Thread: Immigrant laborers rebelling against low wages

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Sunday, August 26, 2007 - 12:00 AM
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Immigrant laborers rebelling against low wages
By Anthony Faiola
The Washington PostNEW YORK — The deliverymen of Saigon Grill labored for years at the bottom of Manhattan's food chain. Biking swiftly down the avenues in biting cold and searing heat, they schlepped up high-rises and walk-ups with bags of steaming noodles and shrimp fried rice.

Then they surprised their bosses — and others in this seen-it-all town — by serving up something unexpected: a revolt.

The 30 men — all immigrants, including illegal ones frustrated with the poor conditions and low wages that are often a fact of life in the underground economy — banded together in an effort to unionize. They demanded an end to what they said were salaries less than half the minimum wage and to penalties that included $20 fines for late deliveries and $50 for shutting the restaurant's glass doors with a bang.

Saigon Grill's owner fired them. It might have ended there, but as the immigrant-labor movement gains steam in a number of major U.S. cities, the men opted to fight back. With the help of local groups aiming to organize legal and illegal immigrants in New York, the men filed a lawsuit against the owner. In March, they began daily picket lines at the restaurant's two Manhattan locations.

Hundreds of deliverymen, waiters, cooks and busboys from across New York have joined their picket lines. Angry deliverymen have slapped at least five other New York restaurants with similar lawsuits. Immigrants working in other types of restaurant jobs have filed several more, targeting small takeout operations and upscale establishments such as Dévi, an acclaimed Manhattan eatery.

"We have been going under the assumption that because we have no papers, we were powerless, but we were wrong," Ke, 35, a Chinese immigrant and former Saigon Grill deliveryman, said during a recent protest at the restaurant's Union Square branch. As with others at the protest, Ke requested his surname be withheld because he is in this country illegally. "We have discovered that we have the power to act."

The deliverymen said that the restaurant's owner, Simon Nget, offered to increase wages from $1.60 to $4 an hour, but only if they dropped their unionization bid. When they refused, they said, he fired them.

Nget, an ethnic Chinese Cambodian who fled the Khmer Rouge and came to New York in the 1980s, did not return phone calls. In a letter to customers, he said the deliverymen were trying to "extort" him and called their demonstrations "outrageous."

The New York deliverymen's revolt, observers said, is happening as a number of immigrants are mobilizing into an increasingly organized labor movement with the help of unions and a fast-growing assortment of local activist groups.

Legal actions and demonstrations on behalf of illegal immigrants by groups such as Justice for Janitors have been going on for years. But experts have noted an increase in lawsuits, picket lines and work stoppages by immigrants who long had shied away from more visible forms of protest.

Immigrants also have emerged as the cavalry in the nation's flagging labor movement, which is embracing a group of people long assailed by union members for driving down wages. The percentage of the U.S. work force represented by unions has fallen to 13.1 percent, down from 16.2 percent a decade ago.

But the number of immigrants, legal and illegal, represented by unions surged to 2 million last year, up from 1.6 million in 1996, according to a study by the Migration Policy Institute that is scheduled for release this week. By comparison, the number of union-represented U.S.-born citizens dropped to 14.8 million last year, down from 16.5 million in 1996, the study said.

Most illegal immigrants in the United States, observers said, remain too fearful to participate in such public actions. But a growing assertiveness in some pockets of the country's illegal-immigrant community of 12 million people is beginning to answer at least one key question in the immigration debate: What would happen if illegal-immigrant workers decided one day that enough is enough?

If New York is any example, it would mean higher costs for businesses and their customers. Fearing they could be the next target, dozens of restaurateurs in Manhattan have boosted wages for deliverymen, according to union officials, lawyers and workers.
Saigon Grill, meanwhile, has suspended food delivery, which reportedly accounted for up to 25 percent of its revenue. An official who asked not to be named said the company has raised prices to cover some of those losses.

"It sort of makes you sit up and take notice, doesn't it?" said Kenneth Kimerling, legal director of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF).
The challenges facing the immigrant-labor movement remain formidable. Tougher immigration enforcement and increased raids, observers said, have had a chilling effect on organization efforts in parts of the country.

But activists said in big urban areas such as New York and Los Angeles — where local policies prohibit city officials from asking about immigration status in labor or other disputes — immigrant groups have become bolder in demanding rights.

In New York, unions and activist groups also are moving to organize immigrant construction, supermarket and nail-salon workers. Over the past decade, the number of "worker centers" — or associations for immigrant day laborers that strive to set standardized wages — has jumped from a few dozen to more than 200 nationwide, according to the National Employment Law Project.

The courts often are on their side. Although a noted 2002 Supreme Court ruling made it more difficult for illegal immigrants to seek damages for being fired unlawfully, it did not preclude them from going after back wages, the primary goal of the majority of immigrant-labor lawsuits. In the past three years, AALDEF has won about $4 million in claims for 87 clients.

"It's the American story: Immigrants trying to assert their rights," said John Wilhelm, co-president of Unite Here, an immigrant-based labor group of 450,000 that bills itself as the fastest-growing union in North America. "Italian and Irish Americans did it 100 years ago; now new groups of immigrants are trying to do the same."
Copyright © 2007 The Seattle Times Company

immigrants screwing each other...great...


Why were all these Southeast Asian immigrants let in? Guilt that America screwed up another part of the world with misguided CIA coups?

Having lived in Southeast Asia and Asia for several years...this is the way they live there...and now they import it to the US....they exploit each other, life in Asia is how to enrich one's self at the expense of others.

If you don't believe me, go live there and find out

Now they bring it here, maybe they should all be deported.

Originally Posted by redpony353

"It's the American story: Immigrants trying to assert their rights," said John Wilhelm, co-president of Unite Here, an immigrant-based labor group of 450,000 that bills itself as the fastest-growing union in North America. "Italian and Irish Americans did it 100 years ago; now new groups of immigrants are trying to do the same."
Copyright © 2007 The Seattle Times Company

This makes all the difference. There is a difference between the ILLEGAL IMMGRANTS there are demanding rights they do not have and the IMMIGRANTS who were Italian and Irish AMERICANS.
We have to keep resounding the ILLEGAL part into their heads until they get it. This is not 1900 America but 2007 American and we are not longer into nation building but in nation survival.
We cannot compare past wars with the Iraq war or past America to the America we are not living in.

We have to keep resounding the ILLEGAL part into their heads until they get it. This is not 1900 America but 2007 American and we are not longer into nation building but in nation survival.
We cannot compare past wars with the Iraq war or past America to the America we are not living in.

I agree, that was then, this is now!

If they were not here illegaly these companys would not have gotten away with this, they are the cause. not that I put all the blame on them because if the owners did not hire them they would go home, this is a catch 22, they are all in the worng, deport the illegal and jail the owner, send the message here is the perfect opportunity!!



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