1) What are some of the differences between the Asian American's and Latino's experiences as immigrant labourers in the United States?
2) Pam Tau Lee discussses some of the negative aspects in unions - expand a little on this.
3) Lee says "We need education that can help empower immigrant workers, and at the same time sensitize the general public to the problems of the immigrant worker,..." - think of solutions of how we can do this. How do we educate them exactly?
4) Saito says "Our skin is brown too, our battle is the same", is it beneficial or detrimental to the immigrants' cause to only base their coalition on race?
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In her article, Pam Tau Lee mentions that "labor history is dotted with incidents where unions and unionists led attacks on Chinese workers." This may in part be due to the diversity of immigrant workers amongst them, including other Asian racial groups, Latinos, Portugese, Mexicans, etc. Since most immigrant workers have the same goal--to find a job in America to support their family--they are ultimately in competition with one another. It is thus to no surprise that unionists may attack one another.
ReplyDeleteUnions require a tremendous amount of input, organization, and knowledge. Unionists must need to know how to stand up for themselves and know their rights in the foreign country. A well-established union calls for diversity of people and of internal culture, for union staff who are well aware of their roles in leadership and responsibilities. Oftentimes, however, we see unions that discriminate against other people of different color. Unionists must learn that discrimination doesn't just end between immigrant workers and caucasians; they must accept the diversity of immigrants in the United States. Unions are a great thing, but only if everybody knows what they're doing.
3) A main deficiency in many immigrants' education is there lack of English skills. Though free classes are available in some areas, they aren't well advertised and don't always have schedules compatible with immigrant's schedules. We need more classes available, more advertisements of those classes, and classes that are designed to help immigrants learn what they need to know at a reasonably fast pace, since many of them have very little time in a week to spend studying (i.e. not making money).
ReplyDeleteTo help sensitize the general public, we could have an annual awareness day when everyone lives on the daily budget of an immigrant worker for a day. Or more movies like that one about the two Guatemalan siblings that travel to the US for work getting circulated through the mainstream and in the school system.
"Early Asian immigrants were denied the right of naturalization, whereas Mexicans could become citizens. When the Japanese-Mexican Labor Association applied for membership in the American Federation of Labor, Mexicans were offered the opportunity to join, but no Japanese." pg 153
ReplyDeleteI think that the having separate rights for different races is immoral. Rights should be something everyone has. But there are differences between race. Different culture and different struggle. Because of this different races have differences in their struggle for fairness in this unfair world. Hence the need for race based unions that understand the particulars of their race's needs. But sticking to solely race based unions is just as narrow minded as only having interracial unions. There needs to a balance of both, with lots of communication.
2. (I'm not sure how current or accurate any of this is, especially considering that Lee's article appears to have been written in the early 90's.) A big issue in unions is that of race - how and how MUCH each is represented in union leadership and membership. Lee talks about the advances in this area made by the ILWU, and argues that other unions need to follow suit in order to create diversity and help workers of color get the most out of their respective unions. This includes having translators present at meetings, allowing all people to participate in said meetings as equals, ensuring that minority groups are represented in the leadership of the union, etc.
ReplyDelete3. As Lee wrote in her article, a lot of immigrant workers are frightened of taking part in union activities because they don't know of past union victories and don't see the efficacity of collective action. They also don't know of their own rights and of the laws pertaining to various aspects of their lives and work - knowledge that could change everything for them. Teaching them about unions and why they work, and about why they should stand up for themselves, is no easy task, considering the fact that workers are most likely so busy trying to get by at the very job that's so harsh on them that they don't have the time or means to seek this kind of knowledge out. The traditional method of going into the workplace and recruiting workers/disseminating knowledge might work, but is risky at best, considering the fact of the boss's inevitable presence. One could look for other places where such workers gather, like the supermarket. Lee talks about using the media - educational articles in ethnic newspapers, perhaps, or television programs, though Lee also notes that this kind of coverage can be problematic.
This doesn't completely answer the question since some people have already commented on, but to expand beyond Lee's writing: basically a major problem of unions as Jessica mentions above, is race. Above the points Jessica mentioned, Lee also talks about how leadership plays such an important role in unions. We've talked about cases such as in the Salmon Factory where minority groups were often pitted against each other, and how the strength of workers uniting together to fight for their basic rights depended so highly on whether or not there was someone willing to take the lead. Lee talks about how the internal composition of unions needs to change in order to reflect diversity. This will aid in not only representing the workers better, but could potentially break down barriers between culture and language. Perhaps these leaders could be educated more than the workers, that way these leaders could be bilingual, act as translators, while effectively representing their own ethnic group. Lee also talks about how interethnic coalitions are necessary--we have seen this a number of times now in past readings as well. Perhaps these leaders could also act as liaisons of their own group, to other groups. Leadership, language, and cooperation between different ethnic groups seem to be the three main factors.
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