Demand That US Government Allow Entry Of Mexican Union Farmworkers To Speak To US Workers

Demand That The US Government Allow Entry Of Mexican Union Farmworkers To Speak To US Working People-Driscolls Suppressing Free Speech
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Giant Driscolls Corporation Working with the U.S. Authorities to Stop Mexican Farmworkers from Speaking in the U.S.

Call on the U.S. State Department and on the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana, Mexico, to allow Mexican farmworker leaders to attend the Binational Conference on NAFTA in Carson, Calif.!

Under pressure from the multinational Driscoll's Corporation, the U.S. government has refused the right of Mexican farmworker organizers to come to the United States for a Binational Conference on NAFTA and Labor Rights in Carson, California on December 2-3, 2017.

Three leaders of the Alianza de Organizaciones and of the newly formed Sindicato Nacional de Jornaleros Agrícolas (SINDJA) in San Quintin, Baja California, were denied visas to come to the conference. They are: Fidel Sánchez Gabriel, Octavio Angel López, and Juan Hernández. All had letters of invitation from the university department sponsoring the conference and from many of the unions and central AFL-CIO labor councils co-sponsoring the event.

Driscoll's -- which is based in California -- has been facing an international boycott of their products because of their refusal to recognize and sign a collective-bargaining agreement with SINDJA, the independent union supported overwhelmingly by the close to 80,000 farmworkers in the San Quintin valley.

These workers and their families -- a large percentage of whom are indigenous people expelled from their lands in Oaxaca on account of NAFTA's destruction of Mexico's agricultural sector -- toil under near-slave-like conditions, with wages of $7 a day and a lack of healthcare and sanitation for themselves and their families.

The Binational Conference to which the San Quintin workers were invited as keynote presenters has been sponsored by the California Faculty Association chapter at California State University at Dominguez Hills and by the following organizations: Hermandad Mexicana-La Original; Sacramento Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA, AFL-CIO); California State LCLAA; Farm Labor Organizing Committee, (FLOC, AFL-CIO); Sacramento Labor Council (AFL-CIO); San Francisco Labor Council (AFL-CIO); Sindicato Mexicano de Electricistas (SME); Frente Auténtico del Trabajo (FAT); Sindicato Nacional de Telefonistas de la República Mexicana; Comité Promotor Mexicano de la Conferencia Binacional (sede Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas); Department of Modern Languages, CSU Dominguez Hills; UAW Local 551; Labor Fightback Network; OPT Tijuana; The Organizer; Worker Action Solidarity Network; among others.

Please get your union and organization to support the call for immediate action by the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana to provide the visas for these workers to attend the conference. There will be press conferences in Mexico and the United States to demand that they have the right to communicate with, and present their situation directly to, U.S. workers and activists.

Please call the U.S. Consulate General in Tijuana at 011-521-664-977-2000, extension 5, to register your protest and your demand.


BINATIONAL CONFERENCE PROGRAM

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 1

• RECEPTION FOR INTERNATIONAL GUEST SPEAKERS / Meet and Greet (7 pm to 9 pm)
[Doubletree Hotel, 2 Civic Plaza Dr. Carson, CA]

* * * * *

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2

[Saturday plenary sessions and workshops all at California State University-Dominguez Hills, Loker Student Union, 3rd Floor, 1000 E. Victoria St., Carson, CA]

• REGISTRATION & SIGN-UP FOR WORKSHOPS (9 am to 9:30 am)

* * * * *

• MORNING PLENARY SESSION

(9:30 am to 11 am)

* Chairpersons opening session:

- Nativo Lopez, Senior Adviser, Hermandad Mexicana-La Original

- Ivonne Heinze Balcazar, Director, Department of Modern Languages, CSU-Dominguez Hills; Women’s Caucus Rep, Dominguez Hills chapter of the California Faculty Association, Carson, CA

* Welcoming remarks

- Claudia Mendoza, Executive Board, Dominguez Hills chapter of the California Faculty Association, Carson, CA

* Keynote Speakers

* Rusty Hicks, Executive Secretary-Treasurer, Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO (On the fight against NAFTA and for labor rights)

* Baldemar Velasquez, President, Farm Labor Organizing Committee, FLOC, AFL-CIO, Toledo, OH (On the fight against union-busting of FLOC in North Carolina and the JR Reynolds “Vuse” Boycott)

* Ivonne Heinze Balcazar, Director, Department of Modern Languages, CSU-Dominguez Hills; Exec. Bd., CFA CSUDH, Carson, CA (On language & culture in the era of NAFTA)

* William I. Robinson, Professor of Sociology and Global and International Studies, University of California-Santa Barbara (On why we must fight to cancel NAFTA)

* Carmen Mata, Representative, Alianza de Organizaciones and SINDJA farmworkers’ union, San Quintin, Baja California, Mexico (On the struggle of the San Quintin farmworkers)

* Victor Enrique Favela Rocha, International Representative, National Telephone Workers Union of the Mexican Republic and UNT, Mexico (On the fight against NAFTA and Privatizations in Mexico)

* Luis Angel Reyes Savalza, Immigration attorney; Director, Community Empowerment (On the fight against deportations and the Wall of Shame, and for Papers for All and a Clean DREAM act)

* Maria Rivera, Asamblea Popular de Tijuana, Mexico (On behalf of the Mexican Binational Conference Mexico Organizing Committee)

* Scott Houldieson, Vice President, UAW 551, Chicago; Convener, Workers Solidarity Action Network (On the struggle against NAFTA and for trade union rights in the US)

PLUS
- Greetings from San Quintin, Baja California, Mexico, farmworker leaders via skype, and

- Greetings from Binational Conference Organizing Committee, Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas, via skype

* * * * *

• FIRST SESSION OF WORKSHOPS

(11:15 am to 12:45 pm)

Three concurrent workshops

1) The Fight to Cancel NAFTA, CAFTA and all bilateral “free trade” agreements — and cross-border organizing: Next steps

* Luis Carlos Haro, OPT Tijuana, Coordinator, Bina

* William I. Robinson, Professor of Sociology, University of California at Santa Barbara

• Alan Benjamin, Representation, San Francisco Labor Council (AFL-CIO)

* Yesenia Portillo, LA CISPES

* Juan José Bocanegra, El Comité, Seattle, WA

* * * * *

2) The Fight Against the Privatization of Public Education in the U.S. and Mexico

* Rosemary Lee, Tri-National Coalition Against Privatization of Education, United Teachers of Los Angeles

* Leonor Marisela Ortega Domínguez - Professor, UABC, Mexicali, Mexico

* Michael Dominguez, UTLA Substitute Teacher

* Junnie Verceles, Chair, UTLA Unjustly Housed Teachers’ Committee

* Fernando Buitimea, Students in Defense of Public Education, Tijuana, Mexico

* * * * *
3) The Fight Against the Wall of Shame and Deportations, for a Clean Dream Act, and in defense of Temporary Protective Status for Central American and Caribbean refugees

* Melina Juarez, PhD candidate Political Science; Raza Graduate Student Association, University of New Mexico

* Angela Sanbrano, CARECEN; Central American refugee and anti-CAFTA organizer

* Xochilt Sanchez, LA CISPES

* Sergio Trujillo, DACA recipient, Hermandad Mexicana

* Carlos Arango, CASA Aztlan, Chicago

* * * * *

• LUNCH (12:45 pm to 2 pm)

* * * * *



• SECOND SESSION OF WORKSHOPS

(2 pm to 3:30 pm)



Three concurrent workshops



4) The Struggle for Women’s Rights in the Era of NAFTA

* Maria Rosa Ibarra, UFCW, Los Angeles

* María Rivera, Asamblea Popular de Tijuana, Mexico

* Millie Phillips, Retired IBEW 1245; Steering Committee, Labor Fightback Network, Berkeley, CA

* Rosario Ramirez, SEIU United Service Workers West, Sacramento, CA

* Carmen Mata, Alianza de Organizaciones, San Quintin, Baja California, Mexico



* * * * *



5) The Struggle for Labor Rights and Unionization on Both Sides of the Border (fight against the labor “counter-reform” and union-busting in Mexico; and the fight to stop “right to work” laws, Janus and ICE in the U.S. )

* Carlos Taboada, Retired UTR Teacher

* Cipriano Vilchis, former worker at American Apparel

* Chloe Osmer, Organizing Director, LA County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO

* Fátima García, Secretary, Sacramento LCLAA; member, SEIU USWW

* Alex Sánchez, Teamsters union, Los Angeles



* * * * *



6) The Fight for Quality Public Healthcare on both sides of the border (halting and reversing the privatization of IMSS and ISSSTE in Mexico; defense of Medicaid and fight for single payer in the U.S.)

* Karen Bernal, Community activist, Sacramento, Calif.

* Desiree Rojas, Pres., Sacramento LCLAA, AFL-CIO

* Jerry Levinsky, member, SEIU 509; Steering Committee, Labor Fightback Network, Amherst, MA

* Leonardo Olivares Marin, OPT Tijuana



* * * * *

• THIRD SESSION OF WORKSHOPS

(3:45 pm to 5:15 pm)



Three concurrent workshops



7) The Nuts and Bolts of Organizing Boycotts, Nationally and Internationally: The Driscoll’s Boycott and the “Vuse” JR Reynolds Boycott

* Baldemar Velasquez, President, FLOC, AFL-CIO

* Al Rojas, Vice President, LCLAA Sacramento chapter

* María Cervantes, Rep., Fresno Boycott Committee

* Francisco Chavez Romero, Unión del Barrio, San Diego, Calif

* Juan Martinez, Farmworker, San Quintin, México

* * * * *
8) The Youth Struggle in the Era of NAFTA & “Free Trade”

* Erick Campana - Student, UABC - Mexicali, Mexico

* David Odiseo - Student, UABC - Mexicali, Mexico

* Emiliano Raya Aguilar - MIR, México

* Student activists from CSU Fullerton

* * * * *
9) NAFTA, the Environment, & Workers’ Health and Safety

* Roman Ortiz - Movimiento en Defensa del Parque Benito Juárez - Tijuana

* Susana Prieto Terrazas, Attorney, organizer, Maquiladora Workers, Ciudad Juarez, México

* Diana Arangure, Mexicali Resiste!

* Steve Zeltzer, CWA Pacific Media Workers Guild, Chair, Human Rights Committee



SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2 (Ctd.)



• EVENING PLENARY SESSION

(5:30 pm to 7 pm)



[Second set of keynote speakers, interspersed with Reports from the 9 Workshops, focused on action proposals emanating from workshops. Each workshop will select a note-taker who will present the conclusions of the workshop; Discussion and Implementation of Workshop Decisions will be Sunday, Dec. 3]



* Second Plenary Session chairpersons

* Desiree Rojas, Pres., Sacramento LCLAA, AFL-CIO

* Alan Benjamin, Representative, San Francisco Labor Council, AFL-CIO



* Keynote Speakers:

* Stan Santos, Exec. Bd and representative, Fresno Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO

* Olga Miranda, President, SEIU Local 87, San Francisco

* Dean Murakami, President, Los Rios College Federation of Teachers AFT 2279; Vice President, Sacramento Central Labor Council

* Al Rojas, 2nd Vice Pres., Sacramento Labor Council

* Susana Prieto Terrazas, Attorney, organizer, maquiladora workers, Ciudad Juarez, Mexico

* Steve Zeltzer, United Public Workers for Action; Workers Solidarity Action Network, San Francisco

* Jim Lafferty, Executive Director, National Lawyers Guild-Los Angeles



SUNDAY, DECEMBER 3



* Action Plan Plenary Session (9:30 am to 1 pm)



[Union Hall of United Steelworkers of America, 1200 E. 220th Street - 
Carson, Calif.]



— Implementation of Action Campaigns from 9 Workshops: Next steps — and excerpts from written messages to conference from:

- Canada

- Haiti

- Peru

- Ecuador

- Chile

- Brazil

* Closing Comments by Conference Co-Chairpersons
Financial support is still needed urgently to bring the delegation of the San Quintin farmworkers (Baja California, Mexico) and the delegation of women maquiladora (sweatshop) workers from Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, to the conference. Please send your checks, payable to LCLAA Sacramento, to PO Box 245913, Sacramento, CA 95824. (Federal tax ID: 2151778.)

The Call for the Binational Conference and other related documents can be accessed at:

http://www.binationalcampaign.org