California Immigrant Workers Association

The California Immigrant Workers Association was a group created by labor unions in California in the wake of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. Its main goal was to associate immigrant workers and integrate them to the labor movement through amnesty.

Origins

The California Immigrant Workers Association was a program by the AFL-CIO in Los Angeles, California intended to help Latino workers to obtain amnesty through the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA).[1]It was founded in that same year by twenty-one unions affiliated to the AFL-CIO and six central labor councils. They had Jose de Paz, a well-known activist, as the Executive Director.[2]

The program required a special membership called "associate membership" which was automatically obtained by simply joining the California Immigrant Workers Association.[1]

Even though the program was for immigrant workers, it was mainly targeted towards those workers who had been residing for a long time in the United States and not for workers who had recently arrived into the country.[3]

Despite the fact that the association was affiliated with the AFL-CIO, it did not have the power of a union.[4] Nevertheless, its members were people with experience organizing Latinos. They spoke the same language, understood the culture and knew immigration law and the problems of the labor movement.[5]

Latino immigrant workers prior to 1986

Prior to World War I, the AFL often ignored Latinos and focused its attention into more organized groups such as Asian workers and Latino workers did not get sufficient support from the AFL.[6] In fact, the AFL and its leader Samuel Gompers supported immigration restrictions in the basis of economic takeover. According to him, Latinos, especially Mexicans would take the jobs of the white workers and therefore would lower the wages.[7]

It was not until restrictions on immigration for Mexicans by the Exclusion Law of 1921 and the Quota Act of 1924 were exempted, that the AFL made arrangements to allow Mexican workers to join American Labor Unions.[8]

However, immigrant workers in California still faced discrimination by the AFL, which lobbied to give jobs to white workers over Latino workers, especially during the Great Depression up until the ratification of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which prohibited union discrimination. Nevertheless, even though the AFL opposed immigration it favored amnesty because it believed that legal workers were less likely to be exploited than illegal workers and therefore wages would not drop.[9]

Goals and contributions

The California Immigrant Workers Association became important for the California immigrant workers because it was an attempt to organize those promoting labor rights.[10] It was designed to improve the lives of its members with attorney consultation about issues at the work place, immigration, education, housing, as well as with the opportunity of obtaining knowledge using computers at learning centers.[4]

The program thus offered immigrant workers access to health care, provided legal services, and protected union rights that would have not been accessible to Latino immigrant workers without the California Immigrant Workers Association.[11] The association's creation promoted a closer connection between Latino immigrant workers and the AFL-CIO and it became a bridge between Latinos and the labor movement.[12] It was also key organization to win unionization in important strikes such as the wildcat strike in 1991 and the Drywall strike in 1992.[13]

Citations
  1. López 1995, p. 100.
  2. Milkman 2000, p. 229.
  3. López 1995, p. 118.
  4. López 1995, p. 117.
  5. Milkman 2000, p. 185.
  6. López 1995, p. 101.
  7. López 1995, p. 103.
  8. López 1995, p. 116.
  9. López 1995, p. 107-118.
  10. Milkman 2000, p. 168.
  11. López 1995, p. 120.
  12. López 1995, p. 100, 119.
  13. Milkman 2000, p. 163.

References
  • López (1995), Latinos in the United States: Latino Employment, Labor Organizations, and Immigration, Garland Publishing Inc, ISBN 978-0815317739
  • Milkman (2000), Organizing Immigrants: The Challenge for Unions in Contemporary California, ILR Press, ISBN 978-0801436970
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