05-01-06,7:02am
In 1886, the first May Day celebration by mostly immigrant workers in Chicago was the catalyst that led to the eight-hour work day and changed the way work was done in the U.S. This May Day, workers plan massive demonstrations across the country to ensure that another group of immigrants gets justice.
In marches, rallies, demonstrations and ceremonies May 1, hundreds of thousands of workers from New York to Chicago to Los Angeles will deliver a simple message: Immigrants who work for a living and who contribute to their communities deserve a chance at the American Dream.
“When you work hard year after year, when you support your family and pay your taxes, when you make your community a better place, then you deserve your rights,” says AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson. She will join marchers in Chicago to commemorate May Day and rally in support of immigrant workers.
The marchers want to ensure that Congress pursues legislation that provides a clear path to citizenship for hard-working immigrants already here, respects human and worker rights, and rejects harshly punitive, piecemeal measures that criminalize individuals.
Over the past few weeks, massive demonstrations of support for immigrants have swept across the country, with historic numbers of workers, students, people of faith and community leaders turning out in a variety of grassroots protests and rallies. The AFL-CIO and other union-related organizations have developed toolkits for groups planning events in support of immigrant workers’ rights.
“Immigrant workers deserve what my family and millions of other immigrant families have had since this great country was created—the chance to live the American Dream,” Chavez-Thompson said “Hard-working immigrants in this country deserve the chance to move out of the shadows, hold their heads high and to participate as full members of society once and for all.”
May Day celebrations began in 1886 when nearly 300,000 strikers nationwide and 40,000 in Chicago took part in demonstrations for the eight-hour day. Just three days later, four trade unionists were killed in the Haymarket Square tragedy as they protested the murder of two workers and the wounding of other trade unionists who had rallied the previous day in the city. The event sparked the formation of International Workers’ Day—May Day.
Several unions that belong to the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM) sent greetings of solidarity for the U.S. workers’ fight for immigrant rights, including the All Pakistan Trade Union Federation and the Gas Industry Workers Trade Union in Azerbaijan. The Argentine metal workers’ union saluted “all workers who continue the excellent work that was started by the martyrs of Chicago.”
Throughout the world, workers will celebrate other key victories on May Day, the traditional day to celebrate workers:
In Finland, a policy takes effect today that will make it harder to abuse foreign workers. In Germany, Hubertus Schmoldt, president of the chemical and engineering union ICBCE, plans to deliver a warning that Germany’s economy will suffer if leaders try to lower wages and lengthen the work week. The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), which represents 155 million workers in 236 affiliated organizations in 154 countries, including the AFL-CIO, issued a manifesto April 26 that could serve as the pledge of all worker advocates:
Our international resolve is strong. Long before globalization became a household word, trade unions understood that the fate of workers in one country is inextricably linked with the fate of workers in another. We will continue to confront those who seek to divide, and to profit from division, by pitting worker against worker. We remain steadfast in our determination to end global poverty, and to build a global economy that serves the interests of people rather than capital, where the rules of trade and finance support workers’ rights and development instead of promoting a race to the bottom.
