Nearly all presentations were bilingual, many speaking in both English and Spanish, others with interpreters. Members of three farm labor organizations--the Immokalee Coalition of Farm Workers, Farm Workers Association of Florida, and Farm Workers Self-Help of Dade City--made up a third of the participants. Representatives of the three farm worker groups, the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, and the League of United Latin American Citizens also addressed the rally.

Fernando Quaeves, formerly a farm laborer who now is an organizer for the Carpenters union, said that when he was 15 years old he hit a supervisor who had struck his father. He said his father then beat him up because "you weren’t suppose to stand up to the patron."

"Well things are different now," he exclaimed, reflecting the demonstration’s militant tone. Quaeves said he recently was told to go to another town for a check on his immigration status before renewing his driver’s license. "Why are we Latins being accused of being terrorists, abused, exploited? All we are asking for is our basic human and labor rights," he said.

Marty Bearry, an FCRC business manager, emphasized the union’s support for the rights of, and granting legal status to, immigrant workers. One in four new entrants into the U.S. labor market are foreign-born, he noted. "We believe that no human is illegal," Bearry said. "All workers have a right to security and dignity in work and retirement."

This event was part of the national Carpenters union organizing campaign, which has sought to include immigrant workers. According to union organizers at the rally, immigrants now make up half of Florida’s construction workers. Miguel Oropeza, an organizer from the Tampa local, said in his experience some 85 percent of concrete workers are Hispanic, most are from Mexico and many without papers.

Oropeza said the growth in the number of immigrant workers is a result of the large construction companies instituting the same crew-leader system commonly used by fruit and vegetable companies in the state. In this system a bilingual crew chief is to find, supervise, and pay the needed workers, relieving the company owners of any direct responsibility while substantially cutting their labor cost.

These workers face growing exploitation by the construction companies, as well as higher injury rates compared to their native-born counterparts. Oropeza explained that workers are often unaware of their right to workers compensation and that in some cases workers are forced to continue on the job despite being injured.

According to one organizer, the Carpenters union recently changed its by-laws to allow undocumented workers to join the brotherhood while they work to gain legal status. Moreover, Oropeza said that in some parts of the country the union has obtained health benefits for extended family members even if they live in Mexico.

Karl Butts is a farmer.  
 
 
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