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11-26-07, 12:02 pm
OAKLAND, CA - 21NOVEMBER07 - Airport security workers at the Oakland airport hold an organizing meeting and then receive food in a food distribution organized by Pilipino Association of Workers and Immigrants (PAWIS), Filipinos for Affirmative Action, Service Employees Local 1877, and the Alameda County Central Labor Council. Workers, most of whom are Filipino immigrants, are trying to join Local 1877, and in one of the airport's two terminals recently won union recognition in a card check. They are poorly paid and often work just a few hours a week, so the food distribution was organized to help their families celebrate Thanksgiving. Workers accuse the security companies that employ them of discriminating against them, refusing to recognize their union rights, and not paying the wages and benefits mandated by Oakland's living wage law. Many were airport screeners before 9/11, and were among the 40,000 workers fired, and then refused rehire because they were not citizens, when the Federal government took over passenger and baggage screening.
--For more articles and images on immigration and work, see http://dbacon.igc.org
See also the photodocumentary on indigenous migration to the US, Communities Without Borders (Cornell University/ILR Press, 2006)
See also The Children of NAFTA, Labor Wars on the U.S./Mexico Border (University of California, 2004)
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(all photos by David Bacon)
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