Statement by Teamsters Mobilize on Donald Trump’s mounting attacks against immigrants

[Teamster Mobilize]

https://teamstersmobilize.com/blog/statement-by-the-teamsters-mobilize-steering-committee-on-donald-trumps-mounting-attacks-against-immigrants

Statement by the Teamsters Mobilize Steering Committee on Donald Trump’s mounting attacks against immigrants


Jan 29


In the very first days of his second term as President of the United States, Donald Trump has already signed numerous anti-immigrant executive orders and launched the first of a series of mass deportations nationwide. Teamsters Mobilize condemns these actions—and all forms of repression and violence against immigrants living in this country—which are blatant attacks on the labor movement here.
The history of the U.S. labor movement has been, and continues to be, fundamentally defined by the history of immigration in this country. Generations of capitalists have milked extraordinary profits from workers imported from all corners of the world, who could be exploited to greater extremes, relative to those who were already here, due to their legal and financial precarity. These bosses have also used the age-old strategy of divide-and-conquer to pit workers against each other across many dividing lines—in particular, that of native vs. foreign born—to weaken the resistance of the people against their real oppressors and exploiters. Nevertheless, immigrants have, over the course of decades and centuries, proven themselves to be courageous and militant class fighters, and we have them to thank in large part for various rights and protections we hold today as employees and union members.
Donald Trump’s disgusting xenophobic rhetoric follows the same essential pattern of times past, just in a slightly modified form. As Trump calls for the deportation of millions of “illegals,” let us not forget the long legacy of punitive anti-immigrant policy by the U.S. government, from the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, to the decades of violence against Mexican workers after World War II under the auspices of “Operation *******,” to Obama’s record forced expulsion of 3 million people from the country across his two terms as President. As Trump makes phony populist appeals to American workers in his inaugural address, such as, “Together [American workers] laid down the railroads,” let us not forget who exactly gave their blood, sweat, and lives to construct the earliest U.S. transcontinental railroads: in the main, Chinese immigrants.
Without a doubt, the issue of immigration is still of central importance to the U.S. labor movement today. As such, Teamsters Mobilize unequivocally supports:

• Full citizenship for all people and their families who come to this country to work, so that the government, police, and corporate executives cannot use deportation as a threat to depress wages and circumvent labor laws;
• Complete and equal extension of all workplace rights and protections (including, crucially, the right to organize) to immigrant workers, which will only strengthen our existing union movement;
• An end to the “shock and awe” raids and deportation campaigns currently underway at the direction of the Trump administration, which serve to stoke and sharpen divisions among the people.

Furthermore, we stand in resolute solidarity with all labor unions internationally, who are fighting not just the bosses of their own countries, but often also imperialist investors from the U.S., in order to win better pay and working conditions in their respective homelands.
Unfortunately, we publish this statement in the face of resounding silence on the matter of immigration from our union’s General President, Sean O’Brien. In numerous recent media appearances, President O’Brien has openly aligned himself with Donald Trump, while at the same time advancing bogus arguments that any matters falling outside the immediate scope of our collective bargaining agreements are “social issues” that we Teamsters have no objective basis to unite around. We wholeheartedly reject this capitulation to the motives and interests of the bosses, and call upon President O’Brien to join us in publicly criticizing and opposing the immigration policies of the Trump administration for what they are: anti-Teamster, and anti-worker.
Solidarity forever!
An injury to one is an injury to all!
Workers of the world, unite!

[The Direct Line]

President Trump's attack on our immigrant community is an attack on labor. Many union members, regardless of immigration status are scared and living in fear. Just imagine going to work and getting pulled over by ICE. Contrary to SOB, they are not "stealing jobs".