KENTUCKY trade unions are standing up to halt the deportation of two hundred immigrant workers.
Two hundred union workers, out of 5,700 who assemble dishwashers, refrigerators, washers, and dryers for GE Appliances-Haier at Appliance Park in Louisville, Kentucky, received notice this month that the Trump administration is revoking their work authorisations.
The immigrant workers from Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti, and Venezuela have received an outpouring of support from their union and the local labour movement.
They’re part of the Communications Workers’ industrial division, IUE-CWA Local 83761 and are in the US on ‘humanitarian parole,’ a programme that the government until now has used to provide visas to people fleeing war or political instability in certain countries.
‘I worked with a lot of those people, they’re some of the nicest people I’ve ever dealt with,’ said Halee Hadfield, who worked at the plant until last year and is now part of the United Auto Workers organising drive at the nearby electric vehicle battery park Blue Oval.
‘They come from extreme poverty and neglect, the likes of which most Americans, myself included, couldn’t even fathom. These people deserve better.’
In late March the Department of Homeland Security ended the humanitarian parole programme nationwide for 532,000 immigrants from four Latin American countries.
Workers received letters warning them to leave the US before April 24 or face ‘adverse immigration consequences.’
The meaning of this cryptic threat became clearer on April 8 when it emerged that the Trump administration plans to fine migrants under deportation orders up to $998 a day if they fail to leave, including seizing their property if they do not pay.
IUE-CWA President Carl Kennebrew said: ‘What is happening to our members at Appliance Park is unfolding at workplaces and in communities all across the country.
‘We cannot allow those who are sowing division to win. Blaming immigrants is an age-old trick to create fear and distract us from the takeover of our economy by billionaires.’
The Internal Revenue Service reached an agreement April 7 with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities to share tax information for immigrants who don’t comply with deportation orders, including those suddenly deprived of their legal status.
The Trump administration has also floated deporting incarcerated US citizens to El Salvador’s most notorious prison, despite the Constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
Three-quarters of the hundreds of undocumented people sent to the El Salvador prison had no criminal records – including sheet metal worker Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a SMART Local 100 apprentice, who was deported there by mistake without due process in what the Trump administration described as an ‘administrative error.’
Appliance Park, now Haier’s global headquarters, has been union since the 1950s. It’s the only unionised one of the nine GE Appliance manufacturing sites across the country.
Kentucky is ‘right-to-work’, but 97% of workers at the plant are dues-paying union members. Local 83761 President Dino Driskell said they speak more than 20 languages, came to the country legally, and contribute to their local communities.
He said: ‘They deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, not ripped from their families to be shipped away.’
Louisville is one of the top 10 US metropolitan areas with the most Cuban immigrants. At least 30,000 Cubans call Jefferson County home. The influx has offset a population decline of 770,000.
They began arriving in 1995 after the Cuban and US governments signed an accord establishing a lottery to allow 20,000 Cubans per year into the country. Those who didn’t have family to receive them in Miami went to smaller cities like Louisville.
The Cuban immigrants have transformed Louisville, from the dining and entertainment scenes to the makeup of its workforce, flocking to jobs at UPS, Amazon, Ford, and GE.
The workforce at this plant has grown from a little over 1,000 workers before 2017 to nearly 6,000 today. The surge came after the Chinese-company Haier, the world’s largest home appliance manufacturer, bought Appliance Park from GE in 2016 for $5.4bn.
GE cut 32,000 jobs in 2004, closing 27 locations in 2009 and 2010. Now a tiny number of the jobs have returned, as the company under Chinese ownership has become profitable to the tune of $11.3bn in 2023.
Immigrant workers from Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East account for more than 1,000 of the workers.
Meanwhile the Association of Federal Government Employees (AFGE) on Monday reported: ‘The AFL-CIO and unions representing workers across private and public sector industries sued the Trump administration today over its dismantling of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS), including firing mediators and staff, and closing field offices across the country.
‘FMCS is a small but important independent federal agency that is integral to the government’s labour relations infrastructure. Among the critical services FMCS provides, it helps resolve contract negotiations between workers and employers to protect both the economy and workers’ rights, generating over $500m in national economic savings each year, even by conservative estimates.
‘But DOGE cuts have decimated the agency: 93% of FMCS staff have been placed on leave, the mediation workforce has been taken down from the 80-100 needed for the agency’s work to just five, and all of the field offices have been closed.
‘The suit argues that the administration’s actions are illegal under the Administrative Procedure Act and the US Constitution because they amount to an effective dismantling of FMCS that has prevented it from performing its statutory responsibilities required by Congress.
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said: ‘The unnecessary cuts to FMCS make absolutely no economic sense and will cost taxpayers, consumers, businesses and workers.
‘Congress created FMCS nearly 80 years ago, and only an act of Congress can shutter it. I’m proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with our affiliated unions today in filing this lawsuit to challenge this illegal, cruel and wrong-headed action by DOGE.’
AFSCME President Lee Saunders said: ‘We are filing this lawsuit because once again, the administration is unlawfully shutting down an agency simply because billionaires do not like it. Hobbling employers’ and workers’ ability to negotiate will only hurt our communities.
‘FMCS helps to mediate thousands of collective bargaining agreements and other disputes, ensuring workers are paid fairly while commerce and services continue to flow. The agency’s meagre $55m budget – which accounts for less than 0.0014% of the overall federal budget – generates more than $500m in annual savings for our economy. Shutting it down helps only billionaires like Elon Musk and his anti-union friends, who want to take away workers’ voice on the job.’
AFT President Randi Weingarten: ‘This case is about more than a single agency – it’s about upholding workers’ fundamental bargaining rights and protecting a foundation stone of labor relations in America. FMCS was created by Congress as a neutral arbiter to promote labour peace and fair negotiations, a role it has proudly carried out for nearly 80 years.
‘The president says he cares about working people, but that’s hard to believe when he attempts to abolish an agency that helps them negotiate fair contracts with their employers.
‘The AFT and our co-plaintiffs are suing to block the destruction of FMCS so it can continue to fulfil its Congressional mandate and ensure the administration follows, rather than ignores, federal law.’
American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) National President Everett Kelley said: ‘Trump and Elon Musk’s efforts to abolish FMCS have nothing to do with saving taxpayers money and everything to do with gutting workers’ union rights and protections. It’s shameful, it’s wasteful, and it must be stopped.’
United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew said: ‘The Trump administration has no legal right to eliminate FMCS through executive action, and no rational reason to eliminate an agency that helps working people.’
IAM Union International President Brian Bryant said: ‘The Trump administration’s reckless attempt to eliminate FMCS is yet another attack on working people and our rights to collectively bargain. We will not let this administration’s union-busting tactics take away our rights, and we will not take orders from an unelected billionaire.’
SEIU President April Verrett said: ‘America’s public service workers serve our nation without regard to profits, politics, or glory. That’s why SEIU members are standing with our siblings at AFL-CIO, AFGE, AFSCME, AFT, IAM, UFCW and other unions to fight back against the President’s unlawful dismantling of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.
‘This isn’t just about protecting federal workers and their unions. It’s about protecting our communities. When you take away the voices of workers serving veterans, securing the border, and protecting public health, you silence the voices of all those who rely on their services, too.’
The legal challenge was brought by AFL-CIO, American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), American Federation of Teachers (AFT), International Associations of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), unions, as well as many locals and affiliates, which have worked with FMCS mediators in labor disputes with their members’ employers.
The lawsuit was filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.
