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Chapter 4. Organizing for Immigrant Labor Rights: Latino Immigrants in San Jose and Houston
- Russell Sage Foundation
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Shannon Gleeson Chapter 4 Organizing for Immigrant Labor Rights: Latino Immigrants in San Jose and Houston Federal labor standards, ranging from wage and overtime guarantees to workplace safety, generally are meant to protect all workers in the United States, regardless of immigrant status. States can enact statutes that improve upon these standards, but must at least enforce these basic protections. Such provisions take on an added importance in the context of declining unionization rates. Foreign-born workers are less likely than native-born to be represented by a union, and, overall, Latinos have the lowest levels of unionization.1 Given increasing levels of Latino migration, how do low-wage Latino workers, especially those who are undocumented immigrants, ensure and advocate for their labor rights both individually and collectively? When do local governments get involved in advocating for migrant rights, and what forms do these coalitions take? In this chapter, I explore the impact that differing state labor policy contexts have on strategies for protecting the rights of low-wage workers, particularly Latino immigrants. I focus on two cities with distinct state labor policies: Houston , Texas, and San Jose, California. Texas labor policy generally only replicates federal minimum standards, it is a Right to Work state with one of the lowest rates of union representation, and it is the only state in the nation that does not require employers to provide workers’ compensation insurance. By contrast, California has a strong history with robust labor standards. I draw on interviews conducted in San Jose and Houston with key immigrant labor unions, community organizations, and labor standards enforcement agencies. Interviews with Latino immigrant workers in each city also inform the analysis. I find that the policy context in each state, and local institutions in each city, shape the opportunities local governments and civil society organizations have to intervene on behalf of workers, in surprising ways. Despite the more favorable state opportunity structures in California, organization around basic Latino immigrant labor rights is greater in Houston. Here I explore the dynamics of this paradox, and the process by which community coalition members have garnered political presence and political weight in each city. LABOR RIGHTS ORGANIZING Labor rights are a common site for civic action and collective mobilization. A good deal of research has highlighted the progress that labor unions have made in organizing immigrants. Some of the most prominent union victories include the Service Employees International Union “Justice for Janitors” campaign, which for two decades rallied for the rights of immigrant workers. Immigrants, who used to be thought of as not organizable have in fact become the focus of the labor movement. This is especially the case since the AFL-CIO passed a resolution to “stand in solidarity with immigrant workers,” and even went on record to call for amnesty for all undocumented workers and their families (AFL-CIO 2007; Bacon 2000). The national Change to Win coalition, which split from the AFL-CIO with a mission to increase union organizing efforts, also represents a large sector of the immigrant low-wage workforce. Inspirations such as the Justice for Janitors campaign suggest that organizing immigrant workers may indeed be the key to revitalizing American unionism , but it is not at all clear that unions’ efforts will be sufficient to address the needs and concerns of low-wage immigrant workers. In fact, the continued saliency for basic labor standards is strongest in nonunionized work settings, which is where the vast majority of Americans, and especially immigrants, work. However, though traditional labor unions are the quintessential organization for addressing worker rights, they are not the only form of collective mobilization (Fine 2006; Jayaraman and Ness 2005). Given the low levels of unionization, particularly for Latino immigrants, it is important to understand the circumstances under which these workers are able to make claims on their labor rights, particularly outside of the union context. One might expect that in places where policies more vigorously protect individual labor rights, this would also create an opening for civic engagement on the issue, beyond simply union activity. In the case of gay and lesbian rights, Ellen Andersen (2005) develops the concept of a “legal opportunity structure,” which she argues differs from political opportunity structures because they are based on the available legal stock, which in turn shapes the types and strength of potential social movements. Similarly, I argue that in the case of advocating for immigrant labor rights, a legal-administrative opportunity structure also exists that determines to what extent workers...