May Day Protest Garners Support

NEW YORK CITY (By Nick Leiber, Business Week) April 30, 2006 — In a massive boycott planned for May 1, millions of people are expected to skip work in support of immigrant rights

A national protest in support of immigrants' rights, planned for May 1, is garnering wide support from workers, business owners, advocacy groups, and trade organizations. Organizers are urging workers not to show up for their jobs that day and students to skip classes.

Lee Siu Hin, a national coordinator for the National Immigrant Solidarity Network, whose Web site actionla.org coordinates hundreds of smaller groups, expects that people in 130 cities across the country will participate, and the total number of participants could reach into the tens of millions.

The boycott arrives on the heels of massive rallies held nationwide on Apr. 10 to protest the passage of last December's House Resolution 4437, which would criminalize undocumented workers and authorize the construction of a wall between the U.S. and Mexico. House Judiciary Committee chair Representative Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.) introduced the resolution.

Sending a Message

Starting on May 1, the Senate is scheduled to consider a new immigration bill that would allow the nation's estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants the opportunity to win citizenship and create a broad temporary worker program. The protests are scheduled for May 1 also because it is considered synonymous with the fight to improve labor conditions by workers around the world.

Fourth-generation American Jon Garrido, publisher of the Phoenix-based Web site Hispanic News, backs the boycott. He hopes it will send a clear message to U.S. senators. "Immigration reform is the No. 2 issue facing the U.S. after gasoline. I want the U.S. senators to come up with a fair solution for all 12 million undocumented immigrants," says Garrido.

Another of Garrido's Web sites, AxKC, encourages consumers to boycott Kimberly-Clark products, because Sensenbrenner is an heir to the Kimberly-Clark family fortune. Garrido told BusinessWeek Online that Kimberly-Clark had asked him to take down the site but he had refused.

Surprising Support

Enrique Lopez, owner of Carniceria Durango, a small grocery in Atlanta, is giving his workers the day off on May 1. But he's less optimistic about the boycott than Garrido.

"Yes, we're going to shut down in support of the Latino community. It's a way to express disagreement with what the government is doing -- even though it's not going to give us what we want. It's our way of showing the government that we exist, that we're here," says Lopez.

A few weeks ago, Nadia Marin-Molina, executive director of the Workplace Project, a nonprofit workers' rights advocacy organization based in Hempstead, Long Island, began making cold calls to ask local businesses to include their names on fliers supporting the boycott. She was surprised at how much support she found.

Dissenting Voices

"It was the first time workers and employers were having a real dialogue about immigration issues. Business owners were acknowledging publicly how much they depend on immigrants. Some even started to call me to ask to be included on the fliers."

Not all agree that the boycott is worth supporting. Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony suggests attending a rally after school or work instead. The National Council of La Raza, a Latino civil rights and advocacy group, does not endorse boycotting across the board, explaining that it should be an individual decision.