Agnes Wong has worked in New York City’s garment industry for 28 years, and today the Hong Kong native and UNITE shop steward says “more and more sweatshops are popping up and employers are taking advantage of immigrant workers without papers, working them like slaves. If people complain, the bosses tell them, ‘Take it or leave.’”

Wong and more than a dozen other mostly immigrant workers, some of whom began their United States work lives without “papers,” or proper documentation, took to the steps of the U.S. Capitol Sept. 5, to call on Congress, Wong said “to give us equal rights and protect all workers” from the growing abuse and exploitation the nation’s immigrant workers face.

The event was part of the AFL-CIO’s campaign with its affiliate unions, civil rights, community and religious groups to make the public aware of the important role undocumented immigrant workers play in the nation’s workforce and to mobilize public and political support for the serious changes needed in the nation’s immigration laws.

“At the AFL-CIO, we believe immigration reform should first and foremost include a new program of legalization for the millions of hard-working people who are already in this country, paying taxes and making enormous contributions to our communities,” said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.

About 6 million undocumented men and women go to work every day to support their families, according to the Immigration and Naturalization Service. But they are often targets for exploitation by employers.

Jaime Contreras fled the war in El Salvador in 1988 and worked many janitorial jobs in the Washington, D.C., area before he received his “green card,” or residency permission.

“We faced many abuses. There would be hours missing from our paychecks and if we said something, they would say, ‘We don’t know anything about that. You can always go home.’ We have to have equal rights and the chance to be legal citizens in this country,” said Contreras, who now works with the protection of a union contract as a member of SEIU.

U.S.-born Richard Labelle, a member of the Sheet Metal Workers in Washington, D.C., spoke of the central issue of immigration reform—simple fairness.

“It’s just not right that immigrant workers working a block away, doing the same job, get half the pay. People need equal rights,” he said.

Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees General President John W. Wilhelm, who along with AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson chairs the AFL-CIO’s Immigration Task Force, said the growing focus on immigrant workers “is a golden opportunity” to pursue fundamental changes in the nation’s immigration laws. “Not only should we welcome immigrant workers to do the work, but we should give them the opportunity to be first-class citizens.”

In July, the AFL-CIO Executive Council reaffirmed the union movement’s commitment to winning justice for immigrant workers. Along with legalizing the residency status of undocumented immigrant workers, the council said reform must include employee protection from employer exploitation, family reunification and reform of the temporary guest worker program.

Other workers who spoke at the Capitol Hill gathering included members of the Farm Workers, United Food and Commercial Workers and Laborers.

Learn More
Learn more about immigrant workers in America.
AFL-CIO Executive Council statement on immigration reform.