Excluded Workers Organize For Rights

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

Fifty one local activists traveled to Detroit recently, chartering a bus to attend the U.S. Social Forum held June 22 - 26th. The group included students, union members, members of DC Jobs with Justice and Empower DC, Wings strikers, and Union de Trabajadores members. In Detroit they joined up with members of UFCW Local 400 and AFGE Local 2741 who were also participating in the Forum. One of the event’s features was the Excluded Worker Congress, which brought together domestic workers and farm workers -- historically excluded from organizing rights -- informal sector workers such as taxi drivers, restaurant workers and day laborers, welfare-to-work participants, workers in "right to work" states, and other workers now excluded from bargaining rights, such as TSO screeners. Workers shared testimonies, as well as calls to action for their organizing campaigns. DC participants included members of DC Jobs with Justice, the Union de Trabajadores, the Justice at Wings strike, and Georgetown's Kalmanowitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. "Our fathers and forefathers have fought too hard to let us go back to slavery," said Lamar Denton, catfish cannery worker and member of the Mississippi Workers Center, who spoke about the harassment and mistreatment workers face at the Gulf Coast company where he and co-workers are trying to organize with UFCW Local 1529. "Maybe someday you'll be AFL-CIO members, and maybe you won't,” said Eddie Acosta of the AFL-CIO, encouraging workers of every sector to come together to organize for their rights. “But the AFL-CIO will be there with you. Our futures are tied very closely together."
- Mackenzie Baris; click here for Bankole Thompson’s report on the Congress: "Excluded Workers" Move from Shadows to Negotiating Table; photo (r-l): Felix Salvador, Mackenzie Baris, Christian Vasquez and Socorro Garcia; photo by Bankole Thompson/IPS