Crossing Borders: Immigration, Workers' Centers and Universities Conference

The great migration of Mexican and Central American workers to the United States over the last decade, the Congressional debates on immigration reform that came to a head this year, and the unprecedented marches by Latina/o immigrant workers in response to this debate, have all intensified our awareness of two profound needs: one intellectual, the other political. Intellectually, we need to understand better the impacts that this migration has had on the dynamics of labor markets in the United States. In particular, we need to assess the accuracy of claims that the migrants are causing a large-scale displacement of American workers, particularly young, male, African-American workers. Politically, we need to find the space in which - and the processes by which - Latino, African-American, and other low-wage workers can engage one another in ways that allow them to see and act upon their common interests as workers, and to better understand and respect each others' historical experiences, identities and cultures of solidarity. In particular, we need to enhance the capacity of an important new component of the US labor movement - workers' centers - to contribute to these goals.

This conference - organized by the Washtenaw County Workers' Center (WCWC) and the student groups Migrant and Immigrant Rights Awareness (MIRA) and Labor Rights Roundtable (LRR) -- will bring together scholars who study immigration, labor markets and labor movements with some of the activists responsible for the rapid growth of workers' centers over the last decade. Our objectives are (1) to identify best practices in existing workers' centers with respect to the challenges noted above; and (2) to adapt and apply those best practices to the development of the three workers' centers in our area. On Friday, the scholars and activists that we bring to Ann Arbor will share their understanding of best practices relating to these challenges with conference attendees from our universities and communities. On Saturday, the workshops seek to apply the lessons related in the Friday panels to the development of the two workers' centers in our area: the WCWC (Washtenaw County) and the Centro Obrero (Southwest Detroit). We hope that the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) in Toledo will also find these discussions useful as it considers next steps in the evolution of its "associate membership" program for non-farm workers in Toledo.

Program

All events will take place at the School of Social Work at the University of Michigan.
Friday, November 17th:

  • 8:30-9am: Continental Breakfast
  • 9-10:45am: Keynote Address:
    Janice Fine will discuss the state of the workers' center component of the U.S. labor movement: recent growth and accomplishments, important new ideas, obstacles to further development and strategies for overcoming them.
  • 10:45-11am: Coffee Break
  • 11-12:30pm: Panel #1: Contemporary Great Migrations: Changing Character, Evolving Movement Responses
    Pedro Lewin (Centro INAH Yucatan, Mexico) will discuss the changing pace, scale and character of Mexico-US labor migration, especially the increasingly indigenous character of the migrants.
    Eddie Acosta (Voice@Work, AFL-CIO) will discuss the evolution of AFL-CIO thinking on immigration policy and workers' centers, including the new agreement signed in 2006 between the AFL-CIO and two workers' center networks: the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) and the Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ) network of fifteen workers' centers.
  • 12:30-2pm: Lunch
  • 2-3:30pm: Panel #2: Building Solidarity Across Race and Class Differences
    Jose Oliva (Director, IWJ National Workers' Center, Chicago) will speak both to the Chicago-based workers' center that he helped to start, and to the experience of the IWJ workers' center network as a whole.
    Marc Rodrigues (Staff, Student-Farmworker Alliance, Immokalee, FL) will discuss how the SFA deals with issues of race and class difference within in its own organization and in their work with Coalition of Immokalee Workers.
    Esther Williams (International Rep, UAW Local 1975, EMU, Technical, Office and Professional Dept, Region 1A, Ret'd)will speak about multicultural, interracial organizing in the UAW, both at EMU and more widely.
  • 3:30-3:45pm: Coffee Break
  • 3:45-5:15pm Panel #3: Building Strong University-Worker Center Relationships
    Bruce Nissen (Director, Research Institute on Social and Economic Policy, Florida International University, Miami) will discuss the work of his institute with with unions, workers' centers and labor movement allies on developing useful, high quality research.
    Patrick Hickey (Exec. Dir., Workers' Rights Center, Madison, WI) will discuss the strong relationship between the Workers' Rights Center and the University of Wisconsin - Madison focusing on research and finances.
    Matt Gladue (Director, Twin Cities Labor and Religion Network, Minneapolis, MN) - Matt will discuss how TCLRN works with the Law School at the University of Minnesota, and how university-based legal services can best be utilized to enhance workers' power.
  • 6pm: Dinner

    • Saturday, November 18th: