Organized labor takes up cause of alien workers

Monday, Aug. 20, 2001 | 11 a.m.

Maria Ibarra, 37, crossed the border from Mexico illegally twice as a teenager, the second time after an Immigration and Naturalization Service raid on the Tony Lamas cowboy boot factory in Tucson, Ariz., got her deported for not having papers.

That was 20 years ago. Now, she is a legal resident of the United States. She works as a housekeeper at Paris Las Vegas and is a shop steward with the Culinary Union.

She's also ready, she says, to join organized labor in its newfound cause -- helping the nation's millions of working, undocumented immigrants facing the same uncertainties she once faced.

Labor kicks off its effort locally 11 a.m. Tuesday, with an animated event downtown at the Fremont Street Experience. Similar events will be held in 20 cities across the country. Glen Arnodo, political director of the Culinary Union, said immigrant members of the union will be demonstrating the day-to-day work they do to underscore the importance of immigrants to the economy.

The changes labor is looking for include:

* Legalizing undocumented immigrants

* Repealing laws that require employers to verify the status of their workers. Under these laws, employers can be fined if they hire undocumented workers.

* Granting undocumented immigrants workplace rights, such as protection under the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

"The American economy wouldn't be what it is without immigrants," Arnodo said. "Jobs like housekeeping have always been filled by immigrants. And since they're already here, we think something should be done about legalizing them."

The union representative estimates that more than 40 percent of the Culinary Union's nearly 50,000 members are Hispanic.

Arnodo said that recent contract negotiations with properties on the Strip have included clauses that allow workers to miss time from work in order to straighten out their status without losing seniority.

These clauses, and the interruptions in the work that they address, would not be necessary if the process of legalization were made easier and more inclusive.

Jim Sala, Nevada organizing director for the Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters, said his members until recently saw immigrants as a threat to wages and jobs.

"As soon as they started working beside them more, and saw that they have families, go to church, pay taxes and seek the same benefits as they do, then they began seeing them in a different light," Sala said.

Sala said his union has about 9,000 members in Nevada, about 25 percent of whom are immigrants.

The rising ranks of immigrants in the unions strengthens that support, said Mauricio Vasquez, the Nevada district manager for Union of Needle Trades, Industrial and Textile Employee (UNITE), which has about 2,500 workers that clean hotel linens.

"Many of our members have strong feelings about this issue," Vasquez, an immigrant from El Salvador and a legal resident, said. "They were once undocumented, or still are. They want to be reunited with their families, they want to be able to express themselves freely, and to vote."