Many Locations. Spacious Rooms. And the deportation of union organizers.


  • 1847: Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. After having provoked Mexico into a war, and winning, the US takes half of Mexico (what is now California, Arizona, New Mexico, as well as parts of Utah, Nevada, and Colorado and Texas). We don't immigrate, we steal.

  • 1880: INS established (then called The Office of Immigration)

  • 1917: Immigration Act

  • 1921: Immigration Quota Act

  • 1924: Creation of Border Patrols

  • 1930's: Repatriation & deportation campaigns

  • 1940: Alien Registration Act

  • 1942: Bracero Program

  • 1951: Public Law 78 renews Bracero Program and continues until 1964

  • 1952: McCarran Walter Act

  • 1954: "Operation Wetback"

  • 1965: Immigration Act

  • 1968: Immigration Act in response to end of Bracero Program

  • 1980's: English Only movement

  • 1980: Refugee Act

  • 1982: Supreme Court guarantees education for all (includes undocumented)

  • 1986: Imigration Control Reform Act

  • 1994: Violent Crime Control & law Enforcement Act

  • 1994: "Operation Gatecrasher"

  • 2000: Hunting immigrants crossing the border illegally becomes a "sport" for vigilantes

    • home | www.michaelmoore.com | e-mail us | BMW Slave Labor   

    Holiday Inn. Click here for Realaudio file.

    Click here for Quicktime file.
    Employers have long used the INS as a threat against immigrant workers trying to organize a union. This became easier with the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which gave unionbusters a new weapon - "employer sanctions."

    Firing an employee because they are trying to form a union is illegal (although done all the time), but employer sanctions are a way around that. The law now requires employers to request proof of legal residence in the US, and file I-9 documents with the gov't showing this. Many employers, however, only ask for this proof when their employees try orgainzing.

    From David Bacon's incredible articles on immigration:
    "In 1992, workers at STC Knitting in Long Island City, New York, began an organizing drive with the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union (now UNITE). Just before the representation election, the company's attorney wrote to the INS telling the agency that undocumented workers were employed in the sweatshop. The INS conducted an I-9 check, and arrested ten workers, including Gloria Montero, an active member of the union committee. When she appealed the way in which immigration enforcement was used as a tool by the employer to terrorize workers and remove union supporters, a federal court ruled that it was a legal application of employer sanctions. "
    For more examples, click here

    Bacon's articles show repeated examples of immigrant workers calling the Department of Labor to investigate their workplace's violation of labor laws, and often finding that the DoL has contacted the INS to inspect the workers.

    This cultivated fear of the INS has resulted in American sweatshops as many workers are too afraid of the INS to either organize or complain to federal agencies. However, this is all beginning to change...

    Once dismissed by union officials as too passive to be organized, recent Latino immigrants have become a strong new revitalizing force in the labor movement.

    From the SEIU:

    After three weeks on strike, unionized Los Angeles janitors overwhelmingly approved a three-year contract that provides wage increases of $1.90 per hour -- or 26 percent -- for janitors who work downtown and $1.50 per hour -- or 22 percent -- for janitors in the suburbs.

    In New York City, 10,000 residential building workers from SEIU Local 32B-32J marched in Manhattan's upper east side, demanding a fair wage and better skills training. And they got it.

    In Chicago, 5,500 members of SEIU Local 1 walked out on April 17th in a one-day strike, the first walk out in 50 years, to show its determination in ongoing talks with local contractors. They won pay increases of $1.10 over three years-- nearly four times as much as the raises in their previous contract.

    Almost two weeks later, suburban Chicago janitors have won a clear victory, earning a three-year contract with a pay raise of $1.35 over three years, and health-care coverage in the last year of the contract for workers and their families. More >>


    From the United Fruit Workers:
    By 1970 the UFW got grape growers to accept union contracts and had effectively organized most of that industry, at one point in time claiming 50,000 dues paying members. The reason was Cesar Chavez's tireless leadership and nonviolent tactics that included the Delano grape strike, his fasts that focused national attention on farm workers problems, and the 340-mile march from Delano to Sacramento in 1966. The farm workers and supporters carried banners with the black eagle with HUELGA (strike) and VIVA LA CAUSA (Long live our cause). The marchers wanted the state government to pass laws which would permit farm workers to organize into a union and allow collective bargaining agreements. Cesar made people aware of the struggles of farm workers for better pay and safer working conditions. He succeeded through nonviolent tactics (boycotts, pickets, and strikes). Cesar Chavez and the union sought recognition of the importance and dignity of all farm workers.More >>