For over 20 years the Justice for Janitor's campaign has fought back hard on corporate greed demanding decent wages, a voice at work, and basic health coverage for the hard working janitors in America. As President of SEIU USWW we have built, from scratch, a powerful union of mostly immigrant janitors who took up the famous United Farm Worker cry, "si se puede," (yes we can) to cities across California.
Together we took a minimum wage industry that had been de-unionized by the commercial real estate giants and slowly won wage increases, a voice at work and basic medical coverage. At every step the commercial real estate industry fought us, took us for granted and used local police resources to try to resist our cry for justice. In different corners across the country our sisters and brothers in other locals did the same. In tough political climates we have been able to win with our direct action and the public expression of our just cause. A cause all working men and women must have their work valued and rewarded accordingly.
The Occupy movement has captured a frame we have long championed. That it is not that corporations cannot afford to share the wealth we help to produce, but that they are simply too greedy and powerful to do so. To hide their greed the commercial real estate industry has used the tools of government to confuse and divide the 99%. They first said we were unskilled workers who should be happy to be working. They then weakened worker protections to make organizing virtually impossible. The commercial industry pointed to reduced profits, not loses, to argue this was not the time to share their wealth.
Over the last decade the Commercial industry has used immigration as a wedge and campaign to intimidate and, if need be, replace our workers. In President Bush the commercial industry got what it wanted. Bush era Rogue cowboy in the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) department realized that the changing demographics of the nation along with a growing realization of the dependency our nation has for immigrant workers tumbled public support for immigration raids and sweeps in many of our cities. Their strategies shifted to mundane and out of sight, out of mind strategies like traffic stops in Arizona and Alabama and employment reviews elsewhere.
In claiming to refocus immigration enforcement on employers ICE has become a de facto union busting operation for the 1%. In the corporate offices of food processing, janitorial, restaurant, and farming companies ICE has systematically implemented destructive enforcement policies that not only use broken immigration laws, they cut into the unified power Union shops have built. Today, we say enough is enough!
SEIU USWW will launch a statewide campaign in California to expose the Union busting behavior of ICE agents in undermining past and future gains of hard working janitors in our state. Our strongest stand to date will be in San Diego where we will march on ICE to denounce its targeting of immigrant Union industries. As part of our strategy will launch a national petition drive calling on ICE to stop doing the work of the 1%. We demand ICE to bring its agents back into the barn and have them focus on the President's stated policy of targeting the tiny percentage of immigrants who are violent or repeat criminal offenders.
Immigrant workers come to this country fleeing poverty and violence that makes any hope of achievement in their native lands extremely difficult. In many cases, these are displaced workers of the new global economic order. An order led by the West and the United States in particular. While many are welcomed here with open arms and jobs, others are driven into the shadows that are designed to fragment humans into silent and vulnerable labor. But at our union we say, "stand up," "be heard" and keep fighting for your dreams. At our core we understand we are the change we have been waiting for and we are taking that message to ICE straight on.