THE UFCW US trade union has reacted strongly against the mistreatment of migrant workers during US government raids where they have been illegally held against their will, denied access to telephones, attorneys and even bathrooms.
Members of UNI Commerce affiliate United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) have joined with community groups, civil rights leaders and immigrant rights activists to condemn abuse and misconduct by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. Across the country, ICE enforcement teams have used unwarranted physical force to illegally detain workers in misguided attempts to enforce failed US immigration policies.
A national meeting on August 16 was held to hear workers’ testimony. Joe Hansen the UFCW leader condemned the ‘Excessive show of force – the abusive conduct, the disregard for individual rights and the lack of concern for working families. It would make you think that this incident occurred in a foreign country or in a distant era’, said UFCW International President Hansen in convening the meeting. But, unfortunately, the ICE raids happened in America’s heartland in our times.
‘It happened to America’s workers — to our brothers and sisters. It happened to our fellow Americans, native-born and immigrant. Workers were denied access to telephones, bathrooms and legal counsel. Citizens and legal residents were denied the opportunity to retrieve documents to establish their legal status. Some were handcuffed and held for hours. Others were shipped out on buses.
‘Families, schools and day care centres could not be contacted to make arrangements for the children of detained workers. Families were left divided — not knowing where or when they might see a missing family member again.
‘Our union is standing up and speaking out about our members’ constitutional rights’, said Hansen. He added: ‘They were illegally detained in these ICE raids. We have spent decades winning workers’ rights, and we will not sit idly by as federal agents deny them their 4th Amendment rights.’
The UFCW on Friday sponsored the National Meeting on ICE Misconduct and Violations of 4th Amendment Rights to bring together voices across the country; to collect the stories of workers who have suffered during ICE raids; and to plot a course of action on how best to respond.
‘They held me in handcuffs’ workers repeatedly said. ‘When I tried to report to the cafeteria during the raid, ICE agents accused me of trying to run away. They held me in handcuffs. I’m a US Citizen, born in Iowa. My parents live in Mississippi. My government treated me like a criminal and I didn’t do anything wrong. I knew our rights were being violated.’
‘What they’re doing in these raids is illegal,’ said Mike Graves, who has lived in the United States his entire life, works at the Marshalltown, Iowa, Swift and Company plant, and is a member of UFCW Local 1149.
Sergio Rodriguez’s wife always told him to keep his papers with him, but in 25 years of working at the Greeley’s Swift & Co plant, he’d never seen anything like what happened on December 12, 2006. When federal immigration officers stormed his company, Rodriguez told the agent he was from Mexico and legal. But, before he could even take out his identification, he was handcuffed and detained. Nine of the Greeley packing plant’s workers and three residents joined United Food and Commercial Workers International Union at a meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, on last Thursday. Workers shared stories of alleged misconduct and constitutional rights violations during immigration raids last year.
On December 12, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained more than 12,000 people and arrested 1,297 at six Swift & Co plants across the country. In Greeley, 262 workers were put under administrative arrest and 21 charged with criminal offences.
On Thursday, legal residents who were detained in the raids said they were treated unfairly. Rodriguez said he was denied a phone call and an attorney and officers wouldn’t take his handcuffs off so he could use the bathroom. Other detained workers shared similar stories.
‘The testimony of workers who were affected by all these things was really incredible,’ said Roberto Romero of Al Frente de Lucha in Greeley. ‘The average person has not heard the stories of working class folks who have gone through this.’
But ICE spokesman Tim Counts called all of the allegations false. He said the federal warrants allowed agents to question everyone in the plants with regard to legal status and people were treated fairly. ‘I’m perplexed by some of these allegations,’ he said.
Union president Hansen is calling for Congressional hearings on the raids. At the end of the meeting, a national working group formed to continue to collect more stories and develop a national strategic response to the increased number of ICE raids and enforcement actions nationwide. More than 12,000 meatpacking workers were swept up in the ICE raids on December 12.
Since then, many workers in other industries have been arrested, detained against their will and denied contact with their families in subsequent raids. Thousands of workers affected by these raids are US citizens and legal residents.
‘The justification, in the Swift raids, for the mass disruption of work, family and community, the bullying, the intimidation, the fear and the threats directed at the workers, was a handful of warrants involving less than a fraction of one per cent of the workers swept up in the ICE action’, said UFCW president Hansen.
‘Workers were held by armed agents, herded together and systematically stripped of their rights,’said Gabriela Flora an organiser in the central region of Project Voice of the American Friends Service Committee. They were denied access to bathrooms and legal counsel. Citizens and legal residents were denied the opportunity to retrieve documents to establish their legal status. Many workers were unable to look after children and elderly family members under their care, because they were not allowed to make a phone call. The breakdown of our 4th Amendment rights represents a failure of the first order on the part of our government.’
Hansen said: ‘Politicians cannot have it both ways. They cannot continue to say our immigration system is broken and needs fixing, then turn around and insist on excessive and illegal enforcement measures that make the problems worse for everyone — workers, business, and communities.’
At the conclusion of the national community meeting, the UFCW organised the ‘National Working Group on ICE Misconduct and Violations of 4th Amendment Rights,’ designed to help develop a national strategic response to the increased number of ICE raids and enforcement actions. The group will document what happened to union members during the raids, expose abuse and misconduct and present the evidence to Congress.
The Working Group intends to show that ICE agents’ tactics during the December raids were in violation of the federal government’s own rules. The Group will collect other testimony from workplace sites where other raids occurred, and will demand that higher-up authorities in the federal government be held accountable.
‘Work is not a crime. Workers are not criminals. We do not leave our constitutional rights at the plant gate,’ said Hansen. He added: ‘The stories of workers caught up in these raids must be heard. ‘Their experience should serve as the foundation for Congressional hearings. Our political leaders must do something to secure 4th Amendment rights in the workplace.’