http://www.madison.com/tct/business/ind ... 64&ntpid=0
Dec 12, 2006
Groups unite to benefit immigrant worker rights
By Lynn Welch
A new pact between a coalition of interfaith worker justice groups and the AFL-CIO solidifies ties between groups that advance issues of immigrant worker rights.


The Interfaith Worker Justice Board, comprised of 15 faith-based organizations including Madison's Interfaith Coalition for Worker Justice, formed the partnership with the national labor group Monday. The agreement will help promote and advance the core principles of social justice in the workplace.

It establishes formal ties between the local coalition's Worker Justice Center on Park Street and the South Central Federation of Labor.

"We've always had strong ties and they've been helpful, but this will improve those connections," said center director Patrick Hickey. "This will allow us to participate and enables the voices of immigrant workers to be heard by the broader labor community."

Under the agreement, the Interfaith Coalition for Worker Justice becomes an affiliate member of the local labor federation, an umbrella group for unions in Dane, Sauk, Iowa, and Columbia counties now representing 78 unions.

"What this does is make things official," said James Cavanaugh, labor federation president. "Where we've been close all along, this will provide an opportunity for that group to have a closer relationship with organized labor."

About 80 percent of the 450 people served this year by the coalition are Latino immigrants, many undocumented, Hickey said. The volunteer group helps clients with immigrant labor issues such as recovering unpaid wages and receiving care for work-related injuries.

The coalition also works on policy issues, such as a current project focusing on eliminating discrimination based on conviction records.

Hickey said this agreement will allow local immigrants to tap into the stability and deep ties of organized labor here.

The interfaith coalition and its rights center launched in 2002, following publication of a study by The Latino Worker Project highlighting the difficulties and issues faced by immigrant workers in this area.

Joining with the AFL-CIO and its local labor federation makes sense, Hickey said, as the Worker Rights Center increases its client base and prepares to become an independent group next year.

The AFL-CIO Executive Council last August approved a resolution formalizing ties with the worker centers that have sprung up across the country to help marginalized workers, paving the way for a partnership agreement with groups such as the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON), the nation's largest day laborer association, and now the Interfaith Worker Justice coalition.

This agreement does not make the workers in the Interfaith Worker Justice network members of unions, but provides an organized venue for joint work to ensure workers' rights by the AFL-CIO and faith-based worker centers across the country.

"The core values that drive both our movements are the same: equality, fair treatment, dignity and respect," AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said in a statement. "Too often the religious and labor communities have worked in isolation from one another. It's time we rediscover our common bonds and bring our organizations closer together."

The AFL-CIO and IWJ will work together in addressing workplace discrimination faced by immigrants and people of color, and on litigation and other ways to advance civil rights as well as workplace rights for low-wage workers and building and construction trade workers. They will also work together for comprehensive immigration reform that supports workplace rights and includes a path to citizenship and political equality for immigrant workers.