Thursday, October 17, 2013

I really don't want to hear how labor unions are against immigration reform.

“They’re paying taxes and they’re contributing,” says Eliseo Medina of undocumented immigrants. “What we need, though, is to make sure that they all can be full contributors.”

National labor official (click here) Eliseo Medina was in Milwaukee today, saying immigration reform would help workers.

Opponents of a path to citizenship for undocumented workers sometimes argue that the immigration bill now on hold in Congress would lead to some current U.S. citizens losing their jobs. That’s not the way Medina sees it.

Medina – the recently-retired secretary-treasurer of the Service Employees International Union, who also chairs the SEIU's immigration initiative – says many of the estimated 11 million undocumented people in the United States are already working.

“They’re paying taxes and they’re contributing,” says Medina. “What we need, though, is to make sure that they all can be full contributors.”
He says legalizing undocumented workers will take workers out of the underground economy and lead to job creation for American workers – not job loss. He also says some SEIU members are undocumented, and it's time for them to be able to stop living in fear.

A challenge for the immigration bill, though, is to re-ignite congressional debate over the measure. Congress may have just ended the federal shutdown, but it isn't clear what other measures they plan to take up this fall. Medina says immigration advocates are contacting many members of Congress today.

Medina was in Milwaukee to help honor the pro-immigrant group Voces de la Frontera.

Eliseo Medina (click here) is described by the Los Angeles Times as "one of the most successful labor organizers in the country" and was named one of the "Top 50 Most Powerful Latino Leaders" in Poder Magazine. The International Secretary-Treasurer of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Medina also leads the union's efforts to achieve comprehensive immigration reform that rebuilds the nation's economy, secures equal labor- and civil-rights protections for workers to improve their wages and work conditions and provides legal channels and a path to citizenship. Medina's work to help grow Latino voting strength in the 2012 elections is widely recognized as a key factor in propelling the 2013 debate in Congress over commonsense immigration reform....

...Medina's career as a labor activist began in 1965 when, as a 19-year-old grape-picker, he participated in the historic United Farm Workers' strike in Delano, Calif. Over the next 13 years, Medina worked alongside labor leader and civil rights activist Cesar Chavez and honed his skills as a union organizer and political strategist; eventually rising through the ranks to serve as the United Farm Workers' national vice president....


The UFW Executive Board in 1973 included veteran farmworker organizers and activists:
(l-r) Dolores Huerta, Mack Lyons, Richard Chavez, Cesar Chavez, Eliseo Medina,
Philip Veracruz, Gilbert Padilla, Marshall Ganz and Pete Velasco.