents,
but that didn’t do much. If your union can’t provide some help, not
just with contract but everything else, like my visa, than I’m not sure
98
how confident I can be in them. I know I am not the only one with
worries or considerations.

The TNG-CWA did its due diligence in reporting illegal activities and labor
violations to the National Labor Relations Board and filing lawsuits against the
Chinese Daily News management, but this did very little to make workers feel
protected, particularly since there were no immediate repercussions for the
corporations, nor did it stop management to continue their harassment of workers in
favor of the union.
The fact that the discourse did not change to address the ways that culture
and citizenship were impacting the overall campaign had numerous consequences.
For workers, the lack of substantive discussion about cultural differences or the
vulnerability their immigrant status posed in the workplace created doubts about
whether or not unionization was in fact the best course of action. For the union, the
results were far direr. In addition to facing attrition of the number of workers
supporting the union within the bargaining unit, the organization was unable to
create a public campaign that integrated timely social issues related specifically to
work and labor standards for immigrants, or other ‘hot button’ issues related to
immigrant rights. The lack of a public presence, however, cannot simply be
attributed to an inability to discuss or understand these issues, but also active
decisions by the unions to limit their affiliations with political allies, and
discouraging involvement of organizations that wanted to link the struggles of the
99
union workers to current issues related to immigrant and/or Asian workers in the
United States.
Although the campaign garnered support from labor coalitions such as the
Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA), and the Los Angeles County
Federation of Labor, CWA decided to concentrate their energies on the fact that
workers were unable to obtain a fair union sanctioned contract. When allies set up
campaigns in support of the workers, they were met with anger from the union. An
APALA member, with a long history of union activism both within her own local,
and with Asian immigrant worker issues noted,
Our national convention was being held in Los Angeles and we
wanted to make sure that we made a vocal statement about the
treatment of Asian workers in the United States. The Los Angeles
chapter and the delegates from all over the country felt that the
conditions the CDN workers faced was not unique to their particular
situation. So in order to publicize the plight of those workers, we
decided to conduct an action in front of the CDN headquarters. While
the CWA organizers were supportive at first, they became upset
because they felt that we were ‘getting away from the point’ which
was the contract. The thing I think they never quite got was that this
is not about just getting a contract but really learning about how
immigrant lives are impacted by work-place conditions, that
immigrant workers are never seen as permanent in the US, and that
companies use this to their advantage.

A liaison from the LA County Federation of Labor said that during her work with the
Chinese Daily News, she also found a general reluctance to move beyond
discussions of winning contracts. She connected this to actions and sentiments she’d
witnessed previously.
Right now, we see a divide on opinions for how to be effective
unions. Some do not want to move beyond models they are
100
comfortable with --which is organizing sites, trying to shut down
productions, and winning a contract. Unfortunately, that is working
less and less. Other unions are open to trying new tactics, finding
new ways to attack the global market by targeting clients of
companies, attaching it to broader issues that the public feels strongly
about, or developing relationships with labor groups overseas that will
advocate for the workers. What’s been interesting is that the CWA-
TNG has been inconsistent –sticking to contract negotiations here, but
in other trades being more open in telecommunications, for example.
Maybe it’s because we rarely think of newspapers beyond the city or
geographic location they are in….the Chinese Daily News doesn’t fit
the usual mold for print media.

The tensions discussed by representatives of APALA and the LA County Federation
of Labor speak to the diverse approaches to unionism. The tension over how to
create and sustain a campaign seemed to center on creating a strong presence that
would compel the corporation to address worker demands. The issues that potential
allies bring up echo many of the broader debates within labor literature which
couches these very issues under the rubric of ‘social justice unionism’ vs. ‘business
contract unionism’ (Bronfenbrenner, yr). However, this debate tends to categorize
union actions in absolutes –without discussing ways that unions attempt to move
outside each of these discrete categories.
CWA-TNG exhibited moments where they tried to move outside a site based
organizing campaign and address the international aspects of this campaign. For
example, during the third year of the campaign, they sent a small delegation of
workers, organizers, allies to the headquarters in Taiwan to deliver a list of demands,
grievances, and a call for union recognition. However, the lack of a larger public
presence, and coinciding action by the Taiwanese labor unions that serve as the
101
bargaining unit for the Daily News (the CDN parent company) made the efforts less
successful. One worker said “We thought the company would take us more
seriously because they knew how far we were willing to travel to make our point. It
was discouraging when they did not acknowledge our efforts. What else could we
do?” The CAN-TNG campaign approach existed in the middle space between the
different types of union campaigns –and as such fell victim to a campaign that
clearly addressed the unique social and legal experiences of the workers. The
union’s inability to directly address attacks levied by corporate employers meant
that, over time, the counter-organizing campaign gained both strength and legitimacy
–particularly with workers who feared the repercussions of their actions.
CONCLUSIONS
The Chinese Daily News campaign represents the new realities that unions
face in the global economy. These realities include growth of new ethnic markets
that focus on servicing the growing immigrant diasporas. While US based
newspapers witnessed stagnation in its markets, the ethnic media market experienced
exponential growth despite technological advances in the industry that could
arguably make their existence irrelevant or at the very least less important. The
existence of this growing market speaks to the fact that its immigrant clientele
consume products that are not only affiliated to country of origin, but also reflect the
social, legal, and political realities that impact their daily life. Furthermore, this case
study explicates the complicated ownership structures that evolved in conjunction
with the global economy –where multinational corporations have bases of operation
102
in multiple locations. This shift, and the creation of parent companies that oversee
the operations and budgetary bottom line, change all aspects of organizing –not only
who a union and workers negotiate with, but also the simple fact that companies can
sustain losses for greater amounts of time simply because there are other bases of
operation. Furthermore, the influx of immigrants into the workforce represents a
significant challenge to unions whose primary membership is afforded the rights of
citizens. Despite the documented legal status of immigrants in this union, the simple
fact that their presence in the United States are contingent upon legal statutes
favoring corporations, means that unionization creates jeopardy in all aspects of their
livelihood.
Previous literature on the New Labor Movement highlights increased
inclusion, the diversification of the labor force, and the growth in union membership
numbers particularly among those who historically experienced discrimination and
exclusion. This assertion, however, focuses on demographic realities without
providing a fundamental examination into the ways that greater diversity is not
simply a numeric reality but impacts all aspects of the labor movement as an
institution. While diversity is a new resource it simultaneously gives rise to new
forms of discrimination and harassment that organized labor must address. The CDN
workers experienced these ‘growing pains’ and unfortunately were not the
beneficiaries of the strength of new unionism. Instead, this campaign brings forth
new forms of harassment, anchored by the ability of corporations to threaten
workers’ legal working status in the United States. Furthermore, the fact that the
103
Chinese Daily News controlled the discourse on culture, understandings of
citizenship, and the very meaning of “American” unionism points to new challenges
that organized labor must address. The inability of the CWA-TNG to expand their
campaign beyond contract negotiations so that it fit into new and existing public
campaigns on immigration, immigrant rights, and workers’ rights hindered the public
campaign needed to sustain their union drive. In the end, the fact that the
corporation stalled the campaign for five years led to the ultimate demise of the
organizing efforts, worker solidarity, and what was once a strong worker initiated
union campaign.
104
CHAPTER THREE: SERVICE EMPLOYEES INTERNATIONAL UNION,
LOCAL 434B CASE STUDY
'Am I my brothers’ keeper? If your answer isn’t yes, than we’ve been doing
something wrong. Being part of our union means that we care for one another,
regardless of skin color, religion, or how we got here. We need to care about each
other in order to make change happen.'
--Tyrone Freeman, Executive Secretary Treasurer of SEIU 434b

“One of the most difficult things I need to do is to find new ways where our workers
listen and learn from one another. A one size fits all approach just won’t create
connections between workers because in this union, they come from many different
backgrounds, some entered homecare work because of family members, while others
transfer skills from their home country, and the histories and relationship to unions,
the state, and the government vary. Connections –that’s what we need to create.”
--SEIU 434b Organizer

SEIU Local 434B, one of the strongest and most politically influential unions
in Los Angeles County is the focal point of this case study. With a membership of
over 134,000 long term care workers, this multi-ethnic labor union has established
itself as a robust organization with the capacity to not only organize and mobilize
large workers in the industry, but also impact outcomes of electoral campaigns. As a
union with significant numbers of immigrant workers who are not eligible to vote in
the United States, what makes this union so formidable? Simply stated, it is 434b’s
ability to connect to workers, the communities the workers live in; as well as the
policies and politicians that most significantly impact the quality of life for its
membership.
This chapter examines both the strategies and campaigns that SEIU 434b
invests in, highlighting important shifts that labor organizations need to incorporate
105
in order to build an effective multiethnic union. The first part of this chapter
provides the history and background of SEIU generally, and SEIU local 434b
specifically. The campaign earned union recognition for SEIU 434b predates the
beginning of the field research and is presented chronologically. The second section
examines the ways that race, gender, citizenship, and class operate within the union's
organizational strategies and everyday practices. Furthermore, close study of their
campaigns privileges a class-based strategy, which negates the gendered division of
labor implicit within homecare work. The union’s development of intricate
strategies for creating a multi-ethnic coalition of workers that demonstrate high
levels of civic and social engagement highlights new directions for addressing
inequality in the local/global workforce and the central ways in which culture and
identity must be a tangible component of any formulation of coalition development.
Finally, this chapter examines the ways that this union leverages the power of its
membership in order to gain political influence and create political allies across Los
Angeles County.
SEIU AND RESEARCHING PUBLIC SECTOR UNIONS
The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) was first established as
the Building Service Employees’ International (BSEIU) in Chicago in 1921 when
seven smaller janitors unions merged to create one larger organization. BSEIU grew
significantly during and the years proceeding the Great Depression, when it
expanded to include hospital caregivers and government employees. The janitorial,
hospital care and government employees remain the three core organizing areas for
106
the international. Renamed the Service Employees International Union in 1968 in
order to reflect its membership, the organization has grown significantly particularly
during the past 25 years. In 1980 SEIU had 625,000 members, as of 2005 their
membership was 1.9 million
23
. From its inception, SEIU membership has been
diverse and included immigrants, women, and minority groups. This aspect remains
unchanged. SEIU currently has the largest immigrant membership of any union in
the country. In addition, 50% of members belong to locals led by women or people
of color. SEIU represents one of the most vocal advocates for structural change
within the national labor movement. Over the past ten years, SEIU's
24
involvement in
AFL-CIO policy initiatives played a significant role in changing the national labor
movement's ideological positions on diversity, and most importantly in recent years,
the stance on immigration.
Studying an organization, such as SEIU is important because of the relative
stability related to both service and government sector work. While industrial sector
unions faced large-scale loss of membership and deskilling of workers consequently
making re-employment difficult, pubic sector union membership remained constant
despite the drastic declines witnessed in the private sector (Bronfenbrenner 2000).
Representing workers, whose jobs could not be outsourced, lent itself to stability for
unions such as the Service Employees International Union. Union membership in
service and government employment remained steady at approximately 33% since

23
Numbers taken from the SEIU website. www.seiu.org

24
Please note that data collection for this chapter was conducted prior to SEIU's decision to leave the AFL-CIO in favor of the
Change to Win labor coalition.
107
the 1970's (Bronfenbrenner et al). As of 2004, government sector union membership
was at 36% in the United States (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2005)
25
. Despite the
relative job security found in public sector work, this unionism percentage has not
increased over time, despite overall public sector growth. Secondly despite the
continuity in membership levels, this does not mean that these unions were
unaffected by broader societal changes. The civil rights and women's movements
created challenges for change that most notably garnered greater access to public
institutions changing the very make-up of the work force (Johnston 1994, Milkman
2006). Finally, SEIU witnessed dramatic increases in union membership and growth
of power because of the growth of industries, such as healthcare, where they already
had an established union presence (Milkman 2006).
In addition to the relatively stable unionization numbers, examining SEIU
434b is important because of workers complex relationship with the government.
For private sector unions, the government serves as an intermediary or tool for
protecting the interests of workers, citizens, and corporations. However, with public
sector unions, this impartial role is negated because the state is the employer of
record for the majority of long-term care workers. The change in power dynamics is
not insignificant because not only does it change worker/employer relations, but also
the very strategies utilized by labor unions to try and garner leverage and support for
the policy, plans, and workers.

25
Bureau of Labor Statistics Union Members Summary, January 2005
108
SEIU 434B ORGANIZATIONAL PROFILE
The Service Employees International Union, Local 434b ---the Long-term
care union case study provides a unique perspective on contemporary US unionism.
In Los Angeles, this group’s National Labor Review Board recognition and contract
is often cited as central to the resurgence of labor in the region (Milkman 1998,
Mantsios 1998). SEIU 434b is comprised of homecare workers and nursing home
caregivers.
Homecare workers are individuals who work as independent contractors for
the In Home Support Services (IHSS) program, which is jointly funded by federal,
state, and county monies. IHSS helps pay for the services that enables individuals
who are disabled, 65 years or older; or unable to live safely at home without help and
are financially unable to purchase needed services. These services include (but are
not limited to): house cleaning, meal preparation, laundry, grocery shopping,
paramedical services, bowel and bladder care, and general grooming. All Social
Security and Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) recipients are eligible for IHSS benefits if
they can demonstrate an assessed need for services (LA County Assessors Office).
The Service Employees International Union began organizing homecare
workers in Los Angeles County in 1987. Organizers started by holding meetings
with workers that they knew within the industry. Relying heavily on social networks
and community contacts organizers jumpstarted their campaign by holding meetings
with workers in locations throughout the county in order to assess the concerns that
were most pressing in the lives of these workers. During the initial year of holding
109
meetings, union organizers found that workers were compelled to join the labor
movement for two primary reasons. First, low wages were a primary cause of
discontent. Workers wanted to unionize in order to advocate for an initial pay
increase in 1989 from $3.75 to $4.75 per hour. Second, reason was the occupational
hazards workers faced on a daily basis. Homecare work requires the dispensing of
medicines, use of medical equipment, and lifting of immobile patients. These
conditions created unsafe conditions for workers and often caused injury due to lack
of proper training. Improving these conditions and providing training that could
prevent workplace injury were important reasons for joining the union. In the
absence of a collective entity that advocated for the needs of workers, many workers
felt that these incidents were individual anomalies as opposed to part of a dangerous
industry wide pattern of occupational safety.
SEIU recognized the proliferation of economic inequity and physical
jeopardy faced by workers in this industry --despite the fact that workers were
dispersed across Los Angeles and San Bernardino County. SEIU’s prior experience
organizing sub-contracted workers helped when designing strategies for unionizing
and pressuring the common employer, in this case county governments. Throughout
the year, interest in joining the union increased. This change is attributed to the
impact of the numerous community meetings the union organized, the number of
home visits to potential union members by organizers and existing members, and the
persistence of low wages, continued incidences of hazardous working conditions, the
desire to improve their overall work experience, and family's well-being. SEIU
110
increased their organizational capacity by strengthening their infrastructure and the
overall political power of their union.
In January 1988, workers delivered 12,000 union cards to the Los Angeles
County Administration Office to demand collective bargaining recognition. In order
to bolster their campaign 434b staged a series of public rallies and demonstrations,
designed to bring public awareness to the plight of homecare workers. This
campaign publicly questioned elected officials commitment to workers and to
improving health care of Los Angeles families (Los Angeles Times). These tactics
were part of a new trend in unionism that focused heavily on creating a media savvy
campaign that garnered public sympathy towards workers and effectively moving the
debate away from contracts and money, to a broader moral question of workers
rights and sustaining a healthy quality of life for working families. Creating a moral
and ethical imperative forced County representatives to begin discussions with union
officials in order to resolve conflicts and bring an end to the public campaign.
Ultimately the union and the County reached an agreement in June 1988 on a plan
that called for the development of a database to help clients and providers; wage
increases; healthcare insurance for workers; and annual contract negotiations. In
October of that year, the union was chartered and became the Los Angeles Homecare
Workers Union, Local 434b. This initial campaign set up the foundation for 434b's
future infrastructure and successes. The ability to wage a public campaign against
powerful elected officials and county administrators provided an influential
infrastructure for the union and has served as a powerful impetus for the county
111
government to negotiate with the union --especially as the union continued to grow
in membership.
Over the past 15 years, SEIU 434b was confronted with many threats to the
livelihood of workers in the form of statewide budget cuts to In Home Supportive
Services (IHSS) when, for example, in 1990 Governor Deukmajian proposed a $64
million dollar cut and withheld workers paychecks. SEIU 434b also faced county
level cuts such as Supervisor Michael Antonovich's proposal to dismantle the
Homecare Public Authority in 2000. In each of these cases, 434b garnered enough
political support by mobilizing the collective strength of their union membership to
combat these changes. The membership brought public attention to the ramifications
of withholding money from working families, and successfully portrayed politicians
as unsympathetic, privileged, and the cause of these hardships. The overall well
being of workers affiliated with 434b is intricately tied to the political climate and
the existence of allies at all levels of governance. As such, one of the most important
tools in 434b's organizing arsenal is having the ability to use the media and public
perception as impetus for change. Unlike private sector work, where corporations
can often withstand the public scrutiny, public sector unions use electoral politics to
their advantage by not only campaigning against workplace inequities but against
specific candidates or politicians that depend on public support for their careers, or
on behalf of those candidates whose platforms aligned with union objectives and
goals. During their campaign for recognition, tactics included sending delegations to
the County Board of Supervisor’s and State Legislators offices. During this
112
campaign, press conferences were called on the steps of the Capitol Building in
Sacramento.
Despite having a charter
26
with SEIU since 1988, 434b had not won union
recognition
27
. In the ten years between receiving their charter, and receiving official
collective bargaining recognition with the county, Local 434b continued to build its
organizational infrastructure and its membership. During this time period, 434b
evaluated the industry --learning more about the demographic make-up of the
workforce, pay scales, and most importantly the issues important to the livelihood of
the workers in their industry. This knowledge-helped 434b disseminate its resources
in increasingly efficient ways. As discussed in greater length later in this chapter,
part of the changes included developing resources necessary for conducting
ethnically and culturally specific outreach, development of strategic partnerships
with community partners, and the development of an extensive social networks that
advocated in favor of union and the initiatives it endorsed.
In 1999, Local 434b won formal union recognition and bargaining power.
This win occurred because of the power and influence this union had garnered
through strategic campaigns, candidate endorsements, and its ability to mobilize
around candidates and issues in elections. The result was the placement of strategic
allies in all levels of government and, most importantly with the Los Angeles County

26
A charter is an agreement between workers at a particular site, in a particular industry, or job classification that says that
workers will become members of the union once receiving recognition from the National Labor Relations Board --and until
certification, the union will organize the workers.

27
Union recognition refers to the formal recognition by the National Labor Relations Board that acknowledges that a particular
union officially represents the interests of workers at a site or in an industry, and can negotiate on the workers’ behalf.
113
Board of Supervisors. For the elected officials on the Board, the power and influence
of this union and its connection to the Los Angeles Labor movement was too
significant to ignore –and the union leveraged this power to gain union recognition
by reaching a political agreement with the Supervisors. This resulted in the formal
recognition of SEIU 434b as the bargaining agent for 74,000 homecare workers.
According to the New York Times this was, "the largest union victory in the United
States for over a half a century". The formal recognition of these union members
accounts for 82% of new membership in Los Angeles labor unions in 1999, and is
central to what researchers call the resurgence of both local and national labor
movements (Mantsios 1999, Milkman 1999, Nissen 2000).
SEIU CURRENT DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE
Today, SEIU 434b remains one of the largest public sector unions in Los
Angeles and the State of California. This union in 2004, represented 153,000 long-
term care workers in Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties of California. The
membership is comprised of different types of long-term care workers --some are
professional health care providers --nurses or nurses’ aides with specialized training
for working with homebound patients, while others are family members who have
given up full time, private sector employment to care for ailing or terminally ill
family members
28
. Workers in this union are disproportionately part of 'the working
poor' --those whose earnings, despite working full time jobs, remain below the
federal poverty line (Edin and Lein, 2001).

28
For the purposes of this study, nursing home union workers were excluded. They make up less than 2% of SEIU 434b’s
overall membership, and are often employed by private corporations –not the State or County governments.
114
During the time this study was conducted, the data available reflects the
138,165 Los Angeles County workers. According to a study commissioned by SEIU
434b, their workforce is 78% women, 72% are aged 40 and above, and 44% are 50
and above. 72% do not work for a close family member. The racial demographics
indicate that workers are 26% Latino, 12%, Asian, 21% African American, 31%
White (RTZ Associates, 2005, 7). According to the union, approximately two-thirds
or a little over 91,100 of their workers are immigrants. The workers in these unions
are both citizen and non-citizen, and come from countries spanning the globe. Their
roster includes: Filipino, Chinese, Thai, Mexican, El Salvadorian, Russian, and
Armenian immigrants.
29

National level data helps contribute to our understandings of in-home care
work. This data shows that 90% of direct care workers, which includes nursing
assistants, home health aids, and personal and home care aides. Compared to other
women in the labor force, home care workers are not highly educated, 41% hold a
high school diploma or GED, while 27% went to college
30
. Nationally, the average
age of home-care workers are 41 years old, and 25% are single parents.
The diverse demographics of this union can be attributed to numerous
factors. First, the customers serviced by these workers are poor and can only afford
healthcare if it is subsidized by the government and provided by a family member.
In Los Angeles County, the poor qualifying for these services are disproportionately

29
This is not an exhaustive list of the immigrant groups, but represents the largest immigrant groups working in home care.

30
Education numbers reflect education in the United States, but does not account for college education outside the US.
115
from minority communities, and by extension the family members serving as
homecare workers are minority as well. A second factor contributing to the diversity
of the worker population is the growing number of immigrants with medical or
healthcare training in their country of origin, but whose credentials are not
recognized by the United States certification boards. Since homecare work does not
require special certification, this provides an opportunity for these immigrant
workers to work in an area they are familiar with.
Changes in the overall U.S. healthcare system make visible inequalities that
exist in society. Members of 434b work in an industry that services a segment of the
population that cannot afford the cost of privatized and/or individualized in-home
health care. Unlike other large unions in the U.S., SEIU 434b began its
organizational develop during a time when other unions were struggling to adapt to
changes in the economy. As such, the strategies and tactics used to mobilize workers
were created in relationship to the growth of subcontracting systems instead of direct
service provision particularly in health and social service fields. This union did not
have to change organizing models, or rely on old methods for providing services to
its membership--instead, they grew their organization simultaneously with the
changing industry dynamics and state based restructuring. As the government
created subcontracting relationships with very strict regulations that governed both
who received services and who provided services, SEIU 434b adapted its political
models to address the unique policies, legislation, and politics impacting its workers.
Unlike other industrialized or private sector unions, SEIU 434b developed its ability
116
to grow by creating strategies that directly address contemporary industry standards
and the specific needs of their workers.
POLITICAL MOBILIZATION FOR LOCAL 434B
SEIU 434b’s ability to successfully mobilize its membership is the source of
its political strength in Los Angeles County. The immense number of workers that
the union can bring together for both candidates and legislative initiatives makes
434b a powerful ally and a formidable opponent during elections. Examination of
the union’s campaign against proposed cuts to the In Home Support Services (IHSS)
budget highlights the political capital 434b has garnered, and the strategic ways the
union focuses energies on redefining popular understandings of work and worker in
order to win a campaign.
GARNERING LEGISLATIVE SUPPORT
Our workers are under attack. Governor Schwartzenegger's proposal
to redefine who qualifies as a worker in long-term care will devastate
homecare workers throughout the state and dismantle SEIU 434b as
we know it. (Tyrone Freeman, April 7, 2003)

In this sound-byte, Freeman refers to Governor Schwartzenegger's 2004-2005
State Budget that slashed $385 million for In Home Support Services (IHSS) by
disqualifying long-term care workers who provided services to a family member
from receiving state compensation or benefits. According to union officials, this
reduced eligible long-term care workers by approximately 40%. The cuts, according
to union officials, unfairly targeted low income families because in order to qualify
117
for IHSS funds, a recipient must have no more than $2000 in assets
31
. " A broad list
of programs would be hit including: rehabilitation, health insurance for low-income
families, help provided to cover the cost of AID's medications, and many services
provided for children and adults with disabilities” (San Diego Tribune, 2003). The
budget cuts threatened many low-income families in multiple ways because of the
impact on IHSS, but also on aid programs such as Medic-aid that subsidized other
health related costs for these families.
While Freeman’s statement provides important insight into the impact of
budget cuts on both workers and their families, what is more important is the context
in which it was said. Freeman made these statements at a meeting the union
convened at the elegant Millennium Biltmore Hotel. His audience was a veritable
who’s who of Los Angeles County politics including: from the California State
Assembly Judy Chu, Fabian Nunez, and Karen Bass --the newly elected state
representative who won office only two weeks prior; City Council members Jackie
Goldberg and Bernard Parks; Representative Xavier Becerra; as well as staff
representatives of politicians such as then City Councilman Antonio Villairaigosa,
Mayor James Hahn, and Congresswoman Hilda Solis. Each of these politicians had
benefited from the resources of 434b. During each politicians’ respective campaign,
Local 434b turned out hundreds of workers to work phone banks, walk precincts,
hold press conferences, and stuff mailers. One political director notes, “Politicians
know that we can double, triple, or even quadruple their grassroots staff on a

31
Asset includes money in savings, property, or other forms of monetary income or wealth.
118
campaign. In highly contested campaigns, such as the one with Karen Bass, we
continuously mobilize our membership so that they have assistance every day –not
just once in a while.” The hours of work contributed to campaign efforts translates
into political capital for the union. Benjamin, a thirty year old political director
started working with the union after he graduated from college. During his eight
years with 434b, he witnessed “too many elections to count.” When thinking about
what he’s learned about electoral politics he notes,
The decision to endorse a candidate is not done lightly; we are
strategic and make sure to back candidates that support the ideals and
principles that are important to the membership. Our endorsement
comes with the understanding that our union will provide resources to
help win a campaign and an implicit agreement that we all stand for
the same values.

The union’s track record of working on winning campaigns that place the union’s
candidate into office translates into invaluable political capital. In the case of the
IHSS budget campaign, this meant not only votes against the cuts in the state
legislature, but also endorsements and public support from highly visible public
figures. The meeting at the Biltmore Hotel served numerous purposes for the union
–it brought attention to elected officials that it was time to invest their resources into
the union’s campaign. The ability to leverage political capital provided a strong
foundation for combating the divisive, contentious, and public battle outlined in the
next section.
What makes this political foundation powerful is not simply the influence
related to the offices each person held, but the diversity and constituencies each
119
politician represented. The politicians represented at the meeting are largely from
ethnic minority groups, and represent districts with large numbers of ethnic minority
groups.
32
The strong relationships between these individuals and the union can be
attributed to a number of factors including: the large number of IHSS clients and
service providers residing in these areas; the union’s ability to successfully promote
candidates with agendas and platforms that coincide with union goals and objectives;
and, the politician’s connection with the communities they represent. Benjamin
says,
It’s not surprising that our workers want somebody that they believe
thinks like they do and represents the values that are important to
them. Who doesn’t? But, with the immigrant and minority
communities we represent there are many issues that they are acutely
aware of because they impact them more than they would the
mainstream. Living wage, health, improving schools and decreasing
violence in the inner city areas they live in. Who doesn’t want a better
life in the place they call home?

Amelia, has worked as a long term care worker for seven years. She first became a
homecare worker when her cousin was hospitalized and nobody else in the family
could help take care of the cousin. She became the long-term care worker, and
continued to work even after her cousin recuperated enough not to need constant
care. As an active member of the union, Amelia has participated on numerous
campaigns ranging from lobbying and voter registration to picket lines. When asked
why she was willing to work so hard to get a particular candidate elected despite the
fact she cannot vote, one worker notes,

32
For more information regarding the racial composition of Los Angeles County areas, please see the Racial Contours maps of
the 2000 US Census. http://www.usc.edu/schools/sppd/research/census2000/race_census/racecontours/la.htm
120
right now, it doesn’t matter that I can’t vote, what’s important to me is
that the person who is in the office is willing to represent my concerns
and the issues important to my community. If I can’t vote, it’s more
important that I motivate others that can to express their votes. We are
all invested in who represents our community and just because I can’t
formally vote, doesn’t mean I can’t do other things to make sure that I
am heard.

Workers do not always begin their work with the union with these broader
goals in mind. Lori, a 43 year old African American, has worked as a long-
term care worker for five years. She first began working as a home-care
worker when her ex-boyfriends mom became seriously ill and needed
assistance. The only way the mother could afford home-care was via the
IHSS program. Lori started by working and eventually picked up two other
clients to try and ”make ends meet.” She was not as willing to become
actively involved in the union because she had grown up hearing that they
were corrupt from people in her neighborhood and her father. She
remembers, “My father kept saying ‘they just want to take money’. Lori
discussed her apprehensiveness about becoming active in 434b.
It’s not that these issues were not important to me, but I felt that it
really didn’t matter what I did, it wasn’t going to change anything.
Some of my friends volunteered a lot, but I didn’t really see the point
at least not for awhile. I think it was when we first started trying to
get better pay, when I knew how it was going to impact me. At first I
thought it was just about pay, but the more I talked to my friends and
the organizers, I understood we needed to also influence a lot of
powerful people and that if we didn’t get people into offices, people
wouldn’t listen.

In essence, workers use a framework of social citizenship as a rationale for their
participation in these events. The union departs from the idea that only formal
121
citizens have vested interest in the legislative policies at local, state, and national
levels. By pooling the collective resources of the union, they therefore create a
powerful foundation for helping officials with views that coincide with both workers,
unions, and their communities into office. The result, as demonstrated by the
politicians involved in the anti-IHSS budget cuts meeting, is a group of politicians
that are often from the very communities that are silenced in the development of
social policy.
HOMECARE IS WORK: LOCAL 434B’S MOBILIZATION AGAINST IHSS BUDGET
CUTS
Central to SEIU 434b’s campaign was trying to control the image of the
workers in the press. The IHSS program’s connection to social welfare programs
often put its recipients and by extension workers in a position of being publicly
vilified as freeloaders, or as individuals who exploited the system. Homecare
workers supported by the IHSS program face many battles in not only maintaining
their jobs, but also garnering a livable wage. As noted previously, homecare work
requires both menial tasks and physically arduous ones that put workers’ health,
well-being, and safety at risk. For these reasons, the industry experiences high levels
of worker turn over. However, while the occupational hazards pose significant
health issues for workers, budget cuts at both state and county levels of government
constantly threaten their livelihood. As noted in the short history of the union
provided in the previous section, workers face both large and small scale cuts to
funding. The greatest threats came largely as a result of Republican governorships
122
and their administrations (e.g.: Governors Deukmajian and Wilson). When Arnold
Schwartzenegger took office after Governor Grey Davis lost the recall election in
2003, Schwartzenegger’s administration immediately proposed a restructured budget
that included cuts to the IHSS program. In the 2003-2004 fiscal year budget the
Schwartzenegger administration proposed five main changes that impacted IHSS:
1. Elimination of the residual IHSS program

2. Elimination of the domestic and related IHSS services for recipients who
live with able bodied family members

3. Reduction of the state’s share of costs for IHSS provider wages to the
state minimum wage of $6.75 per hour

4. Reduction of the state’s share of cost for IHSS provider health benefits

5. Elimination of operating funding for IHSS public authorities.

The estimated fiscal impact for 2003 was 2.8 million dollars, and 28.2 million dollars
for the next fiscal year. These cuts were proposed despite a consistent workload
increase. Between 1995 and 2005, the demand for IHSS services more than doubled,
even with increasingly stringent program qualifications (RTZ Associates, 2005).
According to The 2004 State of the IHSS Policy Report written by RTZ Associates,
This increased demand has revealed the pivotal role IHSS workers
play in the state’s long-term care network. The health and stability of
this workforce is of crucial concern in a State that provides services to
280,000 low-income long term care consumers who require ongoing
in-home direct support in order to remain safely in their communities
(ibid).

These cuts propose threats to workers and recipients. According to the California
Legislative Analyst’s Office, the Governor’s proposal assumes that only 24 percent
123
of residual recipients could move to the Personal Care Service Program (PCSP),
leaving nearly 56,000 disabled Californians without any home-care assistance
(CLAO, 2004). Although it is difficult to ascertain the exact number of homecare
workers that would lose their jobs as a result of the proposed budget cuts, a rough
estimate suggested that since the program employs roughly 300,000 care providers
through county agencies statewide -- 105,000 in Los Angeles County, the 18 percent
reduction in available work would be equivalent to 19,000 fewer jobs in Los Angeles
County alone (ibid). In addition, the proposed cuts to health benefits for workers
would force IHSS workers to revert back to work conditions that they faced in the
1990’s where according to one survey, homecare workers that were traditionally low
income, female, and uninsured
33
relied heavily on county indigent care programs
(RTZ Associates, 2005, 12). The consequence of having uninsured homecare
workers was an increase in county health expenditures on indigent care costs (ibid).
However, the Schwartzenegger administration maintains that these cuts will save at
least 500 million dollars for the State of California. He says, “We do not have a
budget crisis, we have a spending crisis.” Schwarzenegger went on to state, “We
have no choice but to cut spending, if not we will be bankrupt” Schwartzenegger
argues that, ” in order to achieve savings in these programs, legislation must be
enacted in the current year to include suspending the Lanterman Act, which provides

33
Many of these workers had two or three places of employment, and despite their relatively low income, they often made too
much to qualify for Medi-Cal.

124
an entitlement to services for the developmentally disabled.
34
" This focus on
“entitlement” programs was an outright attack on social welfare policies designed to
assist those who have limited or no access to health resources necessary for everyday
living. Schwartzenegger and his administration, rarely if ever qualified who would
be impacted by the proposed cuts, therefore making invisible the most marginalized
of communities.
Kevin McCarthy, the newly elected Republican Assembly leader and
Schwartzenegger ally said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, “It's almost
like a necessary pain that we have to go through. We have had a cancer growing in
our budget and to cure this we are going to have to go through the chemo." An IHSS
staff member notes that, these sentiments are further fueled by “an idea that has been
expressed by people high up in the Department of Finance, that families providing
for disabled love ones is a scam.” (ibid) These ideas feed into existing stereotypes
that construct beneficiaries of welfare programs as undeserving, exploitative
individuals that drain the government of its resources at the expense of the ‘hard
working’ taxpaying citizen that endures this burden.
The rhetoric of ‘entitlement’ is not new, and in this case does not veer away
from existing debates regarding the welfare programs in the United States that
constructs recipients –especially women, as undeserving citizens who need to
become invested a personal responsibility ethic that compels them to work, while
simultaneously trying to meet the demands of raising families (Edin and Lein, 1997;

34
From Dan Janssen, Los Angeles County Chief Administrative Officer’s memo to LA County Board of Supervisors. This
memo outlined the Governor’s proposed budget cuts.
125
Hays 2003). Hays argues has “an inherent contradiction lies at the heart of welfare
policy, which emphasizes traditional family values even as its ethic of "personal
responsibility" requires women to work and leave their children in childcare or at
home alone all day long” (Hays, 2003). Similar to the women in Hays' welfare
studies, homecare workers, particularly those caring for a family member, encounter
similar obstacles in that their loved ones cannot afford healthcare and therefore it is
put upon them to provide the everyday care necessary for their loved ones to
maintain an independent and healthy quality of life. However, without the payments
supported by IHSS, it forces these workers to obtain employment outside the home –
therefore relegating loved ones to the care of strangers and/or more expensive and
often unaffordable health care services.
The contradiction that homecare workers face is the simultaneous need to
uphold family values, that connect expectations of care giving and care work to
familial obligations, with the state policy enforced ideal that homecare work is not
‘real’ work or employment. The Schwartzenegger administration’s approach is
consistent with neo-liberal policies that replace welfare with workfare, attempts to
minimize the government’s role in the deployment of programs, and engages a
narrative of personal responsibility and ethics as a rationale for decreasing
governmental resources. These types of policies –particularly the ones promoted by
the cuts to the IHSS program further disenfranchise poor, minority populations in
California. In public statements regarding the IHSS cuts, the Schwartzenegger
administration carefully restricts its comments to the need to reduce the budget
126
deficit in California and constructs them as an economic imperative. The governor
does not address the disproportionate number of working poor, minorities, or women
that will lose their jobs as a result of the proposed cuts, nor does he address the what
will happen to those suffering from severe illnesses or long-term disability, but
cannot afford long-term care in a private facility, or whose family members cannot
assist because they must seek employment elsewhere, renders these groups invisible.
This invisibility further reinforces the disenfranchisement of already marginalized
community and is another example of what Evelyn Nakano Glenn identifies as
unequal freedom. Glenn notes in reference to tracing the roots of labor and
citizenship, “Race and gender inequality are deeply rooted, pervasive and complexly
interwoven.: (Glenn, 2002, 263). Race and gender become so entangled with social,
political, and economic institutions that disparities are not always easily identified,
nor is the depth of their entrenchment easy to ascertain at a surface glance.
Schwartzenegger's public defense of the proposed IHSS budget cuts relied
heavily on a rationale of economic necessity, excusing the displacement of the poor,
women, and minorities as unintended collateral damage. However, the union and
allies who opposed the cuts focused their anti-budget cuts campaign on class based
rhetoric --ignoring, in large part, the diversity of their own membership that faced
large scale job loss and/or significant pay decreases if the cuts were okayed by the
State legislature. The over-reliance on a class-based ideology reinforced forms of
unequal citizenship by privileging a class without also addressing the
disproportionate ways in which women and people of color become the consistent
127
targets of resource cuts and are portrayed as the undeserving. Furthermore, the
union's failure to address the very diversity within their membership makes invisible
the gendered and raced aspects of the service work, and consequently moving away
from the very tenets that they profess to uphold within the New Labor Movement.
When union officials responded to the governor's critique that "since fiscal
year 1998-99, costs [of IHSS] have risen 140 percent while the caseload has
increased only 52 percent" (citation) they argued that the governor’s numbers don’t
tell the whole story. Tyrone Freeman, president of SEIU 434b, says that the growth
reflects pay raises long overdue, “They had people working for slave wages,” noting
that until the mid-1990s, some home-care workers were paid as little as $3 per
hour.(ibid)
During a speech two months after the publishing of the previous interview
Freeman maintained that any reported savings resulting from IHSS cuts may be
illusory. The union estimates that even at current wage levels, 85 percent of home-
care workers already fall below the poverty threshold. Freeman says,
When you cut these individuals who live below the poverty line, it’s
just hypocritical. They don’t qualify for food stamps, they don’t
qualify for health care. Now they have to go into social dependency.
There’s a huge cost of social services, because now people who were
providing services are now in a position of receiving them (LA
Times).

IHSS recipients and home care workers felt that the proposal was evidence
that society preferred to ignore the struggles and experiences of the poor and
disabled. A protester, who preferred to remain anonymous, at an anti-IHSS budget
128
cut protest outside the Beverly Wilshire Hotel where Schwartzenegger was
scheduled to speak says, “We are a constituency that nobody cares about. Nobody
worries that, ‘Oh, a disabled person’s mad at me. So they ignore us and the issues
that are important to us.”
The concerns about the relative invisibility of the groups impacted by the cuts
were of central importance to those organizing in opposition of the budget cuts. In
order to overcome this issue, organizers utilized a design and strategy that leaned
heavily on humanizing and creating a public face and image that voters and
legislators would associate as negatively impacted by the new budget. The primary
strategy was to construct an image of the victims of cuts --namely those who were
poor and suffering from illness or long-term disability. They successfully created an
affinity between the IHSS patients and the general public by creating a campaign that
highlighted the plight of these individuals, suffering hardships because of an
overburdened and expensive healthcare system that people, regardless of class
standing, could associate with. The strategy of the California Homecare Council
coalition spearheaded by SEIU 434b's president was to inundate the print and media
outlets with images of severely ill and disabled individuals that would be the human
casualties of the budget cuts. The coalition persuasively provided the media with
personal human interest interviews of IHSS recipients that were able to talk, at
length, about the specific ways their lives would be dramatically changed if the
governor's proposal were approved by the legislature. Interviewees carefully told a
story that took IHSS recipients from a relatively independent but assisted living
129
situation to either a destitute or unaffordable medical institutionalization or
destitution.
35

By re-crafting IHSS narratives to focus on independent living, it removed the
'social welfare' stigma that constructed homecare workers and IHSS recipients as 'the
undeserving' who exploit public programs for money and resources. Additionally, it
reconstructed the vision and purpose of the IHSS program as one that supported and
advocated independent living and family values. By showing the faces of mothers
and fathers, elderly and poor, who struggle on a daily basis to support their families
without unduly 'burdening' the system deployed a powerful human interest story that
touched audiences emotionally, and often times on a personal level.
In addition to developing the human interest aspects of the public campaign,
the union also actively deployed class-based rhetoric that brought public attention to
workers' and patients' economic position, and downplaying the disproportionate
numbers of immigrants and minorities that were impacted by the budget. Tyrone
Freeman argued, "Our interests are getting people out of poverty. We would work
with any one politician that believes in those goals."
Attaching the realities of urban poverty to a moral imperative that guides
politics and public policy distinctly advocates for state intervention into the public's
lives. By focusing solely on poverty and ignoring the demographics of homecare
workers and patients is a way of trying to de-racialize welfare policies. These

35
Press clippings from this time period highlights similarities in the strategy. For more information see: Los Angeles Weekly
on April 16, 2004; San Francisco Examiner, June 28, 2004, Pasadena Star News on May 18, 2004,;San Diego Union Tribune
and San Jose Mercury News on June 20, 2004.
130
policies have fallen victim to neo-conservative attacks, as documented by numerous
researchers (Kaplan, Hays, etc) and constantly construct African American women
as welfare queens that exploit the system. This highly charged racialized and
gendered debate casts a negative light on all social welfare services therefore making
it a difficult proposition to advocate for either increasing or maintaining budgets that
are construed as being designated for individuals who are constructed as 'exploiting
the system.' For the union, it therefore became imperative that those impacted by the
proposed cuts be viewed as 'undeserving' or individuals looking for 'handouts.'
Benjimin reflects on the importance of winning favor with the press,
It is important that the media and public perception understand that
these cuts impact real people, and that they understand that the
experiences of these individuals--whether worker or patient, could be
them, their parents, or grandparents. The hard part is that people are
quick to judge that any program helping poor immigrants or African
Americans is a burden to taxpayers and just another example of how
these groups are a burden to society. That's why we need to carefully
focus on making sure that voters and policy makers are impacted
personally --and don't see the experiences as something that happens
to someone else as opposed to something that can or will happen to
them or a member of their family.

The active situation to steer away from race and ethnicity in its construction of a
public platform speaks to the ways that labor organizations and non-profits must
walk a veritable tight-rope when developing campaign strategies. In essence,
focusing on racial or ethnicity based disparities has the distinct danger of reinforcing
existing discourse on welfare policies, creating a strategy that only focuses on
poverty reifies the idea that these programs are viewed as 'entitlements.' For these
131
groups, it is about encapsulating all of these under the rubric of human interest, not
welfare.
While organizers interviewed discussed the need for people to attach
personally to the plight of IHSS workers and recipients, nothing is mentioned about
the ways that women are impacted --personally, politically, or in terms of the actual
policies. In addition, discussions of strategy reinforce the importance of not
'othering' racial and ethnic minority populations by calling attention to the fact that
this population will suffer drastically as a result of Schwartzenegger's proposal --
organizers fail to discuss how women are or are not included in terms of their
strategic campaign plan. This oversights speaks to Dan Clawson's assertion in his
book, The Next Uprising, that labor unions have failed to adequately address the
gender shift in the contemporary labor movement. Furthermore, he argues that
unions need to move away from the traditional models of organizing and “change the
rules of the game and establish labor action where it is now weak and non-existent”
(Clawson, 2003. 89).
The debates on the relative fiscal impact, and the fight over state versus local
budgetary responsibility and oversight poses an immediate threat to the workers’
everyday lives, as well as the health needs of the disabled and elderly recipients of
IHSS services. While these details are important, the more important story that
needs to be highlighted is the way in which the public debate that ensued between
the union, the governor’s office, elected officials in the California Assembly and
Senate, and local municipalities illuminated a hegemonic construction of worker
132
identity. Not surprisingly, this campaign highlights the fact that in public discourse,
workers are genderless, raceless victims of state-based economic exploitation.
Despite Schwartzenegger and Republican politicians attempts to frame homecare
work as family obligation, as opposed to 'real' work, the union chose not to engage in
a debate that discussed how this narrative that played into very specific traditional
gender politics that argues that a woman's place is in the home.
Since the California Homecare Coalition and the Homecare Workers Unions
statewide ultimately won their campaign when Schwartzenegger removed the
proposed cuts from the 2004-2005 budget, it is impossible to evaluate the relative
impact of not addressing gender. If nothing else, the coalitions success lends
credence to the idea that when creating a public campaign, it is important to create
the image that the workers could be anyone. This ideal reifies the importance of not
calling attention to the racial and gender demographics of homecare workers and
their patients. Highlighting class based stratification is more palatable to the general
public, and allows organizations to sidestep highly charged and politically
contentious racial and gender policy issues.
MULTI-ETHNIC ORGANIZING
Two of the unique features of the new global economy are the expansion of
the service sector economy (Sassen, 2001) and the development of a new sub-
contracting work system (Ong & Cheng, 1994). Although research on the sub-
contracting system within Labor Studies focuses heavily on manufacturing industries
(Bonacich & Applebaum 2003 , Lopez 2004), the government is not exempt from
133
participating in subcontractor relationships. The growth of homecare work and the
increases in the number of homecare service providers is directly connected to these
global economic effects --both in terms of the work structure, and the consistently
increasing diversity of the workforce. These two features are central to the
organizing capacity of the Local 434b, and provide important insights into
understanding difficulties faced by unions in the new global economy and
particularly those whose work is affiliated with state entities. The increased use of
subcontractor relationships for conducting state-based business is considered part of
the neo-liberal state that increasingly depends on contractor for implementing state
welfare and workfare policies (citation). Literature on international migration in the
US highlights ways that changing global economic shifts and the increased gender
and ethnic diversity associated with contemporary immigration impacts all aspects of
social life --however very little is said about how the simultaneous shift in the state
infrastructure interacts with current migration trends. Studying this interaction
highlights how social institutions such as organized labor attempt to react to the
changing landscape of workers, industry changes, and organizing. While
examination of demographics yields information on quantitative changes within both
workforce numbers and union membership, it does not allow for deeper
understanding of how these changes relate to the ways workers interpret these
macro-level shifts, nor how organizations strategize about working with increasingly
diverse populations or negotiate contractor relationships with the state in its everyday
operations.
134
As noted previously, the homecare workforce in Los Angeles and San
Bernardino Counties is extremely diverse and represents a broad cross-section of
these Southern California regions. Unlike other unions that recruit their membership
in association with a particular geographic site (e.g. building, or factory), homecare
workers labor predominantly within their own homes or the residences of clients.
Since the majority of homecare workers were not convened in a specific physical
space --the challenges that SEIU 434b organizers face was identifying workers
eligible for union membership, and convening groups for meetings. During the first
10 years of the union's existence, union membership depended largely upon word of
mouth and workers’ social networks. It was not until 1999, when the homecare
workers unions in Northern (SEIU Local 250) and Southern California (SEIU Local
434b) negotiated an agreement with then State Controller Grey Davis that gave
unions access to the names and addresses of all homecare workers that received
payroll checks from the State of California. These agreements meant that unions
could cross-check their membership lists and deduce who the potential new members
were.
Despite this political agreement, organizing homecare workers in this region
still face numerous obstacles. For example, the geographic area that this union
organizes is expansive. San Bernardino is the largest county in the United States and
spans an area from just outside the Los Angeles metropolitan area to the Nevada
State border. In addition, Los Angeles County is the most populous county in
California with over 10 million people living in 88 incorporated cities and numerous
135
unincorporated areas (US Census Bureau, 2005). In addition, the racial, ethnic and
linguistic diversity within this workforce presents a very daunting obstacle for
organizers in 434b. In order to service all the communities that their members work
in, SEIU employs organizers and workers that collectively speak thirteen different
languages. The challenge, however, is more than simply mode of communication --
it is also about fundamental differences in culture, workforce participation, migration
experiences, and the very communities that workers live in. How then does an
institution try to develop political and social cohesion, facilitate communication, and
most importantly mobilize this group with seemingly more differences than
similarities?
In order to adequately answer these questions, it is important to understand
organizing practices from an institutional level, as well as at the level of organizers.
Examining the ways that unions structure and deploy their resources highlights how,
as an institution, they interpret meanings of race and ethnicity in their practices.
Interviews with union organizers and workers, however, highlight conflicts they face
when working within the union's racialized framework, as well as difficulties in
creating a multi-ethnic mobilization unit that addresses the needs of their multiple
communities.
One of the fundamental practices that the union utilizes to organize and
mobilize workers is to hire union organizers that reflect the gender, racial, and
cultural diversity of those working in the homecare industry. The personnel hired
are not only from different racial and ethnic backgrounds, but represent different
136
immigrant generations, and in addition to English speak one or two other languages.
Half of the organizers had their first interaction with SEIU 434b when they worked
as homecare workers –eventually transitioning through the ranks to become
organizers.
Given the monolingual, non-English speaking membership that the union
works with, it is not surprising that it is necessary to hire multilingual organizers.
However, what is equally important is the fact that the union hires organizers from
different immigrant generations. Gabriel, an organizer who had worked for two other
unions and two community organizations over the past ten years was one of the
multilingual organizers that SEIU434b hired to staff its campaign. When he reflects
on his experiences he notes on what he’s witnessed and experienced as a third
generation Mexican-American. He says,
I’ve worked for other unions, and it was often assumed that because I
was Mexican-American and spoke Spanish that I understood recent
immigrants’ experiences with migration. I’m third-generation, for me
immigration was a story about my grandparents. Immigration was
never really about me personally. Don’t get me wrong, I’m
sympathetic and when I hear the stories of the sacrifices that so many
of the men and women I work with had to go to, to come to the U.S,
but that’s not the same as experiencing it.

These generational differences between organizers and workers are significant
because they point to the potential for varying perspectives on what immigration and
immigrant experiences mean. These generational differences are not new, however.
Labor historians have noted that in the past, the inclusion of second-generation
workers and exclusion of first generation immigrant workers was part of a politics of
137
belonging where citizenship was the defining characteristic (Mink 1986). The
division is not about using citizenship as a factor for exclusion –instead generational
differences translate into fundamental differences in how organizers communicate
with current workers. Pei Li, migrated to the United States fifteen years ago. She
initially worked as a homecare worker, before transitioning and becoming a full time
organizer working with Chinese and Taiwanese homecare workers. She notes,
I work with Chinese and Taiwanese women. Many immigrated to the
United States during the last five or six years, some have been here
for less than a year. They all have told me stories about how they are
treated at work, or in their communities. Some of the stories are just
horrible and terrible. When I try and talk with them about how Asian
workers have been treated here for the past hundred years, it’s hard.
They don’t understand the United States history with Chinese or other
Asian groups because for them, this has always been a place of
opportunity. I mean, they look at someone like you (the interviewer)
and that’s what they want for their children, better education and
chances. How do you explain that maybe your grandfather when he
came faced bad work conditions, bad pay. It’s sometimes hard to
organize them to the unions because they see others and maybe if they
wait –it’ll get better. For others, their work --as bad as conditions may
be, still gives them money or resources that are better than what they
had or help their families back home.

Later on in the interview, Pei Li expands further on the generational dilemma she
faces when working with immigrant women. She says,
The frustrating thing is, I want to teach these women some of the
Asian American or Chinese American history so that they can better
understand what’s happened and how it is similar to what they face.
But how do you do it, and with what time? You know, race matters,
even for Asians in this country, but how do you connect their lives
and what’s already happened? How do you accurately and effectively
communicate to these new immigrant workers that discrimination isn't
new--in a way that's meaningful to them.

138
The historical disconnection between current immigrant workers and earlier
generations of migrants highlights the continued significance of both race and
citizenship in organizing practices. Meanings of race are historically situated and
constantly in flux, defined by both hegemonic practices and everyday lived
experiences (Omi and Winant. 1994). For these workers, being Asian or Asian
American does not hold the same historical significance that it does for populations
that have lived in the United States for longer periods of time. Some of this may be
explained by Espiritu’s argument that “Asian American” is a panethnic racial
identity that arose out of the political activism of the 1960’s Civil Rights Movement
(Espiritu, 1992). Asian American identity stemming from a broader social
movement means that in the absence of a broader social movement or other social
issues, the bonds connecting this racial group becomes less cohesive. What
organizers of 434b encounter are barriers based on the historical disconnection where
on the one hand, workers are racialized based on that history –but have little
knowledge of the historically connected circumstances and factors contributing to
their social position and racial identity in the United States. Mia Tuan (1998) argues
that these contemporary groups need to be understood as racialized ethnics that
simultaneously “recognizes the extension of racial meaning to ethnicity, a concept
intended to signify cultural distinctions; and considering the personal, social, and
political struggle that takes place between self-defined identity (ethnic or otherwise)
and socially imposed racial identity” (22).
139
Organizers recognize their own limitations based, often times, on their own
upbringing. The fact that many migrated to the United States at a very young age, or
were born in the United States distances their own personal histories from those of
the workers that they try and organize. If a worker does not have permanent
residency or formal citizenship --this creates a social distance between worker and
organizer. Organizers for 434b acknowledge that they often have greater success
rates if the workers feel that they have something in common with the person they
are talking to. For all organizers, but particularly those with limited similarities with
workers, working with worker social networks becomes increasingly important.
Recent work in labor studies, characterizes these workers as “transnational”
(Ness, 2005), and situates immigrant union participation as an extension of homeland
politics –particularly for immigrants coming from countries such as Mexico, Korea,
or Taiwan that have strong labor movements. Absent from these conceptualizations,
however, are the ways that immigrant social networks play an integral role not only
in the migration process or job procurement, but also in decisions related to joining
unions. Gabriel discusses some of the strategies he’s witnessed in organizing. He
notes,
Other union's organizers will work in the same location as their
clients. They have time to study and assess how relationships work.
Every site has its own unique set of patterns and politics. Because our
workers are mostly independent contractors, it’s not about
understanding a site, so much as it’s understanding communities –the
ones the workers work in and/or where they live. It's learning about
individuals and their concerns. I learned early on that if I’m lucky and
a worker likes me, they can connect me to all sorts of other friends
that do the same work. If they trust the relationship with me and also
140
find that the union helps them with issues that matter to them, they
help build the union –and I’m just there to talk specifics…..of course,
the opposite can happen too –if they don’t like me, I won’t get call
backs from the people they know, or they bad mouth me and/or the
union to the people they know making it really hard to make meetings
with people.

Particularly in an industry where the workers are isolated from one another, and have
few opportunities for moments of collectivity –the role of the organizer becomes
increasingly important for linking workers to the union local. One of the San
Bernardino organizers we met at an organizer conference notes,
Sometimes I find myself at church events –not because I am religious
per say, but because I know it is the one time during the week where
particular workers come together in one place. It’s important for them
to know that I understand what events and activities are central to
their lives.

Benjimin discusses the networking process and notes,
I work really hard to develop relationships. I mean, it’s important to
remember things like birthdays, children’s names, that kind of stuff.
When I am lucky enough to be invited to their home for a celebration
or get together, I go because that is how you develop trust. It's where I
witness the uniqueness of each worker's life and how relationships are
built. A lot of times the person inviting me will introduce me to other
homecare workers... These connections are invaluable.

Although it sounds rather opportunistic to discuss the ways that organizers
make connections and create useful social networks, it is important to note that the
success of an organizer is based on their ability to develop relationships based on
trust, understanding, and community. While the New Labor Movement literature
discusses the importance of community involvement, very little research highlights
the ways that unions try and implement more individualized organizing strategies.
141
Previous research mentions “home visits” as an important component of their
recruitment practices, very little is said about participation in familial or cultural
celebrations (Bronfenbrenner, 1998). Interviews conducted with organizers and
workers at 434b highlight the importance of broader community and cultural
involvement in recruiting new membership. The practices that organizers use to
recruit membership are important to workers. Virginia is an African American
homecare worker who lives and woks in South Central Los Angeles. She became a
homecare worker when her husband contracted a debilitating illness and became
wheelchair bound. The hospitalization and the subsequent medical expenses
bankrupted their family, and forced them to look for alternatives in order to control
medical expenses and provide care for her husband. Working as his caregiver and
being paid through the IHSS program. While this does not alleviate the financial
problems they face, it does allow her to care for her husband. However, given her
experiences, she was reluctant in who she trusted. Virginia says,
When they first approached me, I thought they just wanted more
money from me. I didn’t make that much –so why would I want to
give more away. I mean, just because they sent a sista' to come and
talk with me doesn’t mean I’m going to join. It wasn’t until I saw her
at a few different friends’ places for parties or some committee
meetings that I started considering what this union could do. I mean,
she was everywhere and that had to mean something or at the very
least that she is trusted by people in my community, if for no other
reason than the fact that people kept inviting her to things. In the end,
I joined because I became friends with her and I know she'll look out
for me and have my back.

The community-based social networks that bond homecare workers together
are central to SEIU 434b’s foundation. Because the workers reflect the communities
142
that they live in, its not surprising that the smaller subsections of the union are
racially and often times ethnically homogenous depending on the region. The
organizing practices of the union show that this homogeneity is not coincidental --in
fact, the ways resources are deployed invite the development of ethnic solidarity.
The union strategies and their ability to connect members of communities, and create
mobilization of these ethnic and racial groups exercises a form of cultural citizenship
which Rosaldo (1997) refers to as “the ways that people organize their values, their
beliefs about their rights, and their practices based on their feelings of cultural
belonging rather than on their formal status as citizens of a nation” (44). These
groups serve as more than just work-based interest groups --instead they serve as a
resource for addressing multiple forms of discrimination, oppression, and hardships
experienced by workers as well as their various social networks. The utilization of
strategies that emphasize the importance of common bonds both between workers
and communities, and the union and workers' lives creates a strong community of
interest that can mobilize for change on a multitude of issues based on social interest,
community concerns, or workers' rights.
The ability to organize community-based groups does serve as an asset in
deploying union resources, developing programs, and addressing issues specific to
these homogeneous groups. However, given the vast diversity within 434b, this
specific method, alone, cannot adequately create cohesion or consensus of workers
around issues, rights, or mobilizations. If the union assumed that workers would
follow an agenda set by the union --it would take away from the legitimacy of the
143
union as an organization formed by workers for workers. One of the greatest
obstacles that 434b faces in developing union cohesion is creating opportunities for
workers of different races and ethnicities, as well as those living in different
geographic regions in Los Angeles and San Bernardino Counties to come together to
discuss specific experiences, concerns, or ideas. Bringing these groups together is
hardly a simple task, especially given the long history of racial and ethnic tensions
between these groups that have material realities in their everyday lives in the forms
of violence, labor tensions, and educational inequities --to name a few. All these
spaces for disagreement create numerous potential barriers to creating a multi-ethnic
union mobilization for 434b. Gabriel notes,
Given what you see happening everyday in this city, the race related
fighting or violence and the divisive politics --when you look at the
membership of our union, it seems that there are more reasons why
these groups should disagree with, or dislike one another, as opposed
to things that would bring them together.

SEIU 434b's strategic design works to move beyond a simple demographic
parity formulation of creating a diverse multi-ethnic union.
SEIU 434b, create specific opportunities for their membership to come
together and discuss the issues impacting them at work and home at quarterly "Super
Summits." These summits are held in various locations throughout both San
Bernardino and Los Angeles on different days of the week, in order to give different
workers the opportunity to attend. The union buses workers in from across the
county to increase summit participation. According to one strategist the summits are
designed to:
144
1) connect our membership with one another; 2) create a safe space
where workers can talk about the issues that are important to them
and talk about work conditions, as well as what’s been happening
with their contracts, and; 3) teach the membership about what the
union is doing, including upcoming campaigns, resources available to
them, and where they as members can contribute.

While the goals of the summit clearly try and facilitate greater participation of
membership in union activities, summit organizers are very cognizant that the most
efficient way to increase membership participation in union activities is to make sure
that they feel welcomed and comfortable at all events they attend
maybe most importantly we try and create an environment where
workers who normally can’t communicate or have only limited ability
to communicate with one another because of language differences are
provided with the resources to learn from one another.

The union ensures that simultaneous translators are present, and that members are
supplied with the appropriate translation equipment. This seemingly simplistic
accommodation, is essential in creating a welcoming space for workers, and allows
for greater cross-ethnic interactions and connections, which are integral for creating
diverse and broad-based mobilization efforts.
While organizers are very careful not to talk about the specific types of
campaigns and strategies that occurred, they alluded to the fact that summits were
used to assess interest in direct actions that would bring attention to work related
issues. According to one member the summit was where they "figured out who could
or should attend rallies against the governor or in support of a proposal; attend
special meetings with politicians; or who could travel on a lobbying trip to
Sacramento." Clearly a central part of the activities related to these summits are
145
about creating a strong lobby for numerous issues including immigration legislation,
healthcare, workplace safety, and budget lines --particularly for In Home Support
Services and MediCal or MedicAid, in addition to normal salary and contract related
worker issues.
The organizing and structuring of campaigns in the summit provide a firm
foundation for developing an efficient multi-ethnic coalition to work on a wide array
of issues. Although each of the regional sectors can easily mobilize and organize
members --getting members from each community to participate in each union
activity, it does not create a multi-ethnic unity. These summits are a way of trying to
build substantive connections between groups that traditionally have not, or do not
work together.
One of the most important features of this summit is that there is
simultaneous translation provide in multiple languages for all workers. While this
seems like a rather simple resource to provide--organizations can often neglect the
importance of language, not only in terms of helping individuals understand what
exactly is happening, but in making them feel included and providing the means for
them to voice their concerns and/or experiences. These summits, then, become a
space where the union attempts to create a common ‘workers’ culture, where they
attempt to build bonds that transcend racial or ethnic discord that is so common in
the workers lives and communities, but instead but builds commonalities based on
everyday experiences whether it is related to work, home life, or their interactions
with governmental agencies and institutions.
146
The creation of a more open and fluid worker identity that simultaneously
embraces the diversity of the memberships while negotiating a common ground for
workers in their industry marks a departure from the ways that worker identity was
constructed during organized labor’s inception. SEIU 434b’s practices moves
beyond the discursive construction of reconstructing worker identity –but more
importantly has a outlined a process for developing and reconfiguring how work
(especially homecare work) is defined both internally amongst its membership, and
externally with politicians, media, and communities.
CREATING ACTIVE CITIZENS
In previous sections of this chapter, I discuss the recruitment practices and
mobilization processes of the union. This segment examines the transition from non-
union worker to active citizenship that is facilitated through local 434b's deployment
of resources and long-term strategies. This union invested money into creating
resources designed to assist their membership with legalization and naturalization
processes. These include providing legal services, as well as conducting classes that
help members prepare and pass the citizenship test. While the investment in these
resources demonstrates 434b's ability to both recognize and address the needs of
their immigrant constituents, it is the actual process of creating active citizens that
highlights important ideological practices of the union --which is the larger goal of
developing a strong political power base to leverage or barter political favors and/or
endorsements. For 434b, these concessions include better wages, increases in
investment, and pro-immigrant legislation.
147
With its heavily immigrant membership, it is not uncommon for 434b
unionists to face immigration related problems. Some of the major concerns include:
lack of proper immigration documentation, overstaying guest worker visas, and the
amount of time it takes for a worker and/or their family to become a naturalized
citizen of the United States. Each of these scenarios brings with it, its own set of
legal implications, requirements, papers and forms to be filed with the proper
authorities, as well as certification tests. In order to successfully navigate the
bureaucracy, an individual often needs the assistance of people who can expedite
paperwork, or simply have enough familiarity with the system to explain the
confusing process, clearly. The individualized nature of each immigration case often
makes acquiring assistance difficult because costs can be prohibitive, or the
individual simply may not know a person who is familiar with the processes. The
legal services supplied by the union provides workers with resources necessary for
becoming permanent residents and citizens, and ensures that members are not
prevented from becoming citizens simply because they could not afford to, or simply
lacked assistance when filing the paperwork.
For members, who are permanent residents and seeking formal United States
citizenship it is important to not only complete the proper paperwork, but they must
also pass an exam that proves that they have adequate knowledge of the United
States and its history, and swear an loyalty oath of allegiance to the United States.
These requirements are not easy tasks, particularly for those not educated in the
American school system, or populations with limited English proficiency. These
148
requirements simultaneously serve as obstacles, and measures of assimilation into
the United States because it is assumed that if someone fulfills these requirements,
they therefore possess the qualities and characteristics necessary for affiliating and
belonging to the United States.
While each immigration case has its own unique set of circumstances, both
the services and classes are important resources to help members navigate a
confusing process. More importantly, for the union, it establishes itself as an
advocate for each worker, and is able to put workers on a trajectory towards not only
formal citizenship, but also active citizenship.
When a worker joins the union, it is not simply a matter of signing a card that
indicates your willingness to allow SEIU 434b to negotiate contracts on your behalf;
it is the beginning of a larger socialization project. As noted in the previous section
on multi-ethnic organizing, SEIU asks members to be actively engaged in all aspects
of their political campaigns regardless of citizenship or legal status. Participation in
these actions develops a strong sense of social and cultural citizenship for workers.
Rosaldo and Flores (1997) argue that despite race, nativity, or ethnicity, cultural
citizenship allows individuals to maintain difference “without compromising one’s
right to belong in the sense of participating in the nation’s democratic processes”
(57). Empowering workers to improve not only workplace conditions, but also the
social conditions impacting the lives of their families and communities serves the
larger goal of motivating all workers to be actively engaged. This active engagement
149
remains a continuous part of workers' trajectories within the union and serves as the
foundation for the development of the active citizen.
The timeframe when workers can become permanent residents and/or a
naturalized citizen is often protracted. However, the union's long-term investment in
assisting workers in becoming citizens has very concrete desired outcomes, which is
that of creating voters with political belief systems that are sympathetic to union
causes. One unionist who is active in conducting voter registration drives and voter
education events for SEIU International notes,
The most important act that one can do is using their citizenship, and
the new privileges associated with their hard earned status are voting.
What we want to impart not only upon our members, but the people
we see when we do voter registration, is to remind these new citizens
of the importance of having a voice and expressing those opinions at
the polls.

The creation of a voting block that is invested in the issues advocated for by 434b is
important for the overall well being of this union. The existence of this union, and
the economic well being of union members is largely dependent upon their ability to
convince elected officials to back particular legislation, block provisions hazardous
to homecare workers, or to advocate for sustaining or increasing budget lines
allocated for In Home Support Services or MediCal. The voting block combines the
parts of the membership that were already citizens, with the newly naturalized
membership base.
Although providing citizenship and legal resources for workers seems like a
simple act, and definite benefit for immigrants joining a union, the more important
150
story is the ideological development of the importance of active citizenship. The
unions ability to utilize this as a long term institutional strategy for political solvency
that can be used to promote the organization's agenda and political principles is one
of the greatest successes of 434b.
For the past ten years, unions with a heavy immigrant presence in their
membership have pushed for the liberalization of immigration policy --arguing that
immigrants do not present a threat --but should instead be viewed as full contributors
to the United States economy, and integral to the overall economic well-being of all
regions of the country (Milkman, 1998). As workers who fulfill an integral and vital
role in the labor market, immigrants, these unions argue, should not be vilified and
instead be given access to the same benefits and rights of all workers (citation).
While these desired outcomes have been discussed quite thoroughly both within
unions, and by labor researchers (citation) very little has been said regarding the
motivations for the endorsement of pro-immigrant legislation --other than the overly
simplistic socio-demographic argument that these unions want to "are for and
address the diversity of the new labor force". However, this numbers driven
rationale fails to adequately discuss the direct implications to both sustaining labor
union strength and the development of strong political and electoral foundations.
Furthermore, discussions of power, both how it functions and how it is disseminated
internally within the labor movement and how it works externally in relationships to
both corporations and the state are rarely acknowledge, replaced instead with a
151
Marxist oriented discourse that encourages union members to bond as workers
without regard to race, gender, or citizenship.
The citizenship and legalization resources provided by the union for
immigrant workers is part of a larger project that attempts to transform worker from
passive laborers to active citizens. The initial components of this trajectory (as
discussed in greater detail in the multiethnic organizing section of this chapter), is
founded on the ability to recruit membership into the union AND create a
mobilization base that is actively engaged in promoting the union agenda. When
asked how to motivate workers to join the union, Benjimin says,
When we ask people to join the union, we let them know that it is not
just about making more money, but it’s about all of us working
together for creating a better place for them, for their children, and
their community. The key is, they must be willing to help us work.

The union utilizes both the initial stages of organizing, union
membership, and the time period where workers try and establish both
residency and citizenship as a socialization period to engage workers
in multiple forms of political participation. Benjamin continues on to
say,
Our workers do many things in relationship to the union. They walk
pickets at various protests, they will precinct walk in communities
where we need to improve voter turnout, and they also go to city
council meetings, to Sacramento or Washington to meet with
legislators to actively lobby for particular policies or actions. Doing
this early on creates a bond between workers and it also is a way of
making sure that workers are engaged with their employers –the
government.

152
Although the ability to increase union density within the homecare industry is
important, for 434b, it is essential that workers be socialized into political
mobilization and empowerment especially because these workers are part of the
public sector. Public sector workers are dependent upon the government for budgets,
wages, benefits, and trainings. By extension, this union is dependent on both the
strength of their relationships with elected officials at all levels of government, the
ability of their union to mobilize both for and against particular policies, and their
ability to develop a liberal political machine that leverages the power of their
membership for particular favors and/or votes. The socialization process therefore
becomes a key component in both maintaining a visible presence; demonstrating
how 434b can mobilize a large workforce for politicians; increase voter turnout; and
most importantly, --get individuals elected to office (or removed if need be).
Conversely, for workers (especially immigrant workers), increasing involvement in
political campaigns concretely demonstrates the ways that immigrants can voice
opinions and be engaged in the overall democratic process in the United States
despite their exclusion from the formal political arena.
While unions have always played a key role in “Americanizing” workers –the
difference is that currently this socialization process is now happening with groups
that are either ineligible for citizenship or non-citizens, in other words those who
would normally be excluded from political interaction or representation. When
unions were at the height of their membership density during the 1930’s-1950’s, this
‘Americanizing' process often was one of the marked differences between both first
153
and second generation immigrants, as well as union members versus non-union
members. Unions allowed second-generation migrants into the union, and as citizens
these workers could vote and lobby for particular legislation or candidates (Milkman
1996, Sanchez 1998, Bronfenbrenner 2004). This acceptance was considered part of
the assimilation process into American culture, and also reinforced the idea that
being an American worker, and a union worker was synonymous with citizenship.
The shift demonstrated via 434b’s socialization process is indicative of the ways that
the meaning of worker, and union member have begun to shift –particularly in an era
defined by post-1965 immigration and global commerce that is localized in urban
centers.
The most significant part of the process, however, is at the point when
immigrant workers become naturalized citizens. The investment in legalization
resources, coupled with the consistent push to engage workers in political
empowerment activities is embodied in the new naturalized citizen. The new citizen
is not just an individual who fulfilled the United States requirements for citizenship.
Ideally they are individuals who are willing to utilize and practice citizenship --both
in terms of participation in union actions, but also by voting the ‘union way’ at the
polls. The creation of a union friendly citizen contributes to the type of power that
the union can leverage politically. Previous research that highlights active
citizenship frames it as a way of teaching youth to grow up and become civically
minded and engaged in the communities around them (Minkler 1998). For these
theorists, active citizenship is not just about voting in an election, but it is about in
154
engaging in broader social works that work towards community change (Boyte and
Skelton, 2005). They argue that, “Citizenship requires practice. Our skills, concern,
and understanding as citizens are constantly evolving and changing. Citizenship —
the ongoing contribution of citizens to solving community and public problems and
creating the world around us “ (ibid) The “active citizenship project” has gone awry
however, by leaving it up to only educational institutions. Instead, active citizenship
should be mediated and facilitated by a wide array of institutions whether they are 4-
H clubs, schools, or community group. The focus on youth, however, negates the
ways that immigrants can also be a part of this process. This perspective also
assumes that there are no obstacles that would prevent an individual from becoming
an active part of the citizenry. While Local 434b plays the intermediary role in
trying to develop active citizenship, it also serves as an institution that can protect or
help individuals and groups overcome existing barriers. The barriers, as outlined in
this section, are related to legal status and residency in the United States.
Although creating an active citizen that works within the democratic process
is a central tenet guiding 434b’s deployment of resources, the type of citizenship
advocated for by 434b is not simply about creating an individual who votes,
participates in community functions, and wants to engage individuals so that they
connect with a larger social world. While on the one hand, the transformation
towards active citizenship that is predicated upon socializing workers to become
engaged agents that are invested in being a part of the democratic process --the
trajectory set forth by the union also sets a very distinct understanding that these
155
individuals should still follow a union formulation of both citizenship and political
engagement. For 434b, active citizenship is about creating a large group of people
who are invested in promoting the union slate. While the process that 434b promotes
actively protects workers from some social and political barriers, it also creates a
very specific understanding of what citizenship in the eyes of the union means. In
this formulation, the union views citizenship as the potential for political and social
change that is connected to the overarching agenda they promotes. If the union
simply developed and promoted the social and political development of workers, for
one campaign, or an individual candidate, it would defeat the larger democratic
process it wants its members to become engaged and invested in. Citizenship is not
simply about membership or belonging to a specific nation-state. For 434b,
citizenship is about connecting the work of the unions with the social lives and
experiences of workers, and the needs of workers communities, and change in the
work place. Defining citizenship in this way, moves away from the idea that rights
and privileges are bestowed upon individuals, instead, citizenship can be envisioned
as a set of processes and practices in which all people can work towards creating
change or maintaining democratic processes.
CONCLUSIONS
SEIU Local 434b provides a very unique look at the ways in which public
sector union’s create coalitions, develop public campaigns, and promote citizenship.
Their organizing practices and processes represent a new model that embraces
156
diversity and tries to create social cohesion among workers. By focusing on
developing common ground across different racial and ethnic groups, Local 434b.
157
CHAPTER FOUR: IMMIGRANT WORKERS FREEDOM RIDE CASE STUDY
INTRODUCTION
Earlier chapters examine the Communication Workers of America, local
39251 and Service Employees International Union, local 434b as examples of labor
unions in various stages of institutional transformation and transition. This chapter
examines the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride of 2003, a national campaign
organized by the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union,
36

that advocated for immigrant worker rights in the United States. From September
20th to October 5th, 2003, immigrants and citizens, workers and students, union
organizers and members rode across country. Riders originated from ten different
cities, traveling on eighteen buses, along eight different routes, through one hundred
and two different cities and towns. This mobilization is an example of efforts to
transition into social justice and social movement unionism by organizing around
issues relevant to the lives of the membership, as opposed to focusing solely on
contracts for jobs.
This case study is important for three reasons. First, this study examines
ways that unions --particularly HERE mobilizes around community and social
justice issues impacting all aspects of immigrant workers lives. Second, in the
context of examining the organizational strategies and participant experiences, this
case highlights how labor market tensions can create competing understandings of
race, class, and immigrant experiences in the United States. Finally, this case study

36
Field work of this case study was conducted and completed prior to HERE's merger with UNITE in Summer 2004.
158
represents the first national immigrant specific campaign supported by the AFL-CIO
after the 2001 reversal of their long-standing anti-immigrant worker position. The
IWFR served as one of the first union sponsored public efforts to push hegemonic
conceptualizations of ‘worker’ to include immigrants --without regard to national
origin or legal status. These themes are highlighted through a discussion of the
history and organization of the IWFR; participant observation from the Los Angeles
IWFR route, and discussion of Los Angeles riders' experiences.
Examination of strategies, practices, and experiences associated with the
Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride highlights limitations in ways that current
literature on citizenship, race, and organized labor conceptualize the effects of
immigrant involvement on the labor movement and electoral politics.
Current writing on citizenship as it relates to immigration focuses on three
major questions. First, how has the proliferation of global capitalism changed
understandings of citizenship and nation state? Second, have globalization and
global capital made the citizenship an antiquated and irrelevant concept? Third, do
immigrants exercise forms of social or cultural citizenship, separate from formal
citizenship that utilizes culture and identity to enact social change? Each of these
questions, debates not only the relative importance of citizenship, but attempts to
reframe the definition of citizenship in terms that move beyond membership in a
geographic region or nation-state.
In Castles and Davidson's (Castles 2000), Citizenship and Migration:
Globalization and the Politics of Belonging, they argue that globalization has led to
159
the deterioration of the nation-state. The existence of millions of individuals with
multiple forms of citizenship--while millions more are deterritorialized citizens
without a place to 'belong' or be associated with, points to ways that democracy and
the state are undermined. Aihwa Ong (Ong 1999) argues in Flexible Citizenship:
The Cultural Logics of Transnationality that dual or multiple citizenships,
symbolized by the business traveler holding multiple passports, exemplifies the
importance of global capital accumulation as opposed to membership in a nation-
state. For Castles and Davidson, Ong, and others --global capital has weakened the
importance of citizenship (Castles 2000, Ong, 1999, Sklair 2000). Citizenship, in
this formulation, is simply an extension of the capital accumulation that privileges
wealth and power over belonging.
While, on a theoretical level, these theories account for the increased fluidity
of capital--and as an extension the ability the mobility of privileged migrants-- it fails
to account for ways power is exercised differentially based on class status, gender,
and/or international relations between different nation states. The proliferation of
laws aimed at barring or excluding, particularly service sector immigrant workers
from entering countries such as the United States points to the continuing importance
of legal status (Calavita 1995). The IWFR case study attempts to highlight the
continued importance of citizenship, despite the proliferation of capital.
Lastly, examinations of cultural and social citizenship, which makes the
arguments that marginalized communities exercise forms of cultural expression to
gain political rights (Flores 1998) does not adequately explain how immigrants are
160
able to gain political rights outside the realm of 'cultural expression. Labor unions
are central at all levels of the formal political landscapes. Historically, organized
labor was integral to the creation of a worker identity premised on whiteness,
citizenship, and masculinity. Although organized labor is attempting to redefine
itself in more inclusive terms --the political space in which immigrants engage in the
democratic processes is much more than an enactment of cultural identity.
This chapter looks at how negotiations of difference are made, and the impact
on understandings of worker identity. Furthermore, by examining the history and
development of the ride, as well as the IWFR itself, we can begin to understand
tensions that exist between groups, and how organized labor struggles to be a part of
redefining what it means to be a worker in a global era.
HISTORY AND ORGANIZATION OF THE IMMIGRANT WORKERS FREEDOM RIDE
In preparation for July 2001, Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees
International Union's (HERE) national convention; John Wilhelm, the union
president convened the first immigration sub-committee for the union. Wilhelm,
asked Maria Elena Durazo, President of HERE: Local 11 of Los Angeles to co-chair
the committee. Durazo notes that she and her co-chair Esther Williams were told by
Wilhelm that the primary objective of the committee was to,
Have a mix of people. Not only geographically, but also in
diversity...we wanted to address the issue of immigrants and African
Americans in our industry. We wanted to address it in a way that was
going to unify our union and connect the issues, rather than dealing
with them as civil rights over here and immigrants’ rights are over
there as a separate issue (Durazo)

161
Not unlike other service industries in the United States and abroad, the service sector
is disproportionately filled with low-wage immigrant workers (Sassen 1998).The
influx of immigrants into the hotel and restaurant industries had similar impacts, as
immigrant inflows to the United States did in the past. Namely, it created
competition in the low wage work force between immigrants and African American
workers(Portes 1998) This competition within the industry creates difficult situations
--not only for workers, but also for the unions attempting to organize those workers.
Durazo notes,
We have some serious issues with the industries, pretty much refusing
to hire African Americans in many parts of the country. If you look
around, it’s similar to what janitorial industry did to black workers.
Once [an industry is] behind a union led by and organized by black
workers, then there was a move to not hire them any more and hire
immigrants with the idea that cheap labor creating division and pitting
workers against each other. We wanted to come about and put all
these issues on the table. We wanted to come around in a way that
would pull us together in the same fight as the union.

Durazo's observation points to the myriad of struggles unions face when organizing
workers, not only because of corporate actions and use of the global economy, but
the ways African Americans are disproportionately displaced by immigrant workers.
This tension between African American workers and immigrant workers competing
for the same jobs was a central factor contributing to organizing the Immigrant
Workers Freedom Ride. In developing this campaign, organizers felt that it was
important to develop an idea that was more than simply a "gimmick." Durazo says,
"What did the [freedom ride] mean? We really had to talk it through." Organizers felt
that simply using the 'Freedom Ride' name for their event could potentially alienate
162
allies from the African American community if organizers failed to make a true
connection between the present social climate impacting immigrants, and the
historical legacy of the Freedom Ride. Organizers were fearful of using the
'Freedom Ride' name if it was simply a media hook or 'gimmick' where a name was
used in order to garner support based on an assumed affilation to the Civil Rights
movement, as opposed to developing an ideological and practical plan incorporating
the founding tenets of the original Freedom Rides. After many discussions the core
group of organizers put together a resolution to present at their 2001 convention to
make the IWFR a formal part of their union platform. After adopting the initial ideas
and plans as part of the HERE platform, the union decided to dedicate more
resources and time to planning the ride. The larger committee agreed to meet more
regularly beginning September 2001, however, the September 11, 2001 terrorist
attacks derailed efforts to develop an immigrant rights campaign.
The terrorist attacks had a drastic impact --not just on the hotel industry, but
also on immigrants specifically. In addition to the enormous economic tumult
resulting from the attacks, the social and political climate towards immigrants
became increasingly hostile. The creation of the Department of Homeland Security,
of which the Immigration and Naturalization Services became a part of, created
policies and legislation severely impacting immigrant workers in the United States.
New homeland security rules, for example, mandated that all airport screeners be US
citizens; therefore resulting in the dismissal of thousands of immigrant airport
screeners across the country --many who had worked for over 15 years in job. In
163
addition, these workers, in some instances, were in the midst of backlogged
naturalization proceedings that delayed their citizenship for many years.
Additionally, executive decisions by the Bush administration also called for the
reclassification of some government jobs followed by the declaration that
unionization in these classifications of government work constituted a threat to
homeland security. The result was that unions in these areas of work were
dismantled further disempowered workers and unions. Lastly, the passage of the
Patriot Act allowed the government to selectively remove guarantees of civil liberties
--particularly to racially and ethnically profiled immigrants. The loss of jobs, in
addition to the hostile socio-political climate facing immigrant workers, became a
new challenge organized labor and IWFR organizers had to address. Durazo says,
We had to stand back and deal with all the things our members were
going through. But fairly soon after that, six months, nine months, we
said you know, it’s gotten even uglier for our immigrants. And even
the most minimal rights immigrants had before 9-11 were totally
stripped away.

Approximately nine months after the September 11th attacks, with the endorsement
of their international union leadership, organizers revisited the idea of sponsoring an
Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride. From January 2002 through September 2002
organizers indicate that work on the IWFR focused primarily on fundraising and
publicity. No decisive plan focusing on logistics, endorsements, or follow through
was in place. As one organizer indicated, "there was a lot of talk about the Freedom
Ride, but no real sense of how to do it. Or what we were going to do. All it was,
164
was an idea and something people were hearing about without any indication of
specifics."
In October 2002, Wilhelm assigned David Glaser to work with Maria Elena
Durazo and the HERE immigration subcommittee to develop and organize the
logistics of the IWFR. The first major decision organizers made was to convene a
meeting of seventeen HERE locals from cities across the nation to determine
whether or not there was enough interest, and if the IWFR was a feasible idea to
pursue. Glaser notes, "In order to organize a broadly cast campaign, we needed to
make sure we were ok internally and that we could sustain a ride internally"
At this December 2002 meeting, HERE members decided to undertake the
task of organizing this mass mobilization of union members, community based
organizations, and political allies. Most importantly, HERE members discussed
issues impacting immigrant and non-immigrant workers in the various regions that
their local represented. These discussions were central to clarifying what would be
the guiding principles of the ride. The principles needed to be broad enough to allow
for location specific discussions of immigrant and labor force dynamics, while
simultaneously allowing for a broad framework that allowed from political and
legislative lobbying and advocacy. At the time of the platform development, the
committee was not actively endorsing or advocating for a specific legislative
initiative.
Although at its inception, the IWFR was designed to address the growing rift
between African American and immigrant workers in the US hotel industry, the
165
terrorist attacks and subsequent immigrant backlash forced organizers to reframe the
principles and tenets of the ride to fit the unique historical moment. The issues
organizers faced became more complex because, not unlike other times in American
history, during times of war or protracted hostile foreign relations, there was a
growth of American nativism and explicit xenophobia (Frank 1999). Organizers
knew that to develop a social movement creating a framework that the public
identified with was essential. Now, not only did organizers need to bridge the inter-
racial conflicts specific to the hotel and restaurant industry, but also had to negotiate
the large-scale immigrant backlash resulting from the terrorist attacks. The IWFR
needed to create a much larger platform that encompassed very different and
disparate causes and issues where issues of worker benefits and job security, were as
important as social issues such as hate crimes. Nowhere was the breadth of this
endeavor more apparent then in the letter soliciting participants and volunteers to
join the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride.
The tragic events of September 11, 2001, swept aside the political
momentum for immigration reform that had been building for some
time in the United States. Instead, a new momentum has made
immigrants the target of some of the most repressive legislation and
executive policy in recent memory. The government raids on
workplaces and homes, punitive detention for protracted periods of
time, the constant threat of deportation, and often the abrupt loss of
employment, now characterize immigrant life in the United States.
(IWFR Recruitment Materials, undated)

Addressing immigrant issues relating to government legislation and actions was
already a large agenda. However, organizers felt that it was important to address all
166
immigrants residing and working in the United States. The recruitment letter
continues on to say,
Especially vulnerable, before as well as after September 11, are eight
million or more "undocumented" immigrants to the United States.
They live in the shadows, exposed to exploitation by unscrupulous
employers, separated from their families, and fearful of organizing to
better conditions (ibid)

Choosing to address issues of legalization was significant for numerous reasons.
First, inclusion of undocumented workers on a union sponsored event and platform
tested the strength of organized labors resolve to not only be more inclusive, but of
the desire to move beyond nation based constructions of solidarity, central tenets of
the New Voice Campaign platform (Mantsios 1998). Second, public discourse
surrounding inclusion of undocumented migrants in social welfare programs is often
hostile and greeted with racist and xenophobic sentiments and beliefs, in addition to
high levels of resistance. Lastly, acknowledgement that 'undocumented' immigrants
are a significant part of the US labor force brings attention to workers who remain 'in
the shadows'. This acknowledgement may have both negative and positive impacts
for unions because while simultaneously addressing a very real experience related to
immigrant workers regardless of industry --the tightrope between politics and worker
mobilization is tenuous at best. Organized labor, as witnessed during the contentious
internal battle to change AFL-CIO's stance on immigration, can lose political
viability.
In the end, the formal platform adopted for the Immigrant Workers Freedom
Ride was broad-based --encompassing issues impacting immigrants in the United
167
States, while simultaneously trying to connect to tangible rights won through the
civil rights movement. The four goals of the ride were: 1) legalization and a road to
citizenship for all immigrant workers; 2) the right to re-unite families; 3) protection
of worker rights on the job without regard to legal status, and; 4) civil rights, civil
liberties, and due process for all (IWFR pamphlet, 2003).
After HERE organizers solidified their plan of action and gained greater
organizational support from their locals, the next step IWFR organizers decided to
take was to "consolidate support of the national labor movement." During the
February 2002 National AFL-CIO convention, organizers took three major steps to
give the impression to the national labor movement that "this thing is going to
happen." (Glazer). First, organizers convened a delegation of HERE and SEIU
workers, a diverse grouping of labor leaders who were already part of the executive
council, and dignitaries like Reverend James Lawson
37
to attend and support striking
Haitian workers from UNITE. This kick off event served as a demonstration that the
group was committed to supporting immigrant workers. Secondly, organizers
wanted to gain support and endorsement of the national AFL-CIO. Organizers
presented to the Immigration subcommittee, which is widely regarding as the most
progressive branch of the labor movement. They spoke with the constituency groups
of the AFL- CIO including, the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, A. Philip
Randolph Institute, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, Coalition of Labor Union

37
James Lawson was one of the original 1960's Freedom Riders. He helped develop non-violent action plans through the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He continues to do social justice work as the pastor of Holman Church in Los
Angeles.
168
Women, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement and Pride At Work
38
.
Lastly, John Wilhelm spoke with AFL subcommittees on civil rights, women's
rights, and human rights, in addition to organizations including the Civil Rights
Commission. This approach served multiple purposes of gaining broad base support
from other sectors of the labor movement, promoted coalitions with constituency
groups and community based organizations that would be integral in recruiting
participants in the ride, and in programming events along the various routes. Most
importantly, as Glaser and Durazo note in separate interviews, they garnered support
from Marilyn Sneiderman, the Director of Field Mobilization of the National AFL-
CIO. The field mobilization office was extremely important resource for IWFR
organizers for two reasons: 1) Access to Central Labor Councils (CLCs); 2)
connection to networks of allies including the National Interfaith Committee for
Worker Justice.
Central labor councils are a relatively new resource developed by the national
labor movement. When John Sweeney and the New Voice Campaign took office in
1997, he asked Marilyn Sneiderman to join his staff and be the Director of Field
Mobilization. Sneiderman was asked to cultivate and strengthen labors networks and
connection to communities. An integral component she developed was the central
labor councils. The CLC's are local coalitions of labor unions working with one
another on community and labor related issues, providing regional support on issues
specific to their area, and a space for discussing upcoming campaigns and calling for

38
These constituency groups were convened by the AFL-CIO to increase diversity within unions, and to address issues specific
to these groups.
169
collaboration and support (Mantsios 1998). These councils work in conjunction with
state federations of labor and the National AFL-CIO. Secondly, Sneiderman worked
to strengthen the national coalition between organized labor and interfaith clergy
from around the nation. Endorsement by the National Interfaith Committee for
Worker Justice --and their active participation in the ride helped in developing key
relationships integral to the ride (This will be discussed in greater detail shortly).
CONTEXTUALIZING ORGANIZED LABORS SUPPORT AND DISSENT
In order to understand the significance of the IWFR immigration policy
reform and immigrant rights advocacy platform it is important to contextualize the
internal dynamics of organized labor just prior to the freedom ride. It is important to
view the IWFR's public platform as an extension of HERE's work within the AFL-
CIO to reverse the federation's longstanding nativist anti-immigrant policy position.
Prior to the Immigrant Worker's Freedom Ride, the AFL-CIO made a historic
reversal on their policy stance on immigration. On February 16, 2000, the AFL-CIO
Executive Committee unanimously passed a resolution that called for repeal of the I-
9 system of employer sanctions and for legalization of undocumented immigrants
currently in the United States (Milkman 1999). The Immigration Reform and
Control Act (IRCA) of 1986 made it illegal for undocumented workers to hold jobs.
A key component of this Act was an "employer sanctions" provision that required
employers to keep records of workers' immigration status, and imposed fines on
those hiring undocumented workers. Employers were allowed to use Social Security
'no match' letters as a rationale for firing workers. This provision was endorsed by
170
the AFL-CIO in 1986, and was seen as part of the reforms needed to protect native
workers' jobs and rights.
In the years following the passage of IRCA, unions found that the employer
sanctions were rarely enforced, and that fines --if imposed, were nominal. This act,
in reality caused the greatest amount of harm to immigrant workers because it gave
employers the opportunity to utilize 'no match' letters as leverage for countering
union organizing campaigns. Employers that wanted to exploit the economic
benefits of hiring undocumented workers found ways to circumvent the I-9 system,
and when faced with an organizing campaign would call the Immigration and
Naturalization System. After a decade of seeing this occur in cities throughout the
country (e.g.: Minneapolis, New York, and Los Angeles) the AFL-CIO began to see
how vulnerable undocumented immigrant workers were, and the impacts it had on all
workers (citation). For unions like SEIU, HERE, and UNITE--these attacks on
immigrant workers needed to be addressed because their members (and potential
members ) were disproportionately target. This motivated their advocacy within the
AFL-CIO to change their anti-immigration stance and to address the needs of
immigrant workers in the US. These unions focused on changing the policy stance
through their work on the Immigration Subcommittee of the AFL-CIO, which is
considered the most liberal and activist branch of the AFL-CIO (Nissen,2000).
In cities across the country, it was becoming very apparent that "immigrant
workers are in every industry, in all types of jobs, and in all cities across the
country"(Sweeney,2000). The decision to vote on the AFL-CIO's immigration
171
policy reversal in a committee meeting circumvented many of the debates that could
occur at the full convention, and avoided the hostility that first emerged in 1996
during the New Voice Campaign.
HERE's decision to organize and Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride occurred
just eight months after the policy reversal and was viewed by HERE and allied
unions as an important next step in trying to build stronger linkages between
organized labor and the campaign for immigrant rights. However, the decision to
embark on this campaign was not met with uniform support --internal or external to
unions. At the national level, organizers did not encounter any vocal opposition
when securing the endorsement of the National AFL-CIO. Two possible reasons for
this include the fact that sponsoring unions such as LIUNA, SEIU, and UNITE
represent almost one-third of the international' membership and income. In addition,
the core organizing groups of the IWFR had strong ties (at the time) with key AFL-
CIO administrators and officers. Although unions dissenting from AFL-CIO's
endorsement of the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride remained largely silent, closer
examination of endorsements highlights two important points. 1) national and
international levels of organized labor do not always endorse immigrant worker
rights, and; 2) at local levels, unions whose national office did not endorse the ride
are willing to support the campaign for immigrant workers rights because of the
strong ties to immigrants and immigration locally; or conversely, some locals are
unwilling to support immigrant rights despite their international office's endorsement
of the platform.
172
Not surprisingly, the IWFR received national sponsorship and endorsements
from unions on the AFL-CIO sub-committee: Hotel Employees & Restaurant
Employees International Union (HERE), Laborers International Union of North
America (LIUNA), Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Union of
Needletrades, Industrial & Textile Employees (UNITE), and the United Farm
Workers of America (UFW). Other notable endorsements include the United Food
and Commercial Workers, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, American
Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), Communication
Workers of America, and United Steelworkers of America
39
. Central Labor Councils
that hosted IWFR related events, and housed riders were also key supporters of this
event.
Closer examination of endorsements highlight the fact that although some
local affiliates of unions endorsed the IWFR, the national/international organizations
did not. This was the case for the United Auto Workers (UAW), a group whose
membership has traditionally been hurt by both technological shifts and outsourcing
of jobs. Five UAW Locals endorsed the IWFR, while their international neither
endorsed or sponsored the ride. The Carpenters Union who left the AFL-CIO in
2001, also had local endorsements while their national remained silent. Since the
AFL-CIO is made up of XXX # of unions, it impossible to give an exhaustive list.
Willingness of local union affiliates to sponsor an immigrant rights campaign

39
A full list of the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride endorsement can be food at http://www.iwfr.org/endorsement.asp
173
highlights the importance of geography in labor markets, and the potential
differential impacts of immigration regionally.
Labor organizations that disagreed with the IWFR political agenda remained
publicly silent with relatively few exceptions. The most public challenge to AFL-
CIO's endorsement of the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride came from Local 444
of AFSCME. In an open letter entitled, "Not *this* AFL-CIO's Freedom Ride",
AFSCME Local 444 from Oakland expressed their dismay over AFL-CIO's
endorsement of the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride not because they did not
support the plight of immigrant workers, but because,
We are very skeptical of what this 'Freedom Ride' is really all about.
The original Freedom Rides were part of a mass mobilization of
hundreds of thousands of young people and others to fight against a
vicious racism in the South. They openly defied the law and they had
no real support from the Democrats or Republicans. We must say that
the present 'Freedom Ride' does not do justice to the name or the
heritage of that struggle. We are profoundly critical of the refusal of
the AFL-CIO to seriously mobilize any sector of its membership to
fight against the attacks against American workers in recent years
(Moore, 2003).

The issue at hand for AFSCME Local 444, not unlike concerns of other unions is not
whether or not to support Immigrant Rights, but what they view as the AFL-CIO
failure to commit resources to organizing a campaign for change --as opposed to one
of negotiated political partnerships without grassroots action. Moore adds, "We look
forward to the day that he labor movement, or some section of it, joins with the
present youth movement as well as community groups and fights for what working
people, citizen and immigrant alike need." Unlike earlier times when outright
174
expression of anti-immigrant sentiments within the labor movements was both
allowable and commonplace, during this campaign --the protectionist and nativist
sentiments remained unvoiced by unions and were left to external interest groups.
Despite the very vocal dissent towards immigrants in the AFL-CIO's recent
past, the general sentiments by unions who may not have supported the IWFR
campaign was silent compliance. Although optimist might note that this silent
compliance was done in order to preserve unity within the labor movement, this fails
to acknowledge the power of the unions on the AFL-CIO's Immigration sub-
committee. Unions on the Immigration sub-committee represent over one-third of
all union members affiliated with the AFL-CIO --which by extension means that
their dues represent over a third of the international's budget. In addition, these
unions represent industries that have either always had stable union density (e.g.
government workers), or exist in growth industries (service sector work). The power
that these unions wield translates into broader political capacity for that national
labor movement, and for these reasons many smaller unions are careful in opposing
these unions. For these reasons, the IWFR campaign moved forward with little to no
resistance from other labor organizations and unions.
GENERATING SUPPORT FOR THE FREEDOM RIDE
Despite the relative ease organizers had in garnering AFL-CIO endorsement
IWFR organizers needed to address and clarify many ideological issues before some
labor organizations, community groups, and community members would support the
ride. Glaser says,
175
In the labor movement, they were already criticizing. They asked
questions like: "Why is this called a Freedom Ride?" Or, "Who in the
African-American community has said this is okay?" [Our answer
was] "Well, now that you ask that question, nobody." ... Some very
clever person called it the Freedom Ride, but there was not a strategy
to make that comfortable out there (Glaser)

While the idea of calling the event a Freedom Ride was a useful tool for connecting
issues impacting today's immigrants with African American's contemporary and
historical struggles, there was a distinct possibility that without the proper
endorsements from the African American community and civil rights leaders, that in
fact the idea of the ride would become, according to one organizer "gimmicky. The
Freedom Rides of the 1960's addressed the racist treatment of African Americans --
specifically highlighting limits and restrictions put on their ability to travel freely.
The outright hostility and violence they faced --and the public nature of the
discrimination they brought unparalleled attention to social conditions permeating
African American life in the United States. Organizers, knew that calling the current
event a Freedom Ride had potential for creating powerful discussions around the
prevalence of bigotry that faces both immigrants and African Americans at the
current moment --however, it was equally important to pay homage to those
Freedom Riders that risked their lives to gain freedoms and rights for oppressed
communities.
While development of localized central labor councils was a relatively new
component of union organizing efforts, partnership between religious communities
and social justice campaigns whether in the United States or abroad was not (Morris
176
1986). The activism of clergy and the central role of the church in the Civil Rights
Movement are well documented. Additionally, various religious organizations are
actively involved in both social welfare and immigrant rights activism --raising
money and providing services to both documented and undocumented migrants
struggling in the United States (Staudt 2002). The interfaith community, for the
Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride, helped gain key endorsements that connected
immigrant experiences with hardships African Americans faced during the Civil
Rights Movement; and linked immigrant workers to a larger framework of economic
oppression or "plantation capitalism" (Lawson 2003). In an essay for Labor in the
Pulpits 2003 detailing the history of the Freedom Rides in the United States and why
they were an important form of non-violent resistance for change, Reverend Jim
Lawson writes,
What began effectively in 1955 as civil rights activity picked up speed
and gained momentum across the country, gaining new strength in
community after community. The Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride
2003 represents the demand for equality and justice for all, the end of
racism, and full civil rights for immigrant workers and their families.
As coordinator for the Freedom Ride, 1961, I am delighted to
participate in the Freedom Ride 2003, It is a call for an end to the
injustice imposed on millions who work hard every day. It is a
demand for human rights for all workers (Lawson 2003)

Reverend Lawson was one of many Civil Rights leaders IWFR organizers identified
as crucial in developing and legitimating not just the moniker of 'Freedom Ride,' but
the larger ideological and political assertion that the contemporary social conditions
facing immigrants mirrored, in some form, the types of bigotry, hate, racism, and
violence African Americans faced in the past. Secondly, these civil rights leaders
177
and clergy legitimated a larger message that 'worker rights are civil rights' --therefore
integrating labor movement to the civil rights project.
While Reverend Lawson was an early proponent of the Immigrant Workers
Freedom Ride, it was apparent that IWFR organizers and HERE leaders needed to
make great efforts to gain broader support. Using resources of the AFL-CIO field
mobilization offices, they contacted influential African American leaders to ask and
lobby for their support. Sneiderman, Durazo, and Glaser acknowledge in separate
interviews that two of the key supporters that they needed and gained in early 2003
were Congressman John Lewis (D-GA) and Reverend James Orange. Lewis is a
Civil Rights leader, past Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee, 1961 Freedom Rider, and longtime political activist. Orange is the
current Chairperson for the Martin Luther King March Committee, was a member of
King's staff and present during King's assasination. John Wilhelm, as president of
HERE, asked the Field Mobilization office to help set up meetings with these
leaders. Wilhelm and other IWFR organizers met with these two to discuss the
IWFR, its ideological foundations, and goals--in hopes of gaining their endorsement
and participation in the ride. Congressman Lewis and Reverand Orange's
endorsement of the ride, and active participation in organizing efforts related to the
IWFR, went a long way towards answering the critique of "Who in the African
American community said this was ok?" Additionally, these renowned Civil Rights
leaders helped legitimate the idea that African Americans and immigrants should be
allies in order to gain social and economic justice. These endorsements, however,
178
should not be mistaken for consensus within the African American or Civil Rights
communities --because there were dissenters who felt that "immigrants and
organizers are co-opting the civil rights movement and African American history"
(Bustamante 2003). Nor could these endorsements answer the question of "how
does forced servitude that Africans Americans experienced in slavery --and the
economic consequences of that institution compare to voluntary migration to the
United States?" (ibid). This question was repeated at different moments, not just by
critics, but by Immigrant Workers Freedom Riders who were learning about or teach
others about experiences that brought them together. These questions are important
because they are rooted in the historical relationships between immigrants and
African Americans and point to differences in why these groups are located in low-
wage sectors of the labor market, not just commonalities based on their presence in
that space. Answers given by organizers, and leaders such as Reverend Lawson,
make a request for solidarity based on common class and experiences --erasing
racial and ethnic differences that are or have been causes for antagonism, conflict,
and at times --violence. This outright dismissal was used in an attempt to develop a
class based solidarity. Organizers asked those participating or listening to try and
figure out what binds us together --and while race and ethnic differences are
prevalent --what brings people together is an identity as an exploited worker and
citizen ignored by government and society at large. Trying to organize solidarity
based on these principles, appealed to some audiences and not others. These
moments of ideological and organizational disagreement that (as it will be discussed
179
later) created a dialogue about what the contemporary definition of 'worker' in the
United States means.
Although there was dissention from pro-Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride
position that Lawson, Lewis, and Orange took --their endorsement quieted the
harshest of critics and allowed organizers to continue development of the IWFR.
Furthermore, their active participation --talking to various congregation, community
groups, and lawmakers helped develop a broader support community for this effort
in various regions of the country.
UNION ENDORSEMENTS AND DISSENT
Now that organizers garnered support from key constituency groups, there
were two major obstacles that needed to be alleviated: 1) financing the Immigrant
Workers Freedom ride; and 2) organizing logistics of the ride. Although the
Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride, for all intents and purposes, was lauded as an
AFL-CIO activity, financing fell primarily on the shoulders of a handful of unions,
and the local areas that wanted the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride to stop in their
city or town to help rally around issues specific to that region. According to three
different sources working closely with the ride, the IWFR received three hundred
thousand dollars from various foundations, between one hundred and two hundred
thousand dollars each from unions on the steering committee,
40
some surplus money
from local fundraising was sent to help finance national efforts, the remainder was
financed by HERE. The National AFL-CIO contributed the services of their high

180
ranking officials, such as President John Sweeney and Vice Presidents Richard
Trumpka and Linda Chavez-Thompson, providing politically connected personalities
that endorsed the ride. While not contributing money to the IWFR, AFL-CIO made
in-kind contributions through use of and access to resources of the Field
Mobilization Office. Closer to the time of the ride, members of the AFL-CIO helped
staff the ride. It is clear that the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride came at
considerable financial expense to HERE despite the fact that national AFL-CIO
received the majority of the publicity for sponsoring the ride.
Logistical coordination of the ride was extremely difficult. At its inception,
the organizers wanted eight buses to leave from 8 different originating cities, making
approximately five stops each --for a total of forty stops before converging on
Washington DC to lobby Congress. Organizers realized very quickly that interest in
the campaign was greater than originally anticipated, and as a consequence needed to
grow. Using central labor councils to anchor their efforts, organizers decided which
cities had the capacity to sustain and coordinate a bus or buses from their location.
Glaser notes, "locations were chosen where we knew [HERE] had a strong presence,
or if there was a well coordinated and strong local coalition." There were numerous
problems as Glaser notes,
Each local, in each originating city, had local steering committees.
But on the national steering committee we didn’t put any of the local
groups because it was a national. So the problem was there was only
national immigrant rights groups that are in D.C., and they don’t
necessarily have a base anywhere. So they’re not really national,
they're just capital based. So there was this animosity between local
groups, state groups and D.C. based groups. So it’s not just the labor
181
is the new kid on the block and immigration has always been
reactionary and is now progressive, sort of skeptical view. Everybody
was skeptical of everybody in the field. The D.C. groups thought the
local groups were idealistic and self-serving and the local groups
thought the D.C. immigration groups had no base and got all the
glory and money. And there’d been a fifteen-year history of failed
coalition work within the immigrant rights movement (Glaser).

Coordinating various group levels was further complicated by the fact that local
levels had a number of regional and community based organizations who they either
had pre-existing relationships with, or were attempting to develop new relationships
with labor unions. As Glaser notes, "everyone came to the table with their own
histories and agendas." These agendas, according to Glaser, often led to
disagreements on various levels whether that was between local actors who never
worked together, and between national, state, and local organizing committees
having different agendas. In essence, the problem became one of consolidating the
political message for the ride while still giving sponsoring locations the autonomy to
address issues important for their region. Creating common ground for groups
working at the local level was important, because as Sneiderman notes, "the local
organizing groups, in many ways, are the legacy of the ride. Groups who never
worked together finally came together to plan these events around issues that they all
felt were important" In the end, organizers had ten originating cities, with a total of
eighteen buses traveling across country, along eight separate routes
41
. Routes for
buses were largely determined by what cities or towns could arrange room and board

41
Organizers felt it was important that buses travel in pairs in case there were problems along any of the routes. The buses
from Portland and Seattle traveled with one another beginning the second day of the ride. One of three buses from Los Angeles
met with the bus from Las Vegas and traveled with one another beginning the second day of the ride.
182
for riders. These places served as stopping points for buses along the route. Other
locations unable to house riders, served as intermediary stops where riders rallied
with local residents. Agendas for each stop was determined by local organizing
committees, and as such, dealt with pressing issues related to immigrants in that
location. The national steering committee coordinated specifics and logistics of the
bus routes, and encouraged organizers at local levels to make sure that the program
addressed at least one of the four main principles (noted on page 7) of the ride. The
increasing notoriety of the ride, and the fact that IWFR buses stopping at a locale
created the impetus for groups that did not work together to develop a program
advocating for causes important to their groups and geographic region. The
significance of these meetings was that organizations that could ignore or walk way
from differences in the past, were forced to find a way to forge a working
relationships. These new working relationships, according to Sneiderman, are "the
legacy of the ride" because these new alliances provided new possibilities for
mobilizing activists and workers.
Discussion of the organization of the ride helps highlight the types of
institutional and organizational negotiations and political strategies integral to
developing a social movement. In trying to develop a unified platform and gain
endorsements beyond an immigrant or union community --the ideological
configurations of the ride began to privilege a class-based narrative that emphasized
economic location and exploitations as a central reason for worker solidarity. In this
regard, organizers did not need to move into a narrative that organized labor was
183
unfamiliar with. Later in this chapter, discussions of how this class based discourse-
impacted participants highlight the obstacles this can create in a racially and
ethnically heterogeneous group.
THE IMMIGRANT WORKERS FREEDOM RIDE--LOS ANGELES ROUTE
In this section of the chapter, I discuss participant observation of the two
buses originating from Los Angeles that traveled along the U.S/Mexico border in the
southwestern region of the United States. Over a ten day period, these two buses
made nineteen different organized stops
42
in cities and towns across the country.
Additionally, this group was stopped at a permanent Border Patrol checkpoint in
Sierra Blanca, Texas. Events and programs that IWFR riders from Los Angeles
participated in are coded into four main themes: 1) Worker rights; 2) Violence
against immigrants; 3) Use of non-violent resistance; 4) Immigrant political activism,
social citizenship, and electoral influence. The event themes highlight ways that
under the umbrella of immigrant rights multiple projects expand the definition of
worker, while simultaneously equating involvement in unionism with protection of
both individual and civil rights. Furthermore immigrant experiences were used to
link historical experiences of African Americans to the current organizing campaigns
--thus attempting to promote coalition between immigrants and African Americans.

42
The Los Angeles buses made 19 stops on route to the rally in Flushing Meadows, New York. They stopped at (listed in
chronological order): Palm Springs in California; Phoenix, Tucson, and Nogales in Arizona ; Las Cruces and Chapparal in New
Mexico; El Paso, San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas in Texas; Memphis, Nashville, and Morristown in Tennessee; Richmond in
Virginia, Washington DC, Liberty State Park in New Jersey, and New York City in New York.
184
WORKERS RIGHTS
The theme of 'workers rights' is connected to a much longer and conflict
laden history of work in the United States. The historical narrative can loosely be
categorized into discourse around "who is allowed to work" and "equality in the
workplace." U.S. history is replete with stories of groups of individuals denied the
opportunity to work based on race, ethnicity, or gender. Work restrictions were
implemented through legislative means or industry instituted mandates or rules.
Legislative initiatives developed at local and national levels often targeted particular
groups deemed as 'enemy aliens'. For example, at the turn of the 20th century, San
Francisco passed numerous laws designed to hurt Chinese business men --passing
laundry and restaurant ordinances that severely taxed or hindered standard business
practices, thus cutting down the business' effectiveness (Chan, 1988). Nationally,
immigration laws often double as labor force exclusionism targeting migrants to the
US. Between 1880 and 1950, numerous laws targeting first the Chinese, then
Japanese and Koreans were used to stem the flow of Asian workers to the United
States (ibid). The predominantly white male labor movement led first by Samuel
Gompers --beginning in the1890's and then subsequently by George Meany in the
1920's actively advocated for these legislative restrictions against immigrants
because white workers believed immigrants were a threat to their livlihood and job
security. More recent legislative initiatives designed to prohibit immigrant workers
from entering the US includes the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986.
This initiative was designed to sanction employers who knowingly hired
185
undocumented immigrants. Although the legislation was restrictions in intent --it
remained largely uninformed and in fact provided residency for close to 2.3 million
previously undocumented migrants (Hondagneu-Sotelo 1994). Industry specific
restrictions were a trademark of unionism --particularly during the 1950's and 1960's.
Historically, African Americans were denied membership to the union --therefore
limiting the number of jobs available to them. One notable example is that of the
International Longshoreman's Workers Union (ILWU) working in the ports in San
Francisco and Oakland, California. Through the late 1950's this union prohibited
African Americans from joining their membership, therefore making it impossible
for African Americans to work in the ports. Unions' active exclusion based on race
or gender was part of a larger protectionist campaign to secure jobs specifically for
white male workers. Lastly, one of the key civil rights moments, African American
garbage men went on strike for fair and equal wages in Tennessee. They wore signs
that said "I am a man!" They actively advocated for work policies that treated
workers equally regardless of race. Workers rights were part of the large civil rights
struggle for equality.
The strong message advocating for access to workforce participation, fair
wages, and safe working conditions proliferated the Immigrant Workers Freedom
Ride, is part of a longer and much larger historical struggle for equality and
opportunity. The IWFR campaign utilized the platform of worker rights for two
purposes: 1) to send a clear message that worker rights would be or are secured by
participating in unions; and 2) worker rights are synonymous with civil rights. On
186
five different occasions, Los Angeles riders participated in rallies explicitly designed
to support union campaigns; supporting ongoing organizing drives and campaigns,
protracted contract battles, or advocating for legislation sponsored by a specific
union or group of unions. Throughout the ride, but particularly in Tennessee --a
state rich in civil rights history, equating worker rights with civil rights was used in
an attempt to connect African American experiences of workforce exclusion and
economic exploitation with the contemporary.
In Palm Springs, California --the first stop on the ride, participants rallied
with Palm Spring's hotel workers and migrant farm workers from the nearby
Coachella Valley. This event focused on HERE members whose contracts expired
within the next year, and to support members of the United Farm Workers (UFW),
who sought legalization. At the rally, Dolores Huerta, co-founder and First Vice
President Emeritus of the United Farm Workers of America rallied the crowd, and
advocated for AGjobs, a federal bi-partisan legislation that would allow 500,000
farm workers currently working in the US to earn the legal right to permanently stay
in this country by continuing to work in agriculture.
43
Riders joined the local
organizing committee, students from Coachella Valley High School, and members of
the UFW in a march through downtown Palm Springs. A colorful banner made from
a sheet, hanging from one of the buildings in downtown was spray-painted with a
message that read, "We pick $425 million worth of Coachella Valley crops every
year. We clean 15,600 toilets and make 20,000 hotel beds everyday." The march

43
For more information, please see www.ufw.org
187
and signs made visible immigrant work in the white, upper class recreation area
located an hour and a half from Los Angeles. The organizing committee wanted to
make explicit, ways that the tourism based economy of Palm Springs depended on
the work of immigrants for their survival. For hotel workers, this brought attention
to ongoing organizing campaigns in some of the Palm Springs hotels, simultaneously
showing the necessity of the work migrants perform so corporations profit.
At two other events, the message focused specifically workers' right to
organize or join a union without fear of retaliation. In Tucson, Arizona riders
gathered in a union hall to listen to the testimony of Mexican immigrant men
working as roofers in the area. One speaker talked about the long hours and horrible
work conditions --which included long hours in the sun without breaks, and no
overtime pay despite working 12 or 16 hour days. When employers found out that
he was helping organize a union they fired him. Two other speakers recalled similar
experiences highlighting the economic hardships they face as a consequence of
losing their jobs because they worked with unions to try and secure better pay, better
safety measures, and health coverage.
In Morristown, Tennessee, riders were scheduled to meet with workers from
the Tyson Chicken plant. Tyson, like other meat processing plants in the region,
actively recruits immigrant workers --irregardless of documentation status, to work
in their factories. These workers keep labor cost for these companies extremely low.
Workers complaining of hazardous working conditions, long hours, and low wages
have tried for over a year to organize a union. According to organizers, company
188
management responded by threatening to fire workers, or call immigration. On the
day IWFR participants arrived, Bronfenbrenner, 2001) organizers said, a memo was
circulated to Tyson workers forbidding them from attending the rally or leaving
company property for their lunch. Workers were told that there would be serious
repercussions if they violated the orders. The result was that IWFR participants
rallied without workers and marched through the small Tennessee town on behalf of
the workers. Employer threats to workers, particularly in industries trying to resist
unionization efforts, are not new. Anti-union campaigns run by employers are part
of a longer standing battle between workers and employers. Particularly in industries
dependent on manual labor, the influx of immigrants into their labor pool usually
represents the possibility for companies to cut back on labor costs by hiring cheaper
labor. Organizing campaigns in these industries are difficult for multiple reasons,
including availability of other workers who will work for substandard wages, and the
ability of corporation to levy threats that impact not just the workers jobs, but the
entire way immigrants and their families live.
The one notable exception to the argument that unions could or would protect
against worker exploitation was at the Worker Center in El Paso, Texas. This center
services hundreds of Mexican workers who cross the bridge between Ciudad Juarez,
Mexico and El Paso to work in the fields, picking peppers. The director of the
center, spoke to the group and picked up a 10 gallon clear plastic container and said,
"these men work in the fields and must fill this container. For each container, they
fill, they are paid 50 cents. On a given day, they make maybe five dollars for a day's
189
work." As riders ate their lunch, the workers started coming in from the fields --tired
after a long day and waiting patiently for riders to finish their meals. At this center,
workers pay two dollars for a modest meal, and can also take a shower --but must
also pay to do that as well. Speakers in this venue focused on hardships these
workers face in the field, and the egregious exploitation that occurs to these workers
at the borders.
Emphasis on economic exploitation of workers was used as a narrative tool to
connect experiences of African American workers with today's immigrant workers.
Reverend Lawson noted in his speech in Memphis, that "plantation capitalism"
continues to create economic inequalities that lead to the systematic degradation and
exploitation of all workers --but particularly immigrant and African Americans.
Noting that the Freedom Rides of the 1960's were organized to bring attention to the
deplorable conditions African American faced on a daily basis, he said that the
Freedom Ride of 2003 must continue to call attention to systems of inequality that
continue to plague our society. He further noted that "immigrant worker rights are
the new civil rights" and that those wanting social justice and equality must be
invested in this movement. Lawson's speech focused heavily on the history of the
civil rights movement in the south, and highlighted sacrifices that African Americans
made in their fight for equality. He talked about social and political conditions and
drew parallels to immigrant experiences of the present day. In essence, the purpose
of his speech --that occurred on a historic civil rights landmark, was to use collective
190
memory and history to bridge the ideas of worker rights with the civil rights
movement of the past.
Lastly, at the AFL-CIO rally in Washington DC, John Sweeney, President of
the AFL-CIO addressed the riders noting that,” working families need job and work
protections, these are fundamental rights that should be given to all, regardless of
race, creed or nationality." In his speech, he notes that working families need "health
care, access to a good education and to a fair wage for honest work." Sweeney,
directly addressed the group noting that continued exploitation of workers in pursuit
of the corporate bottom line of profit, violated rights of all those trying to simply
provide a measure of security for their families.
The theme of worker rights served multiple purposes on the ride. First and
foremost, it attempted to establish the idea that the labor movement of the present
wanted to work to secure immigrant's livelihood by protecting the work place.
Contrary to its history of exclusionism and anti-immigrant sentiments and actions,
there was an explicit effort to reconstruct the union’s identity as friendly to
immigrants and open to taking on campaigns for immigrant workers. Secondly,
addressing issues of worker exploitation created a platform based on class that tried
to erase differences based on racial or immigration experience, and instead use class
as a bond between immigrants, African Americans, and white workers. Casting the
narrative of workers' rights in this fashion, made it possible to ignore deep fractures
that exist because of labor market competition; privileges of citizenship, race, or
gender. Instead the narrative appealed to a common denominator of exploitation as a
191
rallying point. Lastly, identifying worker rights as part of a larger slate of rights that
should be afforded to all individuals, constructs a larger platform for advocating for
legislation that impacts union membership beyond immigrants.
VIOLENCE AGAINST IMMIGRANTS
Violence against immigrant workers is sadly a staple in US history. In most
instances, both at the turn of the 20th century, and in more contemporary times,
attacks against immigrants were connected to threats to job security and economic
upheaval in the US markets. Violence against immigrants came in the fashion of
brutal physical attacks, and murders. Numerous incidents against both Asian and
Latinos at the turn of the 20th century have been recorded (Chan 1991; Takaki
1993). Deindustrialization in many industries and the large-scale loss of factory jobs
due to outsourcing of jobs to other countries created animosity between
predominantly white workers and those they deemed as others. One such incident,
includes the murder of Vincent Chin, a Chinese man in Detroit, who was killed by
recently laid off white autoworkers that blamed him for loss of the jobs. It should be
noted that, they wanted to take out their anger on the Japanese, and took out their
aggressions on Chin assuming he was Japanese. Rise of xenophobia is not simply
symptomatic of economic downturns, it is also characteristic of times where
nationalist sentiments are high (Frank 1999) --namely during times of war or
international conflict. In the post 9-11 era, immigrants particularly those of middle
eastern descent.
192
During the ride, the theme of violence against immigrants focused on three
specific types of violence: 1) Hate crimes and racism; 2) Death as a result of arduous
and dangerous migration experiences; and 3) Government divestment in
communities. The construction of violence was extremely broad; however, all had
different social and physical consequences on immigrants. While organized labor
has focused on policy related issues related to hate crimes and violence in
communities, arguably, those discussions have been limited. The significance of
discussing and organizing around the issue of violence against immigrants is because
it forces recognition of the diversity of communities that unions are working with; it
tests the bounds of community organizing; and it forces discussions that can redefine
understandings of who workers are, who immigrants are, and what it means to be an
immigrant worker in the United States?
Although there was not a specific event that explicitly dealt with hate crimes,
it was regularly referred to in speeches throughout the country. As noted in earlier
discussions regarding the organization of the ride, the post 9/11 socio-political
climate facing immigrant was increasingly hostile. The incidents of hate crimes
increased, particularly against middle eastern immigrant communities (APALC
2002).
Throughout the southwest, numerous non-profit organizations have started
tracking deaths of immigrants while trying to cross the border. Over the past twenty
years, stricter policies targeting the US Mexico border have effectively militarized
the border. The US government has built a wall stretching from Arizona through
193
Texas, in an attempt to slow or prevent undocumented or unauthorized entry into the
United States. Stricter militarization of the border led to migrants attempting to find
other ways of crossing that are often times more hazardous and dangerous. Although
some participants on the ride were familiar with perils associated with crossing the
US/Mexico border from their own experiences, many were not aware of just how
severe the problem of border death had become. At the stop in Nogales, Arizona --
the non-profit organizations Comida no Migra
44
and Derechos Humanos Arizona
45
in
conjunction with the Tucson central labor council organized a teach-in for riders to
learn about the conditions migrants face when crossing the border. Staged in a
parking lot adjacent to the 12 foot high metal and barbwire fence that demarcates the
US/Mexico border, organizers had spread hundreds of crosses throughout the
parking lot. Each cross had a date with a name or the word "Desconocido"
46
written
on it. The name or word "desconocido" was the person who died while trying to
cross the border into Arizona, and the date was the date of death. On the truck where
the microphone and speaker were set, a sign in bold red and black letters read "How
many more must die? AZ. Deaths this year: 151! Change border policy. 2000+ have
died since 1994"
47
Speakers included clergy and activists that worked along the
border. Speakers highlighted the types of work they do including water and food
drops along the border, providing temporary housing, in addition to medical and

44
"Food not Border Patrol"

45
"Human Rights" of Arizona

46
"unknown"

47
The 151 Arizona related border deaths were as of September 24, 2003
194
other social services. Others highlighted the dangers associated with undocumented
migration --talking about the arduous physical journey through deserts that can be
extremely hot or cold depending on the season, as well as the dangerous coyotes that
migrants pay to help them cross the border.
While this event provided a lot of information to those who did not know
about the sacrifices individuals make while crossing the border, or the life-
threatening hazards faced by migrants, the significance of this event was less about
the content, but the fact that the Tucson Federation of Labor invested money and
time in this event. For Karen, a community based organizer, who had worked with
her non-profit for three years, this was nothing new. She notes, "You know, how it
usually worked before the IWFR is that they (labor) did their thing, and we did ours.
We didn't really pay attention to each other until the ride forced us to be in the same
room." In addition, the fact that the non-profits were working explicitly working
with undocumented migrants who crossed borders "illegally" --in many ways, forced
organized labor in the region to acknowledge not just that this migration was
happening, but was happening for specific reasons. The organizer notes, "the most
difficult conversations were not necessarily about having an event --these are things
that our organizations handle regularly, it was trying to explain to these labor union
people the breadth of the issue, not just the severity of it. I'm still not sure they get
it." The issue of border death presents interesting challenges for organized labor
precisely because it pushes the boundaries of the policy shifts they made in 2001.
Specifically talking and organizing around this issue asks unions to stand up and take
195
some action, as opposed to being passive agents. It also tests the capacity of
organized labor both regionally and locally, to think more deeply not just about
policy related angles related to legalization, but also the experiential aspects too.
Violence against immigrants was not just an issue of discussing murder or
hate crimes, but also the issues related to government divestment in communities and
the "unintended consequences" of these actions. In Chaparral, New Mexico -- a
colonia of predominantly Mexican Immigrants an hour from Las Cruxes, New
Mexico, and the entire community met IWFR participants. This community of
approximately 2,000 immigrants consists of families --young and old, who have
grown up working in the fields surrounding this town on the New Mexico/Texas
border. By all appearances, this community might pass for any number of other rural
working communities in the nation. However, what sets this place apart from others
is that within a one mile radius of the community, the government built four different
hazardous and non-hazardous waste landfills. These landfills were built over an
eight year period, and the New Mexico state government has proposed building a
fifth landfill in the same proximity. These landfills pose potential health risks to the
residents given the proximity to the area in which they live as well as potential risks
to the water table in the region. In addition, there is no knowledge of how long term
exposure will impact individuals living in such close proximity to toxins. Previous
research has shown that minority communities are disproportionately exposed to
hazardous pollutants that cause damage to overall health and well-being (Fulton
2001). In addition, in a poor community such as Chaparral, only limited resources
196
exist to adequately handle health related problems.(Szasz and Fukurai, 1994). The
IWFR participants and unions were confronted with a situation and set of
circumstances that was very different. Clearly this is a community of workers, but
advocating for better health care in a contract is not enough to alleviate the problems
that exist --nor were they working with a group that could necessarily leverage a
form of political power to influence outcomes in their community. If nothing else,
this situation asked the question, what do you do in situations where government
divests in community because they can with relatively little political fallout or
ramifications?
Violence against immigrants encompasses a wide variety of actions where
malice may be explicitly or part of a series of unintended consequences. The
challenge for the labor movement in addressing these issues is to develop a way to
talk about the ways and reasons for violence happening. Organizing against this type
of violence tests the ability of the labor movement to address immigrants for three
reasons, 1) the ability to adequately develop political leverage with the government
particularly in cases where the immigrant group impacted lives in isolation and has
little political cache; 2) the ability of the union to develop a campaign with workers
that is not directly related to a contract based issue against an employer; and 3) the
ability to sustain in a long term campaign that is about educating people about the
dangers of racism or xenophobia, as well as the types of obstacles immigrant
communities face. These three things test principles of the new labor movement that
call for community investment (Mantsios 1998)
197
USE OF NON-VIOLENT RESISTANCE
The use of non-violent resistance and planned civil disobedience are tactics
that contemporary labor has re-introduced into their campaigns in recent memory.
As noted in earlier chapter 1, one of the major tactics used by 'New Labor
Movement' are public campaigns where the focus is on conducting actions to garner
media attention, as opposed to striking against the particular company. The goal of
these actions is to garner support from the public. Non-violent resistance, as is well
documented, was a central part of the Civil Rights movement of the (Morris 1986).
In addition, unions active during the same time period--particularly those with
numerous minorities in their ranks, like the United Farm Workers of America, also
employed forms of non-violent resistance in their campaigns for fair pay and equal
treatment (Milkman 2000). While it was clear that the idea of non-violent resistance
was central to the development of the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride, what was
clear to IWFR organizers is that it would only be two buses from Los Angeles that
would need to employ these tactics.
According to organizers, "we made the decision very late in the organizing
that the (Los Angeles) buses would go through checkpoints. Up 'til then, the
question was really would it be zero or two checkpoints." Organizers believed that
the LA group could go through checkpoints in Nogales, Arizona on the third day of
the ride, and at Sierra Blanca on the fifth day. When making the decision that the
group would go through checkpoints, organizers consulted with members of the
National Lawyers Guild regarding rights of riders and the types of legal
198
representation that would be needed. Lawyers felt that there were a lot of dangers,
particularly to undocumented immigrants, that they believed they could defend in a
court of law. As one lawyer noted, "if the border patrol tries to deport someone,
we're not sure we can stop that from happening." In addition, the decision to go
through the checkpoints happened during the last month of organizing, therefore
truncating the preparation time the National Lawyers Guild had to develop a legal
strategy. After a number of discussions involved believed that the only way that the
group could go through the checkpoint without showing documents would be a
solidarity action where nobody showed any form of identification. According to
Glaser, "we made the decision that we would not ask any of the rider whether they
had documents or not." Unless the rider voluntarily disclosed that information to
others, that with the exception of lawyers who interviewed riders prior to boarding
buses, would know legal status.
All buses had a legal team consisting of a legal observer and spokesperson.
On the Los Angeles' buses, the legal team had only one lawyer as part of the four
person 'team'. The other three were trained two days prior to the ride regarding their
duties in the event of a border patrol stop. Additionally, riders were required to do
solidarity training that consisted of a roll playing of what riders needed to do in the
event of a border patrol stop enrooted to New York. The participants from Los
Angeles were given the choice of which of the two routes they wanted to ride on.
All were told of the risks involved and that the bus traveling along the border was
certainly the more risky of the two routes. In preparation for the ride, participants
199
and the local organizers on the bus believed that there would certainly be a border
patrol stop in Nogales, AZ. The National Lawyers Guild called upon their network
to have extra legal help on hand to assist in case riders would be detained
48
. National
organizers also had a large number of press outlets including Newsweek and the
New York Times riding on board all were under the impression that the group would
be challenging the border patrol. What became apparent on the one hour drive
between Tucson, Arizona and Nogales was that the temporary checkpoint was not
up. Some organizers took this as a sign of victory and that "the Bush administration
had instructed the border patrol to back off." When talking with riders who
organized in Nogales they said, "the temporary border patrol checkpoint between
Tucson and Nogales has not been up in over five months and is usually only staffed
by one or two guys who sit out on the highway."
The legal team including the National Lawyers Guild coordinator, were
notified only a day before that they would be going through a large, permanent
checkpoint in Sierra Blanca, Texas --an hour outside of El Paso. At this point, the
majority of the major news outlets had gotten off of the bus and returned home, and
some of the more prominent leaders had also left to catch up with other buses
originating from different cities. After leaving El Paso at 6:30 in the morning, the
two buses arrived at the checkpoint just before 8am in the morning. With the
exception of media and legal teams, everyone’s personal identification documents

48
It should be noted that the National Immigration Lawyers Guild did not endorse the ride, nor did they advocate that their
lawyers volunteer because they felt the risks involved were too great. Their national board wrote a letter to their membership
stating their reservations. The National Lawyers Guild consists of approximately 1000 lawyers nationwide.
200
were stowed away in the baggage area of the bus and not kept on their person.
When border patrol agents approached the bus, the spokesperson for the bus met the
officer at the door and informed them that "Participants on this bus are members of
the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride, which is a nationwide caravan of buses
traveling across country to promote immigrant rights. I want to let you know that I
will be the only one speaking to you today and that nobody on the bus will be
providing you with documents nor will they be speaking to you." The border patrol
agent that greeted the bus that I was on responded by saying, "You realize this is a
US Border Patrol Checkpoint and that it is our job to check everyone's documents."
The agent was told, "yes I realize that you are doing your job, and I am doing mine."
The agent and his partner then boarded the bus and the participants began singing
"We Shall Overcome." Over the next hour and a half, participants continued to sing
civil rights ballads whenever border patrol agents were in proximity. In the
meantime, the legal observers were on the phones with the lawyers back in Los
Angeles, informing them of what was happening. One problem that became
apparent very quickly is that not all the cellular phones of the legal team worked, so
bus riders were asked to volunteer their phones if they worked. In the meantime, the
spokespeople for the bus called all the allies listed which included the interfaith
committee in El Paso, national labor leaders, and IWFR national organizers in order
to have them outreach to political allies that could pressure the border Patrol. Lastly,
the media coordinator riding on the bus called every media outlet she could to let
them know what was happening to riders. The agents boarded the board twice more,
201
the first time to take a head count of the number of riders on the bus, and the second
time to again ask for documentation. During this last boarding, agents began taking
riders off of the bus and bringing them inside the border patrol station. According to
accounts by riders, they were segregated by gender, and put into small cells in
groups of approximately ten people. One rider notes, "we could hear the agents
harassing the men in the other cells telling them to be quiet, so we would start
singing. Then the agents would tell us to shut up, or make fun of us saying things
like 'don't you know any other songs?' and then the boys started singing. We took
turns." One Latino rider said, “they started taking us [the groups] out of the cells.
They lined us up throughout the room and then they came up to us, with some of us
it was one agent, others had two and they’d try to harass us or break us. They’d say,
“we know you’re illegal…we’re going to send you home.” An African American
woman noted, “the officer came up to me and said, “I know you know who’s illegal.
I know you’re a citizen. Just tell me who’s illegal and I’ll let you go. I don’t know
why you’re protecting them.” A Latina rider said, “A lot of times they tried to have
men question women to intimidate us. They came up in our face and threatened us,
saying that we’d get deported. They took someone in the restroom away where we
couldn’t see her. Phones were ringing a lot and they just kept getting in our face but
we wouldn’t say anything.” Outside, the legal team and the media remained on the
buses. Periodically, the lawyer requested to see the riders, but each time he was
denied. On multiple occasions he talked with the officer in charge getting updates on
202
which the border patrol agents were calling, and what decision makers were being
contacted.
After four hours at the border patrol checkpoint, riders boarded the buses
again. Agents then insisted that the buses depart quickly, although bus leaders were
not sure if everyone had been released since three quarters of the riders ended up on
one bus –sitting in the aisles or three to a seat in order to fit. After traveling two
miles down the road, both buses were emptied, and leaders conducted a roll call to
insure all riders were accounted for. Despite the initial confusion, all were released.
Organizers later found out that the riders were released less than 10 minutes before
news reporters from CNN and ABC arrived at the check point.
Challenging the border patrol checkpoint and the solidarity action plan were
extremely important for creating a collective identity for the IWFR. Although many
parallels had been drawn between African American Freedom Riders of the past, and
the contemporary group lobbying for immigrant rights, it was not until riders were
detained at the checkpoint that the potential perils immigrant face becomes tangible.
In addition, the detention of the riders served as a rallying point for riders from all
bus routes to reference, and it became a political tool that organizers could use to
bring attention to, As an organizing strategy, the solidarity action reinforced the idea
that groups who stick together with a specific goal can make a change. The
experience at the checkpoint also points to the way in which immigrant experiences
are also informed and infused by hegemonic understandings of race. How riders
were treated by law enforcements was based on perception of an individual’s race,
203
and the meaning of race in terms of legality and illegality. Agents treated whites,
African Americans, and Asians very differently then Latinos were. Agents actively
tried to create racial division by trying to make riders ‘give up’ information based on
their race. The solidarity action by the riders, created an identity for riders that
moved beyond the class based rhetoric that had been used up until that point, and
gave a unique experience that the riders from Los Angeles had lived through.
IMMIGRANT POLITICAL ACTIVISM, SOCIAL CITIZENSHIP, AND ELECTORAL
INFLUENCE
Early sociological literature on immigration and race, viewed civic and social
participation as integral to assimilation into society(Omi 1994) Part of defining
citizenship in a nation-state, according to some scholars is active participation
informal political arena (citation). Recent scholarship, however argues that there are
various forms of citizenship that go beyond voting in electoral politics (Flores 1998).
Cultural and social citizenship constitute ways that traditionally disenfranchised
communities can actively participate and influence society and create a space in
which a community can be more broadly understood and viewed (Glenn 2002) The
active engagement of immigrant of varied legal status, citizens, and allies in political
lobbying and participation is one of the unique facets of the Immigrant Workers
Freedom Ride. While past literature discusses the varying degrees in which different
minority groups participate in electoral politic through voting, work with coalitions,
and grassroots organizing –limited attention has been paid to the ways in which
204
immigrants –particularly those without the right to vote, or legal status in the United
States can actively engage in US based politics.
The IWFR did not only focus on issues related specifically to immigrant
rights, or learning about immigrant communities in the United States. One of the
strongest themes promoted in a variety of ways throughout the ride was political
empowerment and participation in order to gain social justice and change. The
participation of political dignitaries in every host city across the nation, speaks to the
importance of immigrant populations in general, it does not explain how these
traditionally disenfranchised groups –who may not be allowed to vote, can impact
and influence voter turn out and election campaigns. IWFR participants' political
participations took the form of 1) advocating for or against specific legislative
initiatives; and 2) active lobbying of congressional leaders to solicit for more
immigrant friendly policies that would help actualize the primary principles of the
ride.
Through out the ride, three main legislative initiatives were discussed.
Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (the DREAM Act), a
bipartisan bill sponsored by Senator Orin Hatch (R-UT) and Senator Richard Durbin
(D-IL). This act would,
Immigrant students who have grown up in the U.S., graduated from
high school here, and can demonstrate good moral character would
initially qualify for "conditional lawful permanent resident" status,
which would normally last for six years. During the conditional
period, the immigrant would be required to go to college, join the
military, or work a significant number of hours of community service.
At the end of the conditional period, those who meet at least one of
205
these requirements would be eligible for regular lawful permanent
resident status. (National Immigration Law Center, 2003)

This initiative, if passed, would impact immigrant communities by increasing future
earning potential for students, which could generate a larger tax base for
government. In addition, students would have greater access to resources that makes
education more accessible.
The second initiative participants lobbied for was” Agricultural Jobs,
Opportunity, Benefits, and Security Act of 2003” This initiative (S-1645 and HR
3142) sponsored by Senator Larry Craig (R-ID) in the US Senate and Representative
Chris Cannon (R-UT) and developed in conjunction with the United Farm Workers
of America. This bill would,
The legislation has two components. First, the bill would create an
earned adjustment program for undocumented farm workers who
would be eligible to apply for temporary immigration status based on
their past work experience, and who could adjust to permanent
resident status upon satisfaction of the program's prospective
agricultural work requirement. The spouse and minor children may
adjust to permanent resident status once the farm worker does so.
Second, the bill would reform the existing H-2A foreign agricultural
guest worker program by reducing much of the “red tape” of which
farm employers have long complained, while at the same time
preserving and enhancing key labor protections for the guest workers.

This bipartisan bill would significantly impact farm workers and their families. For
unions this represents ways that they can try and advocate for better immigration
policies for immigrant workers. This bill was a significant part of the agenda
because of its affiliation with the United Farm Workers.
206
Lastly, riders advocated against the Clear Law Enforcement for Criminal
Alien Removal Act of 2003 (CLEAR Act). This bill would,
State and local law enforcement personnel are fully authorized to
investigate, apprehend, or remove aliens in the United States
(including interstate transportation of such aliens to detention centers)
in the enforcement of U.S. immigration laws; and (2) a State that
does not have a statute permitting enforcement of Federal
immigration laws within two years of enactment of this Act shall not
receive certain Federal incarceration assistance. Amends the
Immigration and Nationality Act with respect to illegal aliens to: (1)
establish criminal penalties and forfeiture for aliens unlawfully
present in the United States; (2) increase specified criminal and civil
penalties for illegal entry and failure to depart violations; and (3)
provide for payment of funds from certain civil penalties to State and
local law enforcement agencies for apprehension of such aliens.

The CLEAR Act presented a danger to many immigrant communities because it
gave power and authority to all law enforcement agencies to act as border agents.
This law had the potential of leading to more racial profiling, raids on communities,
and additional targeting of immigrant communities.
Congress was debating each of these three initiatives. Participants lobbied
for or against legislation in each of the states in order to generate public awareness of
the impacts regarding these laws. The goal, was to generate enough interest across
the country to have an impact on the day that all 1000 IWFR participants were
lobbying on Capital Hill in Washington DC.
The second way that IWFR participants were politically active was when
they met with Congressional leaders from their district. Many of the immigrant men
and women had never been a part of lobbying at local, state, or national levels. As
one Latina noted, “I wouldn’t think about talking to politicians because I did not
207
think they care about what matters to me.” Another Latina said, “I’ve lived here a
long time, and I am not sure what my voice can do to change anything. Politicians
don’t always pay attention to what my communities needs, Does going to talk help?”
The congressional meetings included many extremely sad stories about their
experience migrating to the United States, or about the death of a loved one because
of lack of health care. Others told long stories about the ways they were treated on
jobs talking about harassment, sexism, and violent threats. One woman said, “I
want citizenship, so I can vote, so I can change things so they aren’t bad like what I
went through.” Other men and women disclosed their experiences in crossing
illegally into the US so that they had the opportunity to send money back to their
families, and make a better life.
The disclosure of legal status to the congressional leaders was interesting.
While making visible the way their residency status impacts their lives, they also put
themselves at risk of a number of legal problems. The lobby day on capitol hill was
set up in large part by the National AFL-CIO and HERE. The unions, using their
considerable influence, managed to schedule meetings for the riders so that they
would ideally meet with congressional members from their State and/or District.
Organized labor’s influence created a space where immigrants could talk rather
candidly about the social and political conditions that exist in their daily lives.
What is unique about this situation is that organized labor provided a
relatively safe space in which traditionally silenced groups could speak candidly with
political leaders about legislative policies impacting their lives. What this lobbying
208
experience showed was ways in which institutions can serve as intermediaries for
immigrants, by creating the space where they can talk with the officials who
influence policies at all levels. With some protection afforded them by the influence
of organized labor, immigrants can begin to exercise a type of social citizenship that
is deeply politicized and critically dialogues and informs arenas once reserved solely
for formal citizenship.
GENDER, LEADERSHIP, AND THE IMMIGRANT WORKERS FREEDOM RIDE
The IWFR represents a significant departure from organizing campaigns
conducted by labor unions. In essence, this campaign attempted to actualize the
changes the New Labor Movement advocated. One of the simplest indicators of
increased participation of women is the demographics –two thirds of the IWFR
participants in the Los Angeles bus were women. This participation rate is not
necessarily surprising, given the labor force shifts Los Angeles and other large urban
regions in the United States. Immigrant women work disproportionately in the
service sector –the areas with the greatest representation on the freedom ride.
The impact of gender in this campaign cannot simply be attributed as part of
an outgrowth of demographics because it diminishes and negates the substantive
contributions made by women on this campaign. One particular aspect of this
campaign that cannot be ignored is the influence on the political advocacy of this
campaign. Research conducted by both the AFL-CIO and academics point to the
disparity between the policy initiatives these women workers prioritize importance
and the actual policy slate promoted by unions (Bronfenbrenner 2004, Clawson
209
2005). In this campaign, one of the central policy areas influenced by women was
advocacy for family reunification.
During her interview, Maria Elena Durazo noted that one of the major
concerns that repeatedly came up across all unions, non-profits, and workers were
the significant obstacles that immigrant families face.
For these workers, particularly women, daily struggles manifest
themselves in many ways. For some, it is the high cost of child-care
when they can barely make ends meet. Many have told me they often
do not get to see their spouses because they work different shifts in
order to watch the kids. However, I think that one of the most
pressing family related policies that needs to be addressed is family
reunification. So many workers, particularly women, talk about
working not just years but decades away from their families –and that
they don’t raise their own kids.

The long separation of immigrants from their family is not a new phenomenon and
was present even during the earliest immigrant migration flows into the United
States. However, the immigrant workers arriving in the United States particularly at
the turn of the 20
th
century were men. The contemporary picture includes large
numbers of women who work away from their families, sending remittances to cover
the costs related to the care of the workers children and families in their country of
origin. The gendered dimension to migration creates new challenges to both the
construction of care-giving and family –which are well documented within
international migration literature. (Hondagneu Sotelo and Avila 199X, Espiritu 2000,
Milkman 2005). What makes the advocacy of family reunification significant, in the
case of the IWFR, is that it stems directly from experiences of women working in the
210
service industries represented, and is part of a larger ‘working families’ agenda that
is centered on the unique work experiences of all women in the workplace.
While policy is one concrete area where gender played a significant role in
the ideological development of the ride –it is impossible to ignore the leadership role
that women (specifically immigrant women) played in the conceptualization,
organization, political direction, implementation, and participation in the IWFR. A
quick survey of the leadership of the largest labor unions highlights the fact that
white males still play a majority role in leading international labor federations and
unions. However, from its inception within HERE, it is women union and immigrant
workers that facilitated the growth of this campaign. The woman gaining the most
notoriety and political cache from this campaign was Maria Elena Durazo. This
platform, say some insiders, was to serve as the launching point for considering
Maria Elena Durazo as the future Executive Secretary Treasurer of the HERE
International. Her rise to this position remains unrealized. The second person to
acknowledge in this discussion is Marilyn Sneiderman the Director of Field
Mobilization. Prior to her involvement in the organization and development of the
IWFR, the AFL-CIO was largely absent from participating in any aspect of the ride.
Although the National AFL-CIO appointed some women and people of color into
leadership positions, numerous questions still existed regarding its commitment to
dedicating significant resources to mobilizing and organizing the ‘new American’
worker. It was her specific commitment to the IWFR that led to the AFL-CIO’s
involvement with the campaign.
211
However, one of the most significant roles that the IWFR played was in
training immigrant women workers in all aspects of leadership and organizing. For
example, on the Los Angeles buses, leadership development came in many forms.
Some women developed their public speaking skills --learning how to effectively
communicate their stories not only to audiences, but the press as well. Others served
as key tactical organizers for the first time ---despite the fact that they had never
played a significant role within their home union. For some of the women, the ways
that the ride impacted them did not become evident until the returned home. One
interviewee notes, “When I got back, I felt that I needed to do more. I went to things
before with the union, but I needed to do something to explain what I had seen, to be
more involved. Simply being there was not enough.” Another woman said, “I felt
more powerful because I knew I wasn’t alone. I told my friends that it wasn’t just us
and I worked to get more people involved.” The experience on the ride provided
tools, training, and experiences that were an important part of their growth and
development as leaders within their unions and communities.
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
The Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride provides a unique example of the
ways in which organized labor can take on social justice projects that move beyond
traditional models for organized labor. The organizational strategy of the ride
addresses very complicated organizational, institutional, and political issues. The
proliferation of a more global immigrant workforce has created fractures in the labor
market between groups that are laboring in the low wage service sector of the United
212
States. While the organization and strategies of the ride clearly integrate the
complexity of the contemporary labor market, it still remains to be seen whether a
long term coalition between African American workers and Immigrant workers can
be achieved. Economic competition, and the changing workforce along with limits
to job growth may create more competition and conflict then coalition.
Arguments regarding the continued salience of citizenship, while accounting
for the dramatic changes in the global economy and labor markets, fail to adequately
theorize ways that citizenship functions differentially based on occupational or class
status. For workers on the Freedom Ride, dual or flexible citizenship is not a reality.
Furthermore, discussions of social and cultural citizenship do not adequately account
for the ways that immigrants are create real social and political change.
The history of difference between immigrants and American born minorities
are often invisible in discussions of the labor market, coalition development, or racial
politics. The Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride provided an opportunity for
different racial and ethnic groups to discuss issues of diversity and difference. Labor
market competition often makes it difficult to see each marginalized group to
acknowledge others as allies. Similarities in experiences or class status become
invisible. The negotiations that are made in attempting to bring these groups
together are central to the reconstruction and redefining of a worker identity. The
IWFR is just one example of the ways that the labor movement can try and broaden
understandings of worker identity in the United States.
213
CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSIONS
Union’s today are complicated, and explaining the current split between
international unions is complex. The split between AFL-CIO unions and Change to
Win unions is not about being dedicated to different goals because they are both
equally committed to helping working families. In many ways, it’s more a question
of how they organize to meet those goals –do they stay the course, or do they work to
find new and innovative ways to meet the unique challenges of today’s economy, and
continue to fight injustices in light of the increased ability of companies to sustain
losses for longer periods of time.

--Maria Elena Durazo, Executive Secretary Treasurer,
Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, May 16, 2007

In the five years since this project was first initiated, the face of organized
labor has changed. The hope and promise generated by the election of the New
Voice Campaign that sought to change the trajectory of organized labor, and unite
the labor movement behind a collective strategy privileging diversity, international
solidarity, and workers rights has dissipated. In its wake is a fractured national labor
movement whose split can be attributed to growing disagreements on how to allocate
precious but limited union resources; who to organize; and how to organize. The
AFL-CIO and the Change to Win Coalition now represent the US Labor Movement
–and despite holding the common goal of improving the lives of workers, differences
in political and organizational prioritization, as well as best-practice methods for
organizing workers have created a rift in an AFL-CIO organization that once fought
to unify under new guiding principles. Individuals that were once allies (e.g. John
Sweeney and John Wilhelm) who worked for the same union and promoted the same
causes now have acrimonious relationships due to this division. While the
214
devolution of the AFL-CIO coalition surprised many both within the labor
movement and political watchers, the strains were evident even from the
inauguration of the New Voice ticket. What was relatively unexpected was the fact
that the unions that promoted the ticket into power, found themselves at odds with
these individuals and, in the end, deserted the very leaders they once hoped would
change and reform the labor movement.
In this chapter, I highlight key interventions the findings of this project make
into understandings of the Labor Movement, the definition of worker, and the
multiple meanings of citizenship –particularly as it waits to mezzo-level
organizations. I examine ways that the tenets of the New Labor Movement have
informed change and the limits to those changes. I compare and contrast ways that
the meaning of citizenship is operationalized in the practices of the unions in this
project. Finally, this chapter highlights how understandings of work and worker are
transformed in the new global economy. The concluding section of this chapter
reviews limitations and potential new directions for future research.
As an activist and organizer, I began this project with the altruistic intentions
of finding ways to improve an organization I viewed as instrumental to social justice
for workers –specifically immigrant workers. Since Los Angeles served as my
geographic entry point into the labor movement, I benefited from the simple fact that
this city and county were central to what researchers called the “New Labor
Movement” Organized labor’s relative success in building successful campaigns,
incorporating immigrant workers, and building political capital to influence policy
215
mandates were instrumental in using Los Angeles labor unions as the focal point of
this study. This project could have evolved into a story that merely evaluated the
performance of unions, and an examination of their practices, however, what became
increasingly apparent as the project progressed is that the historic experiences that
bound together narratives of race, citizenship, and work still exist. The discourse
that once connected the meaning of worker inextricably to whiteness, citizen, and
masculinity is struggling to evolve and change and incorporate a more universal
definition that revolves around the global worker citizen. The struggle to redefine
what worker and by extension union member means threatens the labor movement’s
future. This struggle also includes the ability of this global worker citizen to make
rights claims against the state –an entity that even now, struggles to redefine
boundaries, belonging, and meanings of the nation. Studying the contemporary US
Labor Movement is synonymous with studying the changing meaning of citizenship
in a global era.
WHAT’S NEW ABOUT THE NEW LABOR MOVEMENT?
The dissolution of the many relationships that grounded the AFL-CIO
coalition posed a difficult obstacle in writing a conclusion to this dissertation that
was both timely and relevant. In retrospect, the tensions and negotiations of meaning
around work, citizenship, and change were indicators of the fractures leading to the
secession of the unions that subsequently joined Change-to-Win. My initial goal for
this project was to examine what happens when the ideological goals, such as those
proposed as part of the New Voice Campaign platform met the proverbial road –
216
otherwise known as the day-to-day real world struggles of workers, as well as the
normative practices, procedures and strategies of labor unions by examining the
evolution of praxis for organized labor. What happens when a union was provided
with an opportunity to respond to social change by reinventing or creating new
organizational practices? What did transformation look like, and what did “change”
mean?
Researchers writing on the resurgence of labor in the late 1990’s and early
part of 2000’s point to the tremendous growth of unions –particularly in the Southern
California region, as indicators if a ‘new’ labor movement (Matsios 1999, Zabin
2000, Fantasia & Voss 2004, Milkman 2004). The significance of this particular
resurgence, according to both union officials and academics, was tied to specific
differences and divergences from unionism’s past. Similar to the turn of the century,
immigrant workers remain an important part of the labor force, however,
contemporary migration created a much more diverse labor force, one that according
to Ruth Milkman (2004) is, “more predisposed to collective action” (187). Diversity,
however, expands beyond race or ethnicity –today’s workforce is also increasingly
gendered, with women constituting a significant percentage of the service sector.
Furthermore, the labor market shows class bifurcation in many industries where
immigrants work. Immigrant workers are consistent paid less for doing the same
work in jobs ranging from service work to engineering (Bureau of Labor Statistics
217
2005). This diversity, combined with Los Angeles’ unique history
49
created ideal
conditions for reconfiguring the labor movement in this region. However, dynamic
the growth was in the Southern California region, the AFL-CIO, had difficulties
implementing these ideals nationally, and as demonstrated in this dissertation, within
some unions. Despite the desire to create greater international collaboration and
solidarity with workers around the globe and invest more resources into organizing,
the actual implementation proved contentious and idealistic.
The findings of this project and subsequent changes to the AFL-CIO,
particularly between 2005 and 2007
50
, highlight differences between stated
intentions and actual implementation. The election platform of the New Voice
campaign and the stated goals of the New Labor Movement provided a powerful
rallying point for the types of change necessary for making the labor movement
relevant to the contemporary labor force and the current political-economic
conditions. The tensions central to the election of a new leadership had repercussions
beyond the immediate election in 1999, The disagreements on policy, the future
directions of the labor movement, and immigration remain a salient and influential
part of the running of the AFL-CIO, even today.
As noted in Chapter One, the New Labor Movement was founded on four
main goals: 1) investing significant resources towards organizing efforts at all levels
of the labor movement; 2) promoting diversity and participation; 3) building and

49
Ruth Milkman argues that the Los Angeles’ unique labor history created conditions ideal for rebuilding a movement absent
of the historic prejudices and ‘old guard politics’ that prevent other cities from fully changing or divorcing itself from its past.
These dynamics combined with innovative leadership helped the LA labor movement gain momentum.

50
The unions that joined the Change-to-Win coalition left AFL-CIO during this time period.
218
maintaining a political presence, and; 4) greater international solidarity (Matsios
2001). The three case studies of this project highlight both the potential of a
reinvigorated labor movement, as well as the limitations of theory without a well
executed practice.
This project’s findings make three interventions into existing literature on the
New Labor Movement. First, this project highlights the varying degrees to which
unions developed internal mechanisms (infrastructure) to address contemporary
labor and employment dynamics. Second, unions differ significantly in the practices
and procedures put in place to create and foster diversity, not only in terms of
demographics but also in perspectives, policies, and organizational philosophy.
Finally, this project highlights ideological adaptations of unions, where meanings of
worker, citizenship and empowerment differ from organization to organization.
Comparison of these case studies highlights vast differences in each unions approach
to the changing labor market, and the varying degrees of success or failure that result
from each unions’ responses.
Previous research highlighting immigrants and the labor movements
highlights a grassroots incorporation of immigrant workers into unions and the
movement that focused on the measures immigrants (Fisk & Mitchell 2000,
Milkman & Wong 2003, Clawson 2003). This perspective promotes the ideal that
successful labor change occurs from below, thus giving the impression that unions
are tangentially involved in this change. While workers are instrumental to creating
dynamic change for unions, it is equally important to understand how labor
219
organizations need to implement structural changes internally in order to create the
space for greater diversity and immigrant incorporation. While the New Voice
Campaign promised a greater ‘commitment of resources,’ it remains unclear what
this means. The meaning of ‘resources,’ in this dissertation, varied and referred to:
money, personnel, or services. Existing research fails to explicate this point.
Variation in the application and defining of resources explain the success or lack of
success experienced in each of the studies.
The SEIU 434b campaigns insights that demonstrate how the development of
the infrastructure involves the building of programmatic and political relationships
that connect with workers everyday lived experiences. This two pronged approach
focused on developing institutionalized tools that not only serviced members but also
linked the organization to the workers both structurally and personally. 434b’s
approach focused on organizing more workers into the union, and developing
political capital that nfluenced change. Organizers felt that these components were
mutually constituted; and as such must be worked at simultaneously. 434b’s
approach blends together two specific modles of unionism: 1) the social service
model where the union provides a social safety net and provides services such as
retirement, for its membership; and, 2) social movement unionism that advocates for
social and human rights for all workers. 434b’s success was based balancing these
two roles. 434b worked at securing services for their members including:
retirement/pension resources, Medicare benefits, and contract negotiations. These
services were important to unions as a strategy for providing and securing middle-
220
class benefits and jobs, which is a central tenet of SEIU’s working families’
campaign (Stepan-Norris & Zeitlin 1996).
In line with the history of service provision, SEIU 434b designed resources
relevant to their workforce. One example of this is the residency, citizenship and
naturalization workshops. Many workers of SEIU 434b could not afford these
services and those eligible for permanent residency or citizenship did not apply
because they were unfamiliar with the necessary documentation; could not
financially afford advice; or simply did not realize they were eligible.
This program provided workers with an important and valued resource, while
simultaneously providing 434b with an opportunity to gain and sustain greater levels
of influence among workers because of the union’s ability to address pressing
everyday concerns of workers. Second, 434b’s had a positive impact by
institutionalizing simple practices that provided members with the ability to share or
voice concerns with one another. For example, the union addressed the immense
diversity of their membership by having multi-lingual staff, organizers, written
materials, and most importantly simultaneous translation equipment, that ensured
that the membership understood the issues, other members’ concerns, and what was
occurring at union sponsored events. The dedication of resources helped recruit new
members, and maintain and sustain a very diverse membership. Provision of
resources normally inaccessible to workers helped create a social contract between
members and the union. This social contract between workers and the union created
an implicit agreement that the union will assist and work on issues that impact
221
worker’ everyday lives. Workers help the union gain political leverage by working
on campaigns for candidates, policies, and social issues the union supports. Both
parties gain significant forms of institutional and social capital through this contract,
and can work proactively on creating change. This social contract, then, is integral
to the union’s ability to mobilize workers for key campaigns, elections, and
negotiations. 434b’s ability to bring large numbers of workers is an invaluable
resource on any campaign and are key to their political influence.
The Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride is an example of an ambitious
campaign explicitly developed to promote the New Voice Campaign agenda. This
effort highlighted the power of workers separated by life experiences, history, and
inequality. These workers, often compete with one another for jobs and resources,
which creates strong antagonisms in the workplace and in communities. This
campaign highlighted ways communication and experience create greater connection
and levels of understanding between unions and working communities, and among
the workers themselves. Close examination of the efforts to organize the IWFR
highlight tensions between the key organizers and the national labor movement. The
IWFR provided the unique opportunity to assess the strength of immigrant
organizing throughout the country in two ways: via coalitions developed in major
urban cities; and participation at events across the country. Additionally, the IWFR
developed new relationships between unions and community based organizations
assisting immigrant workers. Rather than setting boundaries around which group
had authorization to organize specific workers, IWFR organizers approached the
222
campaign with the mentality that all organizations doing immigrant rights work were
welcome to participate in the ride. This open call for participation from unions as
well as community based organizations, in relationship to labor unions, represented
an attempt to create new alliances and partnerships. Unions had mixed responses to
new alliances. In cities such as Portland
51
and Houston, the coalition developed into
groups that subsequently worked on other immigrant rights campaigns in the region.
In Los Angeles, however, the alliances were short lived, with the coalition
disbanding within 6 months of the IWFR. This points to the lack of
institutionalization of a broader, cohesive immigrants’ rights agenda within the labor
movement. While the campaign was designed to garner more momentum for
immigrant rights within the union, there was limited response from any union other
than those already involved with the New Voice Campaign or the Immigration
Committee of the AFL-CIO
52
. For these unions, commitment of resources included
money, personnel for coalition development nationally and regionally, and
involvement in the recruitment and sponsorship of riders from all locales. Those
unions involved in this campaign, however, were able to engage in discussions of
immigrant workers and the changing economy in substantively different ways than
prior to the campaign because new pane-ethnic and multiracial alliances helped
bridge gaps of understanding regarding minorities’ relative positions in the job
market, community experiences, and rationales for migrating to the US.

51
Fujiwara, Lynn (2005) Association of Asian American Studies presentation.

52
As mentioned in earlier chapters, the Immigration Committee pushed for large-scale change on the labor movements policy
positions regarding immigrant workers. This committee met high levels of resistance to their reform efforts.
223
The limited involvement of the National AFL-CIO in the campaign however,
is a useful window for understanding the distance that still exists between ideology
and implementation of a pro-immigrant rights agenda. When asked if she could go
back and change any aspect of the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride organizing
process, Maria Elena Durazo responded by saying, “I wouldn’t have put my union
[HERE] in so much debt in order to make it happen. Too much financial
responsibility fell on my union, when others should have stepped up and committed
more of their resources.” While organizers were diplomatic and deliberate in their
discussions of the National AFL-CIO’s involvement in the Immigrant Workers
Freedom Ride, discussions with key national organizers pointed to significant ways
where the organizing committee and the AFL-CIO varied in their approach.
IWFR organizers focused their efforts in two areas: 1) learning about the
experiences of immigrant workers across the United States; and 2) advocating for a
broad immigrant worker policy platform. For organizers, these two areas did not
necessarily need to be attached to a particular union or all unions, because immigrant
workers regardless of who organized with and for them face constant threats to their
livelihood everyday. For the national AFL-CIO, the lack of affiliation to any
particular union fed into the existing perception among many other unions and
workers that immigrants ‘used resources and stole middle-class, jobs.” While the
public stance of the national labor movement supports greater diversification efforts
and a more pro-immigrant platform, divisions within the labor movement still have
224
significant impacts on the commitment of substantive resources by the national labor
movement.
Key figures in the national labor movement, such as John Sweeney and Linda
Chavez Thompson made appearances and gave speeches at the three major rallies
where participants from all 20 buses converged and assembled. The AFL-CIO
investment of resources never moved beyond presence of some leaders, and the
involvement of Marilyn Sneiderman, Director of Field Mobilization for the AFL-
CIO. Important to note, however, is that by her own admission, her involvement
evolved from her own interest in the project, not because she was tasked to lend the
nationals resources in support of this ride. While the IWFR campaign does not
necessarily tell a story about the inner workings of a particular union, the case study
allows for an understanding of the delicate relationships the local and national have
with one another. In addition, the varying understanding of ‘resources,’
‘involvement,’ and commitment of resources at the varying levels exemplifies how
far the national labor movement needs to go into fully incorporating immigrants into
their working families’ agenda.
The Chinese Daily News case study exemplifies, in many ways, the misuse
of resources and an inability to truly integrate immigrants into the existing union
structure. The Newspaper Guild/Communication Workers of America (TNG-CWA)
had a unique opportunity to organize workers from an ethnic newspaper –one of the
few growing areas for print media. However, faced with the opportunity to enact
change within their union, the TNG-CWA found themselves confounded not only by
225
the union busting campaign launched by the Chinese Daily News, but also the
dynamics of the campaign that involved culture and ethnicity. The TNG-CWA
dedicated the time and efforts of international and local staff, organizers, and money
into the CDN campaign. The breadth of the campaign involved a wall to wall
organization of workers, wide-spread publicity, international delegations, and a
prolonged legal battle. Despite the mobilization of these resources, the union lost.
The TNG-CWA case study highlights the types of “non-
quantifiable”resources needed to fulfill the goals of the New Labor Movement. In
order to garner greater diversity within the union, and to address the needs of
immigrant workers and build international solidarity, a campaign must reach beyond
a focus on contracts or legal battles. For workers to feel fully integrated into a union
campaign –particularly prior NLRB recognition, the union must be fully aware of
workers’ lived experiences. In the TNG-CWA case, their lack of understanding of
Taiwanese culture and practices, in addition to the types of immigration concerns the
CDN workers face seriously impacted their ability to retain the number of workers
joining the union. Creating a class-based discourse was not adequate for addressing
or averting the attacks workers faced as part of the union busting campaign. This
case provides a substantive example of the internal work that needs to occur within
unions in order to adequately run and sustain a campaign in support of immigrant
workers. A successful unionization campaign requires that unions work towards
greater levels of cultural competency and understanding. Dedicating physical
resources is not enough to combat union-busting. In addition, as exemplified in this
226
case, lack of true cultural understandings can create a hostile work environment
where workers feel increasingly isolated and vulnerable.
The case studies for this study highlight the varying degrees in which the
New Labor Movement principles are integrated within the organized labor. Unions
with longer histories and more extensive experience working with diverse
populations (e.g. SEIU) are successfully implementing campaigns and union
resources to address the needs of immigrant workers. Just as importantly, they are
putting tools in place that facilitate greater inter-ethnic and inter-racial
communication, thus allowing for the sharing of experiences between workers and a
more sophisticated form of solidarity between workers from diverse backgrounds.
While the IWFR represents one of the first campaigns that implements the principles
of the New Labor Movement, the lack of wide-spread investment by unions, other
than those previously involved in the Immigration Committee that pushed to change
the AFL-CIO’s policy position, points to the difficulties organized labor faces in
addressing the existing tensions between citizens and non-citizen workers.
This tension is not new and has a long standing history within organized
labor (Mink 1988), but is an important point of diversion within the labor movement
that must be addressed systematically if a pro-immigrant, pro-worker agenda is
central to the future of the labor movement. The CDN case study highlights
challenges unions face when initially developing campaigns that incorporate
immigrant workers in what was a predominantly white, citizen member union. The
importance of identity politics must be addressed in order to create a cohesive
227
campaign. Ignoring race, ethnicity, or culture and using the proxy of class cannot
adequately address the experiences of immigrant workers, and makes these workers
susceptible to continued attacks by the company.
CITIZENSHIP AND UNIONISM
As noted in the first chapter, the meaning of citizenship, work, and unionism
are historically intertwined. The development of the US Labor Movement occurred
in response to perceived threats from immigrant workers (Mink 1988, Mantsios
1999, Clawson 2003). Deeply entrenched with labor’s foundation are xenophobic,
racist, and sexist ideologies, that while muted in today’s organized labor movement,
still create tensions regarding who should be accepted in unions. In a recent panel on
the future of the New York labor movement Ed Ott, the Executive Secretary-
Treasurer of the New York City Central Labor Council, said,
Labor unions in places like New York are faced with a very important
question right now. Do we become more open to inviting more people
into this labor movement –and I don’t mean just immigrants but also
organizations that immigrants have created because unions excluded
them, or do we exclude them? The old guard of unionism that is
deeply entrenched here in New York believe that unions should be for
Americans only and unions only, and my belief is that this will
fragment and potentially stall the labor movement in irreparable ways.

Although this statement was made in reference to the New York Labor Movement, it
points to a dilemma faced by all of labor. The three case studies in this study
highlight three different ways for approaching the question of citizenship in the labor
movement.
228
For SEIU 434b, citizenship operates at two levels within the organizations.
The union treats all workers as current of future citizens –meaning that although
some are currently excluded from formal participation in the U.S. government, this is
temporary. The union asks all workers –regardless of citizenship or documented
status to be part of their civic participation activities. Workers are involved in all
aspects of the union campaigns, not just strikes. They canvass neighborhoods during
elections, work phone banks, register voters, and speak publicly about the impact of
specific policies on their lives and livelihood. The result is the creation of a model
where immigrants, despite the fact they are unable to vote, are an integral part of the
formal electoral politics and are socialized into the varying benefits of formal
citizenship, and exercise a form of social citizenship as an empowerment practice.
SEIU 434b, however, does not stop at simply socializing all workers, but
provides resources that assist workers in becoming residents and ultimately citizens.
This ‘Future Citizens’ model for organizing benefits the union by allowing them to
sustain a power base integral for the development of their political capital, while
simultaneously building up voting blocks with immigrant and minority community.
Citizenship, in this model, remains integrally intertwined with understandings of
formal political participation. However, as a union, rather than using lack of formal
citizenship as a way to exclude workers, citizenship becomes a reward or tangible
benefit of union participation.
The Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride campaign highlights a move towards
a more global or universal understanding of citizenship. While the goals of the ride
229
still advocated for the creation of a clear path to citizenship for workers whose
naturalization applications are interminably delayed for years –the public discourse
created by organizers of the ride focused instead on a broader social justice
understanding of citizenship. Citizenship was constructed as being part of a global
community that is interconnected through economic processes and the ideals of
global equality. The IWFR campaign focused its energies on connecting the belief
that ‘no human being is illegal’ and that every person deserve “basic human rights.”
Participants and organizers argue that the economic imperatives that provide work
for these immigrants should mean that these workers have access to rights –
particularly as they relate to work and well-being. This model, falls in line with
much of the globalization literature that argues that citizenship is becoming
increasingly irrelevant in a global economic era (Sassen 2001 Castles & Alastairs
2003).
The biggest impediment to a ‘global citizen’ conceptualization is the
importance of capital to the maintenance of the nation. By focusing solely on human
rights, the IWFR makes the claim that the economic need that creates the work and
affords the lifestyle that Americans have become accustomed should be the impetus
for acknowledging workers’ claims to rights –not their formal citizenship with the
country. In essence, formal citizenship should have no bearing in who has access to
rights. This message, however, goes counter to the hegemonic construction of what
both citizen an democratic participation mean in the United States. This direct
philosophical conflict creates numerous obstacles in trying to gain popular support
230
for immigrant rights because it asks the public to set aside the core values of the
rights of citizens guaranteed by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
The TNG-CWA campaign with the Chinese Daily News demonstrates the
pitfalls a class based campaign can cause. Similar to the IWFR, the TNG-CWA
attempted to argue that workers could make rights claims based on their economic
participation in the United States. TNG-CWA ignored the importance that
conditional residency and lack of formal citizenship in being able to make rights
claims. The corporation capitalized on the implied ‘temporary’ status that comes
along with an immigrant work visa. TNG-CWA’s promotion of the worker-citizen
model that utilizes participation in the labor force as justification for rights claims
failed to account for the dangers that arise for an immigrant whose livelihood and
stay in the United States are dependent on the very company they are organizing
against.
Examinations of these three case-studies highlight the ways that citizenship is
operationalized within union campaigns. For organizations working with
immigrants, this remains an important point for negotiation specifically because of
the jeopardy these workers face in a unionization campaign. While conceptualizing
workers as global citizens is useful in promoting a social movement campaign, it
creates numerous problems when attempting to win union campaigns. Citizenship
does not only have to be constructed as a formal association with a nation state,
unions must acknowledge the power associated with this formal relationship. The
question remains as to how unions can effectively use these multiple constructions of
231
citizenships as tools for promoting union growth, social change, and economic
justice.
CHANGING UNDERSTANDINGS OF THE AMERICAN WORKER
The definition of American worker was integrally tied to the white-male
citizen (Roediger 1997, Glenn 2001). This construction of the American worker
remains at the center of the struggles to change and reform organized labor. While
the global economy and international migration to the United States fundamentally
changed the demographics of the US labor force, organized labor as a whole has
been slow to adapt to these changes. This is exemplified by the predominantly white
male leadership of the 10 largest unions in the United States. The findings of this
project highlight how unions attempt to address the rapid changes in almost every
industry in the United States.
SEIU 434b and the IWFR, which is comprised of unions representing the
service sector, were forced to adapt to the changing economy and workforce much
sooner than many of the manufacturing and trade industries. As such, their
experiences have led to a large-scale reconfiguration of how they understand who
workers are in the United States. Rather than conceptualizing 'American' as a term of
affiliation or membership defined by a workers former citizenship, these unions have
attempted to construct it as a location in which individuals work. This geographic
designation, under this retelling, should afford all workers the rights, opportunities,
and protections of US laws.
232
While these service unions have won concessions in local campaigns, these
regionalized successes have not changed broader understanding of who American
Workers are. While service sector unions changed the landscape of who is
incorporated into the US labor movement, and revitalized union membership on the
whole, this has not led to large scale policy changes or broader ability to work with
worker advocate groups that are not unions. Discussion of the ‘living wage’ and
working families’ agenda plays to the middle class orientation that the labor
movement has always viewed as its stronghold; but ignores the economic class
position of many low-wage immigrant workers.
In the IWFR campaign and within SEIU provide important examples of the
way that women organizers are present and central in these social justice campaigns.
Contrary to the stereotype that immigrant women are docile and willingly participate
in unequal gender relations in work at home, these campaigns showcase women’s
agency, political empowerment, and commitment to social justice. Not only are
women participating in these campaigns for immigrant rights, unionization, and
worker’s rights –but they are central in the planning and execution of these
campaigns. Women in union leadership roles have a very strong presence in the Los
Angeles Labor movement, however, as the IWFR shows women in the upper
echelons of leadership in other geographic regions is limited. Despite the
demographic changes that are diminishing white men’s centrality in service work, all
the president’s of the international unions affiliated with this study are white men.
As the unions change, and strive to become increasingly oriented to the workers in
233
their industries, increasing women’s leadership is key. While Dan Clawson (2003),
correctly asserts that women’s presence in union leadership changes the ways labor
organizations negotiators conceptualize job benefits by bringing the forth the need
for more liberal family leave policies, child care, and new forms of health coverage –
he fails to move beyond child-bearing centered arguments. Immigrant women
change the nature we think about family and work. As noted in immigration
literature, increasingly immigrant women of all national origins leave their homes
and work in service industries in the United States in order to provide for the welfare
of their families (Hondagneu-Sotelo 1994). In all three case studies, immigrant
women workers endured long separations from children, husbands, and other
extended family in order to work. These experiences directly impacted the
immigrant rights platform and the decision to advocate for faster family
reunification. This also motivated immigrant women to participate in lobbying for
laws and rights that gave them a better chance to see their families again.
The unions working with immigrants in the service sector are distinctly
different from those in the manufacturing industries that were once the center piece
for American Unionism. In these arenas, immigrants remain a constant threat to
living wages, job security, and the strength of the union. All three unions in this case
study promote the ideal that workers should no longer be defined as white, male, and
citizen –that instead, workers are those who are subject to the tyranny of companies,
corporations, or employers (even if the employer is the government). However, in
trying to create a more open, class based solidarity among workers fails to
234
adequately address the changing social positions of workers that are related to
inequality based on race, gender, and citizenship.The unions, in each of these case
studies, utilize different practices to varying degrees of success, to address the new
diversity of workers in the American workforce.
The problem with this approach is that it largely ignores existing tensions that
still exist. The redefining of the American worker becomes situational or industry
specific without directly challenging prevailing conceptualizations of the union
worker. While the social realities of the US Labor Force require acknowledgement
of an increasingly diverse labor pool there is a fundamental gap between accepting
immigrants as workers and being considered ‘American workers.’
CONCLUSIONS, CONSIDERATIONS, AND FUTURE RESEARCH
At the beginning of this dissertation I asked “how do unions succeed in an
increasingly anti-union, anti-worker environment?” Data from the three case studies
in this project suggest that successful negotiation and understandings of difference
and broader conceptualizations of citizenship within organizations can help, hinder,
or create different forms of political empowerment for all workers and increase a
union’s success despite the increasingly pro-capitalism, pro-multinational
corporation environment prevalent in global cities.
At first glance, this project examines ways that an organization whose
identity is synonymous with whiteness, citizenship, and masculinity can adapt and
change to the new global economy. The over-simplistic answer is that as the
demographics of the work force will dictate and push the social change that must
235
happen in order for organized labor to be relevant. This answer, however, fails to
adequately address the social, cultural, and ideological shifts necessary for
transforming the union so that it truly reflects the workers and their belief systems.
Success is not impossible, but it requires a well-informed, multi-tiered, and nuanced
campaign that simultaneously works at not only accounting for the diversity of the
work force, but also actively engages in creating new strategies for the inclusion of
new voices. The inclusion of new voices, however, is only effective if the
organization finds ways for all constituents to communicate and learn from one
another. Absent the creation of new visions for creating synergies between the
increasingly diverse workforce, transformation will be limited.
Differences in how to define worker is at the center of regional and national
splits in the labor movement and represents a key hurdle that unions face in
developing a cohesive labor movement. The findings from the three case studies
highlight how unions continue their organizing work despite growing rifts between
labor unions –particularly between those in the service sector and the manufacturing
industries. Creating class discourse and focusing on legal proceedings, as
exemplified in this study highlight the limitations and restrictions involved with this
approach.
The unions examined in this study provide a unique lens for examining how
immigrants are becoming an increasingly important part of their membership and
more importantly their political base. This study highlights some powerful tools that
have worked in creating a dynamic social justice framework where immigrants can
236
exercise political empowerment. However, unions in other industries (e.g.
meatpacking, technology, manufacturing) will face challenges as companies recruit
increasingly large numbers of immigrant workers into their shops. Future research
on the labor movement should examine how these traditionally white-male industries
adapt to increasing diversity in their ranks, noting the ways that inequality plays out
in those forums.
Citizenship remains a very amorphous concept that takes on many forms in
relation to the labor movement. This research highlights ways that unions, in
particular, struggle to understand how citizenship (or lack of) impacts some
immigrant workers. Findings of this study, however, highlight the ways that
citizenship can be used as a powerful tool for mobilization. The power, however, is
in not conforming to one monolithic conceptualization and moving beyond
understanding citizenship as national affiliation. Instead, unions can begin to think
of citizenship as both a political tool and a socialization process that lends itself to
greater immigrant participation.
The union movement, ten years after the initiation of the New Voice
Campaign, finds itself at a new crossroads. While unionization numbers have
increased exponentially in service industries where large number of immigrants and
people of color work, what remains to be seen is how unions that are just now
beginning to witness influxes into their industry respond. The working family’s
agenda currently promoted by the AFL-CIO attaches itself to a solidly middle class
conceptualization of worker –focusing on health and retirement benefits. However,
237
this platform may prove too limiting for truly encompassing all workers who are now
part of the labor movement.
238
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ancheta, A. N. (1998). Race, Rights, and the Asian American Experience. New
Jersey, Rutgers University Press.

Annette Funetes, B. E. (1983). Women in the Global Factory. Boston, South End
Press.

Bonacich, E. (1994). Global production : the apparel industry in the Pacific Rim.
Philadelphia, Temple University Press.

Bonacich, E. and R. P. Appelbaum (2000). Behind the label : inequality in the Los
Angeles apparel industry. Berkeley, University of California Press.

Briggs, V. M. (2001). Immigration and American unionism. Ithaca, N.Y., ILR Press.

Brodkin, K. (2007). Making democracy matter : identity and activism in Los
Angeles. New Brunswick, N.J., Rutgers University Press.

Bronfenbrenner, K., AFL-CIO. Dept. of Economic Research., et al. (1998).
Organizing to win : new research on union strategies. Ithaca, N.Y., ILR
Press.

Bronfenbrenner, K. and T. Juravich (1995). Union organizing in the public sector :
an analysis of state and local elections. Ithaca [N.Y.], ILR Press.

Bronfenbrenner, K. and U.S. Trade Deficit Review Commission. (2000). Uneasy
Terrain the impact of capital mobility on workers, wages, and union
organizing. [Washington, D.C.], U.S. Trade Deficit Review Commission.

Calavita, K. (1995). U. S. Immigration and Policy Responses. Controlling
Immigration: A Global Perspective. P. M. Wayne Cornelius, James
Hollifield. Stanford, Stanford University Press: 55-82.

Calavita, K. (2005). Immigrants at the margins : law, race, and exclusion in Southern
Europe. Cambridge ; New York, Cambridge University Press.

Camacho, A. S. (1999). "On the Borders of Solidarity: Race and Gender
Contradictions in the "New Voice" Platform of the AFL-CIO." Social Justice
26: 79-102.

Castells, M. (2004). The power of identity. Malden, Mass., Blackwell Pub.

239
Chan, S. (1991). The Exclusion of Chinese Women, 1870-1943. Entry Denied:
Exclusion and the Chinese Community in America, 1882-1943. S. Chan.
Philadelphia, Temple University Press: 94-146.

Chang, G. (2000). Disposable domestics : immigrant women workers in the global
economy. Cambridge, Mass., South End Press.

Cheng, L. and E. Bonacich (1984). Labor immigration under capitalism : Asian
workers in the United States before World War II. Berkeley, Calif.,
University of California Press.

Clawson, D. (2003). The next upsurge : labor and the new social movements. Ithaca,
ILR Press.

Delgado, H. L. (1993). New immigrants, old unions : organizing undocumented
workers in Los Angeles. Philadelphia, Temple University Press.

Dreier, P., J. H. Mollenkopf, et al. (2001). Place matters : metropolitics for the
twenty-first century. Lawrence, Kan., University Press of Kansas.

Espiritu, Y. L. (1992). Asian American Panethnicity. Philadelphia, Temple
University Press.

Espiritu, Y. L. (2003). Home bound : Filipino lives across cultures, communities,
and countries. Berkeley, University of California Press.

Fong, T. P. (1994). The first suburban Chinatown : the remaking of Monterey Park,
California. Philadelphia, Temple University Press.

Frank, D. (1999). Buy American : the untold story of economic nationalism. Boston,
Mass., Beacon Press.

Frank, D. (2005). Bananeras : women transforming the banana unions of Latin
America. Cambridge, Mass., South End Press.

Friday, C. (1994). Organizing Asian American labor : the Pacific Coast canned-
salmon industry, 1870-1942. Philadelphia, Temple University Press.

Gabaccia, D. R. and V. Ruíz (2006). American dreaming, global realities : rethinking
U.S. immigration history. Urbana, University of Illinois Press.

240
Gerstle, G. and J. H. Mollenkopf (2001). E pluribus unum? : contemporary and
historical perspectives on immigrant political incorporation. New York,
Russell Sage Foundation.

Glenn, E. N. (2002). Unequal freedom : how race and gender shaped American
citizenship and labor. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press.

Hays, S. (2003). Flat broke with children : women in the age of welfare reform.
Oxford ; New York, Oxford University Press.

Hondagneu-Sotelo, P. (1994). Gendered Transitions: Mexican Experiences of
Immigration. Berkeley, University of California Press, Ltd.

Hondagneu-Sotelo, P. (1999). "Introduction: Gender and Contemporary U.S.
Immigration." American Behavioral Scientist 42(4): 563-564.

Hondagneu-Sotelo, P. (2001). Domestica: Immigrant Workers Cleaning and Caring
in the Shadows of Affluence. Berkeley, University of California Press.

Hondagneu-Sotelo, P. (2003). Gender and U.S. immigration : contemporary trends.
Berkeley, Calif., University of California Press.

Howard Kimeldorf, J. S.-N. (1992). "Historical Studies of Labor Movements in the
United States." Annual Review of Sociology 18: 495-517.

Jayaraman, S. and I. Ness (2005). The new urban immigrant workforce : innovative
models for labor organizing. Armonk, N.Y., M.E. Sharpe, Inc.

Kelley, R. D. G. (1994). Race rebels : culture, politics, and the Black working class.
New York, Free Press.

Kwong, P. (1996). The new Chinatown. New York, Hill and Wang.

Kwong, P. (1997). Forbidden workers : illegal Chinese immigrants and American
labor. New York, New Press.

Levitt, P. (2001). The transnational villagers. Berkeley, University of California
Press.

Levitt, P. and M. C. Waters (2002). The changing face of home : the transnational
lives of the second generation. New York, Russell Sage Foundation.

241
Light, I. H. and E. Bonacich (1988). Immigrant entrepreneurs : Koreans in Los
Angeles, 1965-1982. Berkeley, University of California Press.

Louie, M. C. Y. (2001). Sweatshop warriors : immigrant women workers take on the
global factory. Cambridge, Mass., South End Press.

Lowe, L. (1996). Immigrant Acts: On Asian American Cultural Politics. Durham,
Duke University Press.

Mantsios, G. (1998). A new labor movement for the new century. New York,
Garland Pub.

Martin, P. (1995). The U. S.: Benign Neglect toward Immigration. Controlling
Immigration: A Global Perspective. P. M. Wayne Cornelius, James
Hollifield. Stanford, Stanford University Press: 83-100.

Menjivar, C. (2000). Fragmented Ties: Salvadoran Immigrant Networks in America.
Berkeley, University of California Press, Ltd.

Milkman, R. (1985). Women, work, and protest : a century of US women's labor
history. Boston, Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Milkman, R. (1997). Farewell to the factory : auto workers in the late twentieth
century. Berkeley, University of California Press.

Milkman, R. (2000). Organizing immigrants : the challenge for unions in
contemporary California. Ithaca, N.Y., ILR Press.

Milkman, R. (2006). L.A. story : immigrant workers and the future of the U.S. Labor
Movement. New York, Russell Sage Foundation.

Min Zhou, R. N. (2000). Work and Its Place in the Lives of Immigrant Women:
Garment Workers in New York City's Chinatown. Contemporary Asian
America: A Multidisciplinary Reader. J. V. G. Min Zhou. New York,
London, New York University Press: 254-276.

Mink, G. (1986). Old labor and new immigrants in American political development :
union, party, and state, 1875-1920. Ithaca, Cornell University Press.

Mink, G. R. (1982). The alien nation of American labor : immigration, nativism and
the logic of labor politics in the United States, 1870-1925, Cornell
University, 1982.: ix, 401 leaves.

242
Mollenkopf, J. H. (1988). Power, culture, and place : essays on New York City. New
York, Russell Sage Foundation.

Nakano, M. (1990). Japanese American Women; Three Generations 1890-1990.
Sebastopol, Mina Press Publishers.

Ness, I. (2005). Immigrants, unions, and the new U.S. labor market. Philadelphia,
Temple University Press.

Nissen, B. (1997). Unions and workplace reorganization. Detroit, Mich., Wayne
State University Press.

Nora Hamilton, N. S. C. (2001). Seeking Community In A Global City. Philadelphia,
Temple University Press.

Omi, M. and H. Winant (1994). Racial formation in the United States : from the
1960s to the 1990s. New York, Routledge.

Ong, A. (1999). Flexible Citizenship: The cultural Logics of Transnationality.
Durham, Duke University Press.

Ong, A. (2000). Making the Biopolitical Subject: Cambodian Immigrants, Refugee
Medicine, and Cultural Citizenship in California. Cultural Compass:
Ethnographic Explorations of Asian America. M. F. M. IV. Philadelphia,
Temple University Press: 85-112.

Ong, P. M., E. Bonacich, et al. (1994). The New Asian immigration in Los Angeles
and global restructuring. Philadelphia, Temple University Press.

Pastor, M. (2000). Regions that work : how cities and suburbs can grow together.
Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press.

Paul Ong, J. M. L. (2000). U. S. Immigration Policies and Asian Migration.
Contemporary Asian America: A Multidisciplinary Reader. J. V. G. Min
Zhou. New York, London, New York University Press: 155-174.

Paul Ong, K. U. (2000). Life and Work in the Inner City. Contemporary Asian
America: A Multidisciplinary Reader. J. V. G. Min Zhou. New York,
London, New York University Press: 233-253.

Pegues, J. (1997). Strategies from the Field: Organizing the Asian American
Feminist Movement. Dragon Ladies: Asian American Feminists Breathe Fire.
S. Shah. Cambride, South End Press: 3-16.
243
Pessar, P. R. (1999). "Engendering Migration Studies: The Case of New Immigrants
in the United States." American Behavioral Scientist 42(4): 577-600.

Portes, A., Alex Stepick (1993). City on the Edge: The Transformation of Miami.
Berkeley, University of California Press.

Portes, A. (1995). The economic sociology of immigration : essays on networks,
ethnicity, and entrepreneurship. New York, Russell Sage Foundation.

Portes, A. (1996). The new second generation. New York, Russell Sage Foundation.

Portes, A. and J. DeWind (2007). Rethinking migration : new theoretical and
emperical perspectives. New York, Berghahn Books.

Portes, A. and R. G. Rumbaut (1996). Immigrant America : a portrait. Berkeley,
University of California Press.

Portes, A. and R. G. Rumbaut (2001). Legacies : the story of the immigrant second
generation. Berkeley New York, University of California Press ;
Russell Sage Foundation.

Portes, A., R. n. G. Rumbaut, et al. (2007). Children of Immigrants Longitudinal
Study (CILS), 1992-1995. Ann Arbor, Mich., Inter-university Consortium for
Political and Social Research [distributor].

Robertson, R. (1996). Globalization: Social Theory and Global Culture. Lodon, Sage
Publications Ltd.

Roediger, D. R. (1999). The wages of whiteness : race and the making of the
American working class. London ; New York, Verso.

Rony, D. F. (2000). "Coalitions, Race and Labor." Journal of Asian American
Studies: 139-162.

Ruíz, V. (1987). Cannery women, cannery lives : Mexican women, unionization, and
the California food processing industry, 1930-1950. Albuquerque, University
of New Mexico Press.

Ruíz, V., J. R. Chávez, et al. (2008). Memories and migrations : mapping Boricua
and Chicana histories. Urbana, University of Illinois Press.

244
Rumbaut, R. G. and A. Portes (2001). Ethnicities : children of immigrants in
America. Berkeley, New York, University of California Press; Russell Sage
Foundation.

Saito, L. T. (1998). Race and Politics: Asian Americans, Latinos, and Whites in a
Los Angeles Suburb. Urbana, University of Illinois Press.

Sanchez, G. J. (1993). Becoming Mexican American : ethnicity, culture, and identity
in Chicano Los Angeles, 1900-1945. New York, Oxford University Press.

Sassen, S. (1998). Globalization and Its Discontents: Essays on the New Mobility of
People and Money. New York, New York Press.

Sassen, S. (2001). The global city : New York, London, Tokyo. Princeton, N.J.,
Princeton University Press.

Sassen, S. (2006). Cities in a world economy. Thousand Oaks, Calif., Pine Forge
Press.

Sklair, L. (2002). Globalization : capitalism and its alternatives. Oxford, Oxford
University Press.

Stepan-Norris, J. and M. Zeitlin (2003). Left out : Reds and America's industrial
unions. Cambridge ; New York, Cambridge University Press.

Strom, E. A. and J. H. Mollenkopf (2007). The urban politics reader. London ; New
York, Routledge.

Tuan, M. (1998). Forever foreigners or honorary whites? : the Asian ethnic
experience today. New Brunswick, N.J., Rutgers University Press.

Tyner, J. A. (1999). "The Global Context of Gendered Labor Migration From the
Phillippines to the United States." American Behavioral Scientist 42(4): 671-
689.

Villa, R. and G. J. Sanchez (2005). Los Angeles & the future of urban cultures : a
special issue of American quarterly. Baltimore, Md., Johns Hopkins
University Press.

Waldinger, R. D. and M. Bozorgmehr (1996). Ethnic Los Angeles. New York,
Russell Sage Foundation.

245
Waldinger, R. D. and M. I. Lichter (2003). How the other half works : immigration
and the social organization of labor. Berkeley, Calif., University of California
Press.

Wang, L. L.-c. (2000). Race, Class, Citizenship, and Extraterritoriality: Asian
Americans and the 1966 Campaign Finance Scandal. Contemporary Asian
America: A Multidisciplinary Reader. J. V. G. Min Zhou. New York,
London, New York University Press: 518-534.

Waters, M. C. (1999). Black identities : West Indian immigrant dreams and
American realities. New York, Cambridge, Mass., Russell Sage Foundation ;
Harvard University Press.

Waters, M. C. (1999). Black Identities: West Indian Immigrant Dreams and
American Realities. Cambridges, Harvard University Press.

Waters, M. C., R. Ueda, et al. (2007). The new Americans : a guide to immigration
since 1965. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press.

Wilson, J., M. Marable, et al. (2006). Race and labor matters in the new U.S.
economy. Lanham, Rowman & Littlefield.

Wilson, W. J. (1980). The Declinging Significance of Race: Blacks and Changing
Americans Institutions. Chicago, University of Chicago Press.

Wilson, W. J. (1996). When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor.
New York, Vintage Books.

Winant, H. (2004). The new politics of race : globalism, difference, justice.
Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press.

Woo, D. (2000). Glass Ceilings and Asian Americans: The New Face of Workplace
Barriers. Walnut Creek, Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

Zinn, H., D. Frank, et al. (2001). Three strikes : miners, musicians, salesgirls, and the
fighting spirit of labor's last century. Boston, Beacon Press.
246
APPENDIX A: INTERVIEW SCHEDULES
Interview Template: Workers

1. First Name

2. Age

3. Place of Birth

4. Date of Birth

5. Ethnicity/Race

6. Union affiliation

7. If applicable: when did you migrate to the United States, how old were you?
Why did you come to the United States? Did you come to the United States
with your family? If yes, who?

8. Do you remember how you immigrated to the United States?

9. Can you please describe how you immigrated to the Untied States?

10. What jobs have you worked at while here in the United States? How did you
get the job? How long did you work at each job? Did you know anyone at
the different places that you worked?

11. Where do you work now? How long have you worked for this company?
What type of work do you do?

12. Are you member of a union? When did you join the union? Did the
company have a union when you first started working for them? Have you
ever participated in a union before? If so, when and where?

13. Why did you form a union/join a union? If a specific person influenced your
decision, what convinced you?

14. What services or benefits did you expect to receive as a union member? Did
you receive them? Please explain answer. Were their particular services and
benefits you received that you did not expect to? Please explain.

15. Has being a union member helped you? If yes, how? If no, why not?
247

16. What have you learned from being a union member? What do you think your
union, and other members have learned from you.

17. What types of activities do you participate in with your union? Had you ever
participated in these activities before? If no, what made you decide to
participate now?

18. Please tell me about the current campaigns and activities you participate in?
What has been the most challenging or difficult part? Did you experience
any problems with your employers because of your participation? If yes,
please describe. Did the union assist you in overcoming these difficulties?
Please discuss your answer

19. Do you feel that the union understands your culture? Family life?
Community? Please explain your answer. Please give specific examples.

20. What challenges do you feel immigrant workers face that differ from non-
immigrants ?

21. If you had a chance to participate in the campaign again, would you? Why or
why not?

22. Would you like to add any additional thoughts or observations?
248
Organizers Interview Template:

1. Age

2. Place of Birth

3. Date of Birth

4. Ethnicity/Race

5. Union affiliation

6. If applicable: when did you migrate to the United States, how old were you?
Why did you come to the United States? Did you come to the United States
with your family? If yes, who?

7. Do you remember how you immigrated to the United States?

8. Can you please describe how you immigrated to the Untied States?

9. What jobs have you worked at while here in the United States? How long did
you work at each job? Did you know anyone at the different places that you
worked? Were you involved in a union at that workplace?

10. When did you become a union organizer? How long have you worked in this
capacity? What motivates you to work as an organizer? Why did you decide
to organize workers? Is this your first campaign? If not, how many other
campaigns have you worked on?

11. What are some of the most beneficial experiences that you’ve had as a union
organizer? Please describe.

12. What benefits do you think your union offers workers? What about
immigrant workers specifically?

13. What do you find most challenging about being an organizer? Do you feel
supported by the union work for? Please discuss your answer?

14. What campaign are you working on now? Please describe in detail.

15. Please discuss the difficulties that workers face on this campaign? How did
you learn about these challenges? Were there difficulties and challenges that
surprised you? If so, in what ways?
249

16. What are some of the challenges you face on this campaign? What strategy
did the union have in place to address these challenges? Do you feel the
strategy was success? If yes, in what ways? If no, in what ways?

17. Reflecting on your experiences with the unions, what challenges do you think
workers, organizers, and unions face in relationship to the companies they
organize against?

18. How have companies reacted to worker campaigns? Were you surprised by
their response? If so, in what ways?

19. What obstacles and challenges do you feel that immigrant workers face that
differ from non-immigrant workers? Why?

20. What things do you think that the union can do to better address workers
needs?

21. Do you have any additional thoughts you would like to add?
250
APPENDIX B: AFL-CIO UNION HISTORY

251

252

253

254

255

256

257

Abstract (if available)

Linked assets

University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

Conceptually similar

PDF

Enterprising citizenship: Mexican immigrant empowerment and public-private partnerships in Santa Ana, California

PDF

Challenging migrant worker policies in Korea: settlement and local citizenship

PDF

Multiracial politics or the politics of being multiracial?: Racial theory, civic engagement, and socio-political participation in a contemporary society

PDF

Se ve, se siente: transmedia mobilization in the Los Angeles immigrant rights movement

PDF

Radical crossings: from peasant rebellions to internationalist multiracial labor organizing among Japanese immigrant communities in Hawaii and California, 1885–1935

PDF

Grassroots market-making: the production, policing and politics of value in Los Angeles’ transforming cannabis industry

PDF

Toward counteralgorithms: the contestation of interpretability in machine learning

PDF

The progressive dilemma: grassroots liberals, the Democratic Party, and the search for political power in mid-twentieth century America

PDF

Relational displacements: visual and textual cultures of resistance in the east Los Angeles barrios and banlieues of Paris, France

Asset Metadata

Creator Lum, Belinda C. (author)

Core Title Immigrants and Los Angeles labor unions: negotiating empowerment, politics, and citizenship

School College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Degree Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Program Sociology

Publication Date 11/09/2008

Defense Date 09/08/2008

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag ethnic studies,identity politics,immigration,labor movements,OAI-PMH Harvest,Race,Work

Place Name California (states), Los Angeles (city or populated place)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Saito, Leland (committee chair), Sotelo, Pierrette Hondagneu (committee member), Wong, Janelle S. (committee member)

Creator Email b.lum@sandiego.edu,bclum1974@gmail.com

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-m1757

Unique identifier UC1143821

Identifier etd-Lum-2451 (filename),usctheses-m40 (legacy collection record id),usctheses-c127-136455 (legacy record id),usctheses-m1757 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier etd-Lum-2451.pdf

Dmrecord 136455

Document Type Dissertation

Rights Lum, Belinda C.

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Repository Name Libraries, University of Southern California

Repository Location Los Angeles, California

Repository Email cisadmin@lib.usc.edu