Over 1,400 Los Angeles janitors, members of United Service Workers West SEIU, protested the firing of immigrant workers by Able Building Maintenance. The company has fired workers whose immigration status the company questions, even though the workers have been cleaning the buildings where they work for many years. In protest, workers marched through downtown Los Angeles at lunch hour, stopping in front of buildings where Able has the cleaning contract, and finally sat down in an intersection, stopping traffic.Firings because of immigration status do irreparable harm to workers and to their communities.
At Able Building Maintenance and most other companies in this wave of firings, workers have steady, well-paying union jobs and support many other people in their families. Many have worked in their jobs for over a decade and some for even longer. Marchers asked that Able Maintenance respect their time on the job.
The janitors are not working for the low wages that are common in the worst workplaces. Union janitors make more than minimum wage and have medical and other benefits. That's what people are trying to defend – jobs capable of supporting families. That is the goal of most unions and most working people. Immigrants are no different.
Undocumented workers did not take jobs from anyone. The jobs in these buildings belong to the workers who do them. An immigration check leading to their firing does not create a single job. Instead, it forces people into an underground economy where illegal wages and conditions are prevalent. It does not improve wages and conditions in the workplace. At Able, there already is a union contract in place that guarantees health care and wages that can support families.
These immigrant workers didn't cause the unemployment that plagues millions of families. They didn't close a single plant. Big corporations did. They didn't cause the economic recession or foreclose on anyone's home. Big banks did. They didn't throw money at the banks while failing to establish jobs programs for unemployed workers. The misplaced priorities of successive administrations are responsible for that. The money they've spent on two wars and the defense industry alone could have provided employment to everyone.
If undocumented workers are removed from their jobs, it spells economic disaster for many people, far beyond the workers themselves. Wages fall and the recession gets worse. Employers and workers pay taxes that support local schools and services. The employers have suppliers whose businesses are also harmed. Workers' paychecks inject hundreds of thousands of dollars into local economies every month, which support other businesses and families. All this is placed in jeopardy by mass firings.
Firing and terrorizing people only weakens their ability to unite and fight for something better, as well as any union's ability to adequately represent people. Wages go down when unions and workers are weak. That hurts everyone.
Under the Bush administration, armed agents took workers in handcuffs from their workplaces. Immigration firings are less visible, but their impact is just as brutal. If our communities stand for equal treatment for all residents, we should treat these workers and their families with the same respect and dignity that all of us deserve.
This article may not be republished without specific permission of the author. This content is not covered by our Creative Commons license and may not be reproduced by any other source.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy