Immigrant Workers Organize!

SATURDAY, APRIL 28, 2pm - 5pm
Corazon del Pueblo
4814 International Boulevard, E. Oakland

IMMIGRANT WORKERS ORGANIZE

Bosses use ICE and the threat of deportation to intimidate workers and
deny them their rights. Come exercise strategies to defend ourselves from
La Migra. This workshop will look at using the law and ways to act beyond
the law.

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This event will be a participatory workshop for immigrant workers, non-immigrant co-workers, worker advocates, union stewards, and other labor organizers who wish to formulate strategies to resist ICE raids and other anti-immigrant scenarios occurring in the workplace.

We'll discuss different case scenarios (drawn from actual experiences) and create responses. Scenarios include not only ICE raids but situations in which bosses/clients have used immigration status (legal or illegal) as a way to exploit immigrant workers. The examples of scenarios range from losses in wages, sexual abuse, no-match letters, wrongful eviction, and other forms of discrimination, intimidation, exploitation and violence.

Our outreach is specifically to immigrants employed in the domestic service industry, sex work industry, garment industry, hospitality industry, and restaurant industry. These are industries where the majority of workers are immigrant women of color and transwomen.

Goals of the event include:

* accurately discuss the specifics of case scenarios (based on experiential 1st person accounts)
* familiarize ourselves with, and emotionally prepare to confront, the current practices of the ICE and other agents of the State
* understand the Law in terms of how it can be used, the limitations based on documentation status, and how to move beyond the law
* identify processes of criminalization, coercion, exploitation, divisiveness, particularly who is targeted/harmed vs. who benefits.
* create a space to acknowledge each other and our collective power
* strengthen worker solidarity by redefining "work", formal and informal,and it's value.
* privilege the voices of immigrant women of color and transwomen and maintain a transnational feminist perspective.
* coordinate interventions with union reps, coworkers, family, neighbors and advocates
* determine ways to resist and fight back with dignity and self-determination

This workshop will honor particularly the work experiences of immigrant women of color and transwomen. Respect the space.

Translation and childcare provided.