Thread: HOUSTON TX: ILLEGALS BUILD SOLIDARITY NETWORK(UNION)!!!

"The newly formed Houston group is part of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, based in Los Angeles, which has set up similar networks around the country."

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5685736.html

April 8, 2008, 11:27PM
Day laborers build solidarity network
Group will fight wage theft and urge better pay, work conditions


By JAMES PINKERTON
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle

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For thousands of day laborers in Houston, picking up a good-paying job on a local street corner can be a struggle.

The housing market's slowdown has made work scarce. Day laborers also say employers often offer them one wage but pay less when the job is done. Other employers string workers along for days with a promise to pay, and then vanish.

That's why Mexican immigrant Jacinto Vasquez has joined the Houston Network of Day Laborers, formed over the weekend by approximately 200 day laborers.

Their goal is to improve working conditions, set a minimum wage they'll agree to work for and fight wage theft.

''I have a good opinion of the group," said Vasquez, an undocumented worker who moved here from Mexico in 1999. ''If this brings us support, it would be good ... for all of us."

The issue of day laborers in Houston and around the country has been a flashpoint in the debate over illegal immigration, largely because most of the workers are undocumented.

The newly formed Houston group is part of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, based in Los Angeles, which has set up similar networks around the country.


3,000 day workers
The local day labor group was established at a Saturday conference with help from Houston immigrant rights group America Para Todos, said organizer Maria Jimenez.

Next month, the Houston network will convene to form a leadership group, drawn from representatives of various street-corner hiring locations.

Houston has an estimated 3,000 day workers who frequent 29 street intersections looking for work, Jimenez said. The off-the-books labor force swells to 5,000 on the weekends, she said.

Jimenez, a longtime immigration activist, said the network is needed because day laborers face myriad problems.

''The network is important to bring together day laborers from the different sites to articulate their collective voice, identify their needs, express their rights and define their strategies," she said.


Group denounced
But the group was denounced by Houston activists lobbying for stricter immigration enforcement.

''That's not the American dream, to have people come here and get cheaper and cheaper wages," said Louise Whiteford, president of Texans for Immigration Reform. ''That's what the big corporations want: to eliminate the middle class."

Whiteford questioned the security consequences of workers in the city without valid documents.

''We have a terror situation," she said. "Why do we want people we don't know floating around the city?"

However, Jimenez said some day laborers can legally work.

''Not all don't have documents," she said. ''Some are U.S. citizens; some are legal residents; and some are Central Americans with temporary work permits. What you have to understand is they are day workers who fulfill a function in the economy."

Day laborers, including Vasquez, say they now have somewhere to turn for help.

''There is no other alternative," he said. ''Who do we make a complaint to when we're cheated? The police won't believe us."

james.pinkerton@chron.com

VIDEO OF NEWS COVERAGE OF MELANIE'S ASSAULT!!!

REMEMBER "If you love our nation, stop illegal immigration." - Melanie a 13 yr old Texas assault victim of ILLEGALS.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiyieUFAaic

good now that they are "out of the shadows" and organized it will be easier for the public to report them and their employers to ICE...and a lot easier for ICE and local officials to arrest and deport them.

REPORT ALL SUSPECTED ILLEGAL ALIENS AND THEIR EMPLOYERS TO 1-866-DHS-2ICE.

Day Laborers Organize To Improve Conditions

HOUSTON -- Day laborers are organizing to set a minimum hourly rate for their work, improve working conditions and fight unscrupulous contractors.
The Houston Network of Day Laborers was formed over the weekend by some 200 day laborers. It is part of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, which has helped set up similar groups around the country to educate day laborers about their civil liberties and workers' rights.
Next month, the Houston network plans to begin forming a leadership group that will include representatives from the city's various hiring sites.

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Mexican immigrant Jacinto Vasquez was among the first to join the Houston Network of Day Laborers.
"If this brings us support, it would be good ... for all of us," he said.
Houston has an estimated 3,000 day workers who frequent 29 street intersections looking for work. On weekends, their numbers reach 5,000, said organizer Maria Jimenez.
Day laborers are struggling to find a well-paying jobs during the country's economic downturn and housing market slowdown. They also face employers who hire them at one wage but pay less once the job is finished, she said.
"The network is important to bring together day laborers from the different sites to articulate their collective voice, identify their needs, express their rights and define their strategies," said Jimenez, an immigrant advocate.

http://www.click2houston.com/news/15832786/detail.html


And yet Houston Mayor Bill White insists that Houston is not a sanctuary city. Tell that to Rodney Johnson’s wife and their children.
http://www.khou.com/news/local/houstonm ... 43980.html

REMEMBER "If you love our nation, stop illegal immigration." - Melanie a 13 yr old Texas assault victim of ILLEGALS.