The last few days have been filled with reunions, joy and power. We finally held an in-person National Meeting of worker leaders from CDM’s Migrant Defense Committee (Comité) in Mexico City. It was reenergizing to see that this group of worker leaders is more committed than ever to fight for migrant justice! Day ONE: After…
On Thursday, November 4, we joined our allies at Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, UFCW Local 27 and others to host the Salisbury Fall Festival, bringing together nearly 200 community members for music, food, family fun and connections with Delmarva nonprofits. The Festival was the latest in our efforts to ensure that food chain workers in…
A pathway to citizenship would be transformative for millions of people in the United States. For the hundreds of thousands of migrant workers on visas, whose immigration status is tied to their employers, a pathway to citizenship would mean the ability to find alternative jobs and leave dangerous working conditions. It’s a matter of life…
Labor migration is in the spotlight. On Monday, Mexican President AMLO urged President Biden to offer temporary work visas to deter asylum seekers from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador from arriving at the U.S. border. Similarly, government officials from Mexico and the US discussed the issue at the recently relaunched High-Level Economic Dialogue. At the…
It’s CDM’s anniversary month and there’s so much to celebrate. Today, it’s all about Maribel and Reyna! By now, I’m sure you know Maribel and Reyna’s story by heart. When they worked at a crawfish plant in Louisiana on H-2B visas, their employer fired them after they sought medical attention for COVID-19. A hundred people…
On this Labor Day, we’re celebrating CDM’s 16th anniversary. And I’m thrilled to kick off our month-long celebrations with one of the powerful migrant leaders with whom we started our journey: Juan Antonio Maldonado. While working as a legal services attorney in Florida, I represented migrant workers in employment and civil rights cases. Determined to…
On July 23, 2021, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued dozens of citations, including six willful violations, and proposed $998,637 in penalties against four companies associated with the deadly nitrogen leak that took place earlier this year at Foundation Food Group (FFG), a poultry-processing plant in Georgia. In part, the citations allege that…
Today, a year after the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) came into effect, we’re feeling optimistic. On June 29, the USMCA Labor Council held its first meeting to discuss the implementation of the agreement’s labor chapter, Chapter 23. Our main takeaway: protecting migrant workers is a priority for all interested parties. During the last few weeks,…
On January 21, 2021, President Biden instructed the U.S. Occupational and Health Administration (OSHA) to analyze the need for Emergency Temporary Standards (ETS) to protect workers during the COVID-19 pandemic and give its recommendations by March 15th, 2021. On June 10th, almost three months later than expected — and after more than a year since…
We’re kicking off a momentous week in the fight for migrant justice. U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris will be arriving in Mexico this evening to meet Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and discuss migration, labor and trade. For months, both leaders have floated the idea of expanding guestworker programs as a “quick fix” to…