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Brought this over from LP:

Title: IMMIGRANTS on tour to fight for EQUAL RIGHTS: FREEDOM BUS RIDES, organized by unions with an eye on potential members, will travel to Washington, D.C. and New York City for rallies.
Source: The Miami Herald (Miami, Florida)
URL Source: http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/6871627.htm? template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Published: Sep 27, 2003
Author: Richard Brand
Post Date: 2003-09-27 22:52:48 by blackhorse

Posted on Sat, Sep. 27, 2003

MIAMI Immigrants on tour to fight for equal rights 'Freedom bus' rides, organized by unions with an eye on potential members, will travel to Washington, D.C., and New York City for rallies. BY RICHARD BRAND rbrand@herald.com

The ''freedom bus rides'' departing this morning from downtown Miami and other cities across America are being billed as protests for undocumented immigrant workers' rights.

But they are as much about the labor unions that have organized the campaign, reaching out to a constituency once regarded as a threat.

Following the method of the 1960s freedom bus riders who crisscrossed America seeking civil rights for blacks, the riders from Florida will travel across the South for eight days on their way to Washington, D.C., and New York City for rallies. They are criticizing President Bush's immigration policies, demanding the right to reunite families split by immigration laws, protection of workers' rights regardless of legal status and creation of a more streamlined process to legalize immigrants.

''When you come in here, they don't treat you well,'' said Marie Sylvain, 47, who came from Haiti by boat 22 years ago, leaving her children behind. She is riding on the bus to demand reunification of immigrant families.

The rides, which have been organized by a coalition of labor unions and immigrant rights groups, underscore a recent shift in policy by unions in favor of immigrants.

For decades, most unions sought tighter immigration restrictions out of fear that a flood of low-income workers would reduce wages of members. Those same unions are now embracing an estimated nine million undocumented immigrants across the country as a new pool for recruitment.

The shift comes at a time when union rolls and political clout are declining, largely because of reductions in the number of blue-collar manufacturing jobs that once formed a union power base.

''They're struggling to organize, and this plays into expanding their union membership,'' said Harry Katz, a professor at the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations. ``In that sense, it's self-serving.''

The major policy reversal became official in February 2000 when the AFL-CIO, which serves an an umbrella organization for many unions, reversed its historic anti-immigration stance.

The bus rides show that new pro-immigrant policy being put into action. Some union leaders say they hope it translates into more clout at the ballot box.

''If more undocumented workers became voters, we'd see a dramatic shift in public policy,'' said Monica Russo, president of the Service Employees International Union's Florida chapter, one of the Miami bus organizers.

One of the riders will be Rose Assinthe, a healthcare worker at a nursing home who is a member of the Service Employees International Union.

She has taken two weeks of unpaid vacation to make the trip.

''In the United States, we have to fight for everything,'' said Assinthe, a Haitian immigrant. ``I am going to Washington to tell our story, and let people know what we go through.''

While the freedom ride organizers say that the buses will carry undocumented workers, fewer than 10 of the 60 riders on the Miami bus are undocumented.

The majority are union leaders, union members and documented immigrants.

Organizers would not identify the undocumented workers before the ride out of concern that publication of their names could result in legal troubles.

Two weeks ago, riders on the Miami bus were instructed not to reveal their immigration status -- undocumented or otherwise -- to news reporters or even to fellow riders.

All riders were also required to sign a waiver saying they understood the ``risks related to immigration matters.''

The waiver, a copy of which was obtained by The Herald, released organizers from liability if participants are deported.

Organizers say they are worried about protests against the bus, saying hate groups such as the Ku Klux Klan have promised a ''rolling blockade'' to slow passage through Florida.

But the most formidable opposition may come in Washington, where some policymakers and pundits have criticized the bus rides as a ploy to reward illegal behavior.

''Any event that advertises the participation of illegal aliens ought to be raided, and the illegal aliens deported,'' said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates tighter restrictions on immigrants.

Buses are also departing this week from Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Houston, Chicago, Minneapolis and Boston.

The Miami bus on the ''Road to Citizenship'' will make stops in five states along the way to Washington to highlight issues specific to immigrants in the region.