In the newest installment of the Melville House Live Book Project, Washington Post reporter Kari Lydersen researches the intersection of labor, immigrants rights and community organizations—all leading up to the fact that maybe the worker takeover of Republic Windows & Doors wasn’t so spontaneous after all ….

When labor rights organizer Martin Unzueta heard five years ago how the Republic Windows workers were being screwed over by their then-union, he knew the UE would be the right fit. (Photo by Kari Lydersen)

Chicago, 9 January 2009 — About a decade ago, Martin Unzueta, an immigrant from Mexico City, was not happy with conditions in the Chicago printing press where he worked. So after hearing a workers’ rights presentation by the National Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice, Unzueta started organizing. For his efforts to form a union, he was fired.

This was shortly after the landmark U.S. Supreme Court “Hoffman Plastics vs. NLRB” decision that essentially ruled undocumented immigrants do not have legal recourse if they are fired for union organizing. (See the article here.) The decision was a huge blow to the immigrants rights and labor movements, coming at a time when unions were increasingly realizing the power and importance of immigrant workers. Labor and immigration lawyers called the decision illegal and unconstitutional. It meant Unzueta could not fight for back wages or his job, claiming retaliation for the organizing activity which normally would have been protected by the National Labor Relations Act.

“I was the second victim of Hoffman,” he said of the Supreme Court decision.

But that was only the beginning. Now a fire was lit inside him. He began working for the United Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (UNIRR), one of many grassroots labor and immigrants rights organizations in Chicago. He started doing “Know Your Rights” presentations of his own for workers, telling them about federal agencies like OSHA and the Department of Labor and urging them not to let employers take advantage of them.

His fifth presentation, and his largest crowd at the time, was at Republic Windows and Doors, five or six years ago. He was approached by some workers including current UE Local 1110 president Armando Robles. The mostly immigrant workers there were not happy with the company or the union that represented them at the time, the Central States Joint Board. They made below $10 an hour and when some workers were fired after the company received No Match letters, the union did nothing to defend them. (No Match letters are sent by the Social Security Administration when the social security number a worker is using doesn’t match their name. This happens when people are undocumented but also in thousands of cases because of clerical errors or when someone has changed their name. The letters are meant as a notification and are not legally allowed to be used as a basis for firing, but employers often fire workers after No Match letters arrive, either out of fear of immigration enforcement or often as an excuse to get rid of workers who are agitating for their rights.)

“The union was saying, ‘They’re undocumented, there’s nothing we can do,’” said Unzueta. “So I got in touch with them and said, ‘We can help you.’”

He doesn’t think the fired workers ever got their jobs back, but a movement at Republic Windows was born. He helped workers get in touch with the UE. Unzueta’s direct involvement with Republic Windows ended for the time being, as he moved on to presentations and organizing campaigns at other workplaces. But he played a solidarity role and watched with pride as workers successfully unionized with UE and then won a contract with, he says, a $3 an hour raise, nearly unheard of. He remembers their next contract bumped their wages up another $1.50 an hour among other gains.

Later Unzueta left UNIRR and joined the Chicago Workers Collaborative, a grassroots group currently housed in Universidad Popular, a community school offering English as a Second Language, adult education and other classes to Latino immigrants in the surrounding Little Village neighborhood (and beyond). The collaborative is something of a workers rights strike force — they have a team called “Vigilantes” — responding instantly when workers call with reports of unfair firings, rumors of immigration raids, plans to spontaneously strike and other schemes or crises.

Unzueta’s small office is graced with posters, placards and stickers from various campaigns in the U.S. and Mexico. One features a large image of the owner of a local restaurant chain who pays less than minimum wage, with rat tail and ears drawn on in magic marker and the word “Rata.” For the past two years the Collaborative has been especially busy, as workplace immigration raids and waves of firings of undocumented immigrants have been on the rise. One of the collaborative’s goals is to improve relationships between unions and immigrant workers. If a workplace is not unionized, the collaborative helps connect them with a progressive and sympathetic union, like UE, the United Food and Commerical Workers (UFCW), UNITE-HERE (hotel and restaurant workers) or the United Steel Workers of America (USWA), depending on the industry.

If workers are unionized but being ignored or mistreated by their union, like the Central States Joint Board, the collaborative might help them find a better alternative. If there is a communication barrier — perhaps related to language — or a lack of worker engagement with the union, the collaborative might try to foster better relations. For example Unzueta describes one major union with hundreds of immigrant members, but the meetings were all in English so many workers would see no point in going and would never vote on union affairs.

Right now the collaborative is working with employees of Olmarc, a packaging company unionized by the aforementioned Central States Joint Board. There are other parallels to Republic Windows: Olmarc workers were laid off and are fighting to collect their full severance and vacation pay. Meanwhile the collaborative is involved in another project which should give hope to the Republic Windows workers. About six months ago, they launched a worker-owned co-op called Workers United for General Maintenance Inc., involving about 15 workers mostly laid off recently from other jobs. The co-op’s services including cleaning, drywall, painting, demolition and maintenance. Their profit will go completely to the workers, without stockholders or upper managers taking a cut. They just launched the business last week. Unzueta shows off the glossy postcards advertising the co-op’s services and featuring their logo with a raised fist.

Unzueta’s trajectory is just a glimpse into the network and history of interlinked labor, immigrants rights and community organizations in Chicago, the city that led the movement for the eight-hour day and countless other legendary labor struggles. This is a world where the Republic Windows occupation did not spring spontaneously and surprisingly into being as national media coverage might imply, but rather rose out of a rich tapestry of resistance and history which will continually be woven by the ongoing struggle of the Republic workers wherever they may end up.

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