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News > Latin America

US: Immigrant Workers, Workers of Color Plan Historic Strike on May 1

  • The coalition includes Cosecha, Fight for $15, the Food Chain Workers Alliance and the SEIU United Service Workers West.

    The coalition includes Cosecha, Fight for $15, the Food Chain Workers Alliance and the SEIU United Service Workers West. | Photo: Twitter / @CosechaMovement

Published 4 April 2017
Opinion

A large solidarity movement is organizing across the country as a response to Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric.

Various immigrants' rights groups and labor unions have allied to organize the largest U.S. May 1 demonstration in the past 10 years, the groups announced in a press conference on Monday in Washington, D.C.

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The announcement came in the context of anti-immigrant stances and policies by U.S. President Donald Trump, which has triggered a movement of solidarity for immigrant workers and workers of color across the country.

"After years of broken promises, raids, driving in fear of being pulled over, not being able to bury our loved ones, Trump is just the final straw," Movimiento Cosecha's Maria Cabello said. "As we saw during the spontaneous strikes on February 16, our people are ready."

The coalition, which includes Cosecha, Fight for $15, the Food Chain Workers Alliance and the SEIU United Service Workers West, plans to repeat February's successfully held across the United States under the name "A Day Without Immigrants."

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"It's very important that we can show that the undocumented community can turn fear into power," former Bernie Sanders press official Erika Andiola added. "We hope that our communities can come out and say, 'Yes, we're here, yes we are going to show our power and yes we can change this community.'"

More than 400,000 workers have already committed to the annual celebrations of Labor Day on May 1, activists from immigration group Movimiento Cosecha told online publication Mic.

Tens of thousands of workers from the SEIU United Service Workers West have also announced their participation in the state of California.

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