This participatory session will bring together labor leadership and dynamic national immigrant rights groups to strategize around organizing immigrant workers. Together we will discuss what the world could look like with commonsense immigration reform and what steps labor can start to take now and until reform comes. This session will convey the extraordinary potential that immigration reform poses for growing the labor movement and building greater progressive worker power. Guest speakers will share current labor and community efforts under way to plan for legalization of the approximately 5 million to 7 million people who may become eligible under legislative reform. We will highlight national coordination efforts to provide competent and much-needed services that will organize and empower workers through strategic grassroots collaborations. Finally, we will strategize concrete steps labor can take to further mobilize and advocate for policy reforms that move legislation forward and uplift the immigrant population, such as ending deportation and expanding deferred action. At the same time, at least 4 million to 5 million people are likely to be excluded from the benefits of legislative reform, and labor must support ongoing efforts to help organize and empower this group by deepening our partnerships with immigrant worker organizations. By collaborating with networks of grassroots community groups and national service providers, the labor movement could help change the current political landscape and greatly expand worker power.
Ana Avendaño, Assistant to the President for Immigration and Community Action, AFL-CIO
Speakers:
• Tefere Gebre, Executive Director, Orange Country Labor Federation
• Chris Newman, Legal Director, NDLON
• Andrew Friedman, Executive Director, The Center for Popular Democracy
• Aquilina Soriano, Filipino Workers Center, National Domestic Workers Alliance
• Cristina Tzintzun, Executive Director, Workers Defense Project (Tentative)
• Christian Torres, UNITE HERE Local 11 (Tentative)