Thread: Marchers to protest exploitation of immigrants

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Marchers to protest exploitation of immigrants
By Sam Richard, srichard@VenturaCountyStar.com
September 27, 2006

Pastor Bridie Roberts expects to be arrested Thursday and believes that it is necessary. She will likely not be the only one who will be handcuffed and booked.

About 3,000 people, including Ventura County residents, religious leaders and students, will march down Century Boulevard in Los Angeles around 4 p.m. and call for an end to the exploitation of immigrant workers in the United States.

Leaders have told police about the march and expect that 420 will be arrested, said Paulina Gonzalez, spokeswoman for UNITE HERE, a labor union of about 450,000 active members and 400,000 retirees from the hotel, food service and service-related industries in North America.

The march will begin at 4:30 p.m., with Century Boulevard expected to be blocked for several hours. The march starts at Vicksburg Avenue and will end at the Airport Hilton Hotel, about half a mile away.

"I'm not scared, because I believe that what I'm doing is right," said Roberts, a 28-year-old pastor from Santa Monica.

"I believe that we have a strong moral and spiritual responsibility to assure the welfare of other people," she said. "I believe these workers are being exploited because they have little power or access to resources."

The union is conducting the march in conjunction with the We Are America Coalition, a immigrants rights organization.

Not all agree with the organizations' efforts, though.

The Minuteman Project, a group of people opposed to illegal immigration, will hold a counterprotest with about 100 people from several organizations such as Save Our State, said Tony Dolz, a founding member of the group who is spearheading the counterprotest.

"When they say that illegal alien workers should receive benefits, this is inappropriate," he said. "Because first you have to have the right to work before you can negotiate any work conditions."

The group has sympathy for workers who do not receive a living wage or healthcare benefits, but it is against accepting illegal immigrant workers, he said.

Gonzalez could not provide information about how many people from Ventura County will participate.

Francisco Romero, a member of the Oxnard Human Rights Committee, said the group is considering participating and will make a final decision soon.

"I think it's important to, as much as possible, attend any direct action or any type of protest that gets this information out into the community," he said.

Gonzalez hopes that the event and arrests will raise awareness of pay for immigrant workers and their working conditions.

"Corporations are making millions and millions and millions, in some cases billions, on the backs of these workers," she said. "But these workers are living in the same poverty and are not even able to afford healthcare ? so this is what needs to end."

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Illegals come here with the knowledge that they are being exploited and then exploit our social services to make up for their lack of benefits. I wish these so call do gooders realize that they are wrong. Let's face it, none of us get breaks by businesses who hire them to cut costs. Let's keep our people in those jobs.

"I believe that we have a strong moral and spiritual responsibility to assure the welfare of other people," she said. "I believe these workers are being exploited because they have little power or access to resources."

That's because they are here illegally.
They seriously need to get after these employers.

I'm sick of this, we are being exploited nonsense. You shouldn't even be here in the first place. You shouldn't even be able to work here. Yet you want to cry foul when the employers take advantage. Come here legally and you won't have to worry about that because you'll have workers rights you morons.

Of course the illegals aren't crying foul when they displace real American workers from their jobs by taking crappy wages.