Thread: How can I sue my Union?

I belong to a union in the construction trades that has gone out of its way to sign up illegal aliens. It is also part of a larger group of unions, many of which have split away from the AFL-CIO, which has followed an aggressive course of attempting to organize industries which have a large number of illegal immigrants employed in them. These unions have gone so far as to train organizers in Spanish and specifically hire Hispanics as organizers. My craft does not have any state liensing, either, so the door is wide open for nearly anyone to come in, with no certification; this makes it very easy to allow illegal aliens to join.

Recently our union local experienced an arrest and deportation of a Latino organizer who had fake Social Security documents. Our local's leaders even took up a special collection for him for several weeks to help his family with various living expenses. I think this is going way too far. I already know the standard complaint that going after illegal aliens for membership displaces American workers who are seeking the same jobs. This new wave of organizing is taking it even further: encouraging aliens to come to this country, so that the unions can gain membership. This, in my estimation, would be "procuring illegal aliens." When unions enroll illegal aliens to gain employment are they not "assisting illegal aliens to gain employment." And when they take up a monetary collections are they not "assisting illegal aliens out of personal beliefs." ??

Because there is not enough work for all members of a union when they go out of their way to gain new members of illegal aliens they are causing economic injury to some of their regular rank and file. So there is demonstrable economic loss. I am aware that the IRCA was meant to apply mostly to employers. But unions act in a capacity of finding employment for their members, too. Would they not come under the restrictions designed to prevent employment of illegal aliens?

(Sorry, I dd not have the specific citations in the IRCA of 1986. I will look them up when I have more time)

Check out the RICO Act......

Originally Posted by Captainron

I belong to a union in the construction trades that has gone out of its way to sign up illegal aliens. It is also part of a larger group of unions, many of which have split away from the AFL-CIO, which has followed an aggressive course of attempting to organize industries which have a large number of illegal immigrants employed in them. These unions have gone so far as to train organizers in Spanish and specifically hire Hispanics as organizers. My craft does not have any state liensing, either, so the door is wide open for nearly anyone to come in, with no certification; this makes it very easy to allow illegal aliens to join.

Recently our union local experienced an arrest and deportation of a Latino organizer who had fake Social Security documents. Our local's leaders even took up a special collection for him for several weeks to help his family with various living expenses. I think this is going way too far. I already know the standard complaint that going after illegal aliens for membership displaces American workers who are seeking the same jobs. This new wave of organizing is taking it even further: encouraging aliens to come to this country, so that the unions can gain membership. This, in my estimation, would be "procuring illegal aliens." When unions enroll illegal aliens to gain employment are they not "assisting illegal aliens to gain employment." And when they take up a monetary collections are they not "assisting illegal aliens out of personal beliefs." ??

Because there is not enough work for all members of a union when they go out of their way to gain new members of illegal aliens they are causing economic injury to some of their regular rank and file. So there is demonstrable economic loss. I am aware that the IRCA was meant to apply mostly to employers. But unions act in a capacity of finding employment for their members, too. Would they not come under the restrictions designed to prevent employment of illegal aliens?

(Sorry, I dd not have the specific citations in the IRCA of 1986. I will look them up when I have more time)

Write letters about your views to the local Union leadership. At the bottom of the letters have a special "cc" section with names and addresses of other places to whom copies of the letters were sent. Have copies circulated to ICE, the FBI, your state's district attorney office, the local sherrif's office, prominent lawyers, journalists, TV news agencies, Congressional representatives, etc. Union leaders might "perk up" when they realize every complaint you are addressing to them is being read by government officials...

"Union leaders might "perk up" when they realize every complaint you are addressing to them is being read by government officials..."

I think "perking up" is a separate issue. I was talking about actual financial compensation for a policy that, as it appears to me, violates federal law and has also resulted in a clearly proven "injury." The CC's might alert authorities who then could prosecute. But that is not the same as a civil case, and sometimes can muddy the waters.

But I do appreciate the suggestion. This has been avery tense issue, and I have been confronted more than once by hostile individuals that think I am sabotaging the union's right to organize.

The really "Big Fish" is the union's International President who assumed his meteoric rise to power with an effective strategy: organizing alien workers in the Los Angeles area. Knowing how desperately power hungry people are these days I can't believe that there was not a certain amount of willful and wanton "procuring" in order to ensure that said union leader would continue his ascent to power. His stretegy was good enough to get him a trip on Air Force One with GWB himself.

it has always seemed to me that unions have not protected their members and if unions had done as they should, we might not have so much outsourcing, insourcing, and illegal immigration.

It almost seems like they are implicit in this travesty.

I know there is a need for you to be circumspect but do the other members of the union resist the inclusion of illegals? I don't know anything about the operation of a union but it seems reasonable that the marjority rule would apply.

Originally Posted by Nouveauxpoor

I know there is a need for you to be circumspect but do the other members of the union resist the inclusion of illegals? I don't know anything about the operation of a union but it seems reasonable that the marjority rule would apply.

I find that in this instance members flip-flop. Construction people have a lot of unresolved anger. They can be extremely bigoted one minute and then switch their tune the next if they think it will get them ahead, into a position of union leadership. During the Bush administration there has been growing anger over a lot of things--as one might expect from a movement that is now largely directed by Dems. This gives ultra-lefties an occasion to accelerate their agenda and promote a vision of "justice" which happens to translate into tirades against those with differing views.

The Service Employees Union for example has been promoting the "Jobs with Justice" campaign for several years, which has a strong component of Latino organizing. One need only look at their posters to see who they represent as experiencing injustice----it's a typical pseudo-civil rights movement. Look at this link:
http://www.jwj.org/

I don't think most members presently care about whether illegals are organized----Times are very good with low interest rates propoelling this ecomony and jobs are plentiful. Let that fact change and I think many members would change their opinions too. The leftist type thinking experiences an uptick when there are a lot of young members---who quickly stablish hopes of being a union boss or a superintendent--something other than working. When reality sets in they will change their tune, too. I think it is beginning to change, now.

The union consortium which has been seeking to benefit from organizing illegals is here:
http://www.changetowin.org/