6-25-07, 12:00 pm

On Tuesday, March 6, 2007 ICE agents in a show of repressive force swooped down on a New Bedford manufacturing plant and arrested 361 undocumented workers. The majority of the workers, mostly women from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Brazil, Cape Verde and Portugal were taken to Fort Devins in the Boston area and then shipped to prisons in Texas and Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Not content to divide these working families ICE attempted to pressure the New Bedford Division of Social Services (DSS) office into putting the motherless and/or fatherless children into foster homes. According to SEIU Local 509 New Bedford Region Vice President Joe Dias “DSS social workers provide protective services to children of abusive/neglectful situations and to families in crisis who request a social worker’s assistance.”

“The New Bedford DSS workers,” Dias added “saw no need to treat the victims of the raid as parents who had done anything wrong to their children and families.”

The Local 509 members saw their role to be that of helpers to the victims of the ICE atrocities. They branched out into the immigrant community to ensure that all the children left behind by the raid on the Michael Bianco shop were picked up from school and had caretakers. They helped the affected families find caretakers and babysitters for all the children.

Three minor children, workers under 17 years of age, were arrested during the raid. They were brought back to Massachusetts by the DSS social workers that had traveled to Texas and elsewhere to visit the Bianco workers. These three teens were provided with voluntary foster home beds. Spanish speaking DSS workers from New Bedford, and several other Massachusetts cities, had volunteered to visit the workers being held, to meet with them to offer help with family and child care issues, on a voluntary basis.

Dias concluded, No family was harassed with legal action by any DSS social worker. I have been told by several of the social workers involved in this effort that, no minor child was involuntarily taken by a DSS social worker into foster care. The social workers made sure that all the children were kept with family members.

This action by the Local 509 members who are basically part of a statewide public sector SEIU local showed how solidarity among workers could make a difference. Contrasted with the fact that a majority of organized labor in Massachusetts did not say a word about the injustices committed by ICE agents this was a breath of fresh air that received very little fanfare if any.

These workers saw the inhumanity of separating families without any concern whatsoever for the children involved in ICE’s actions. They also recognized that the detainees were hard working workers and not criminals. The immigrants in essence were being punished for their exploitation while their exploiter was back in business.

Countless articles in the local press highlighted the plight of the motherless and fatherless children, the rude and cruel treatment suffered by the undocumented workers from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Portugal, Cape Verde and Brazil at the hands of the government agents. The press also commended those from the community and organizations like the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition (MIRA), the churches and the Community Economic Development Center among many others, including the University of Massachusetts – Dartmouth Labor Education Center that came to the aid of the families.

A few of the newspapers discussed the labor law abuses that the undocumented workers were denouncing. These workers were working overtime but not really being paid for it, they were being docked for lateness, for talking while working or taking too long in the restrooms that according to the workers were wholly inadequate. This place was a sweatshop where Hispanics were constantly mistreated by management and paid less than the other workers for basically the same work. The company had more than a million dollars in contracts from the federal government. They manufactured backpacks for the military.

The press and the radio talk shows highlighted the racist and confused response to the violations of these workers’ rights. The local anti-immigrant forces tried to rally the area against the undocumented workers and rained praise on the actions perpetrated by the immigration authorities. The community responded by filling the churches and other designated areas with Pampers, food and other necessities for the families of the undocumented workers. They also contributed money for the workers and their families to the accounts set up by MIRA and other agencies.

Under these circumstances labor educators and labor activists throughout the state began to ask for action and signs of solidarity from the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, the labor councils and the Change to Win unions. Only the Massachusetts Nurses Association condemned the raid for its inhumanity. An international vice president of UNITE HERE!, Warren Pepicelli also spoke up against the raid and the working conditions endured by the undocumented workers.

Workers and labor activists started meeting with the immigrant workers to discuss organizing and what could be done about such things as unpaid overtime and other working conditions. In this sense MassCOSH and the Boston Legal Services along with local legal service attorneys have played an important role in pursuing justice for the workers by documenting the violations of wage and hour laws by Michael Bianco, Inc.
At a rally in solidarity with the victims of the raid held in New Bedford, workers from all over Massachusetts and Rhode Island showed their support for the workers and their families. Representatives from the churches, community agencies, immigrant groups and labor activists made their voices heard loud and clear – stop the abuses, end the raids and worker rights for all. SEIU 1199 and SEIU Local 615 mobilized a huge contingent of rankandfilers and some delegates from the local central labor council.

The AFL-CIO has put forth an excellent position on immigration reform that condemns the push for guest worker programs and highlights the need for labor law reforms that enforce worker rights to organize for everyone.

I was assigned to put forth this position of the AFL-CIO on immigration reform at the New Bedford rally. Without a doubt this position must filter down to the AFL-CIO unions whose silence on this issue in the state of Massachusetts has been deafening. There is a task force from the AFL-CIO and the United Association of Labor Educators working on a pilot program to discuss immigration issues with central labor bodies throughout the country. The New Bedford incident has definitely shown the need for this as local unions and bodies are succumbing to the false propaganda being put out by the right-wing forces on immigrants and the economy.

The CPUSA put out a statement that was clear and to the point and should guide the work of party trade unionists and their allies in the labor movement:

The long-term solution to the immigration issue includes an end to trade and economic policies that enrich corporations while impoverishing workers and small farmers of other countries.

As well it includes the establishment of equal rights for immigrant workers to end the special exploitation of these vulnerable workers.

A united response led by the labor movement, involving civil rights, women, youth, religious, environmental and civic organizations is needed to stop government policies that hurt workers of all nationalities in our country. Demands for decent wages, working conditions and the right to organize will improve living standards for all workers.

We join with elected officials, unions, church groups, and others who have spoken out to call for immediate action:

* Arrested immigrants from New Bedford, Massachusetts and all other raid locations must be released and reunited with their families immediately.

* An immediate moratorium on all immigration raids, arrests, deportations and use of Social Security No-Match letters for immigration enforcement.

* Congress must pass, and the president sign, legislation which does the following:

1. Legalize undocumented immigrants in the United States as quickly and easily as possible.

2. Increase the number of permanent resident visas instead of proliferating and expanding guest worker programs for immigrant workers of the future.

3. Uphold family unity by preventing the deportation of hard-working parents of minor children. Representative Jose Serrano’s Child Citizen Protection Act (HR 1176) is a start in this direction.

4. Repeal employer sanctions that are used to hurt workers. Instead, strengthen and enforce labor law to guarantee that just wage and working conditions are met. Require all government contracts to include standards for wages and working conditions.

5. Repeal legislation that restricts legal rights and access to public services of immigrants paid for by their tax dollars.

6. Stop Bush administration barriers to expeditious due process for permanent residency and citizenship.

7. Stop violence and cruelty against border crossers by Border Patrol and private vigilantes. End militarization of the border; and,

8. Pass the Employee Free Choice Act to allow all workers to organize into unions without harassment and intimidation.

The social workers from Local 509 in New Bedford and the countless labor activists that have stepped up to the plate have given all of us an example of how worker-to-worker solidarity can make a difference.

They have comprehended that this is not just an immigration issue but an issue that above all involves worker rights for all the working people in this country.

Update: The Greater Boston Legal Services announced last May that they had filed a class action suit on behalf of all the Bianco workers. The suit addresses the labor law violations on overtime and fines imposed by the c ompany and was initiated by workers that were victimized by the raid and others who are still inside the plant.

--José Soler is a contributing editor of Political Affairs. Send your letters to the editor to