It’s past time to celebrate migrant-led labor organizing

This article was originally published at Prism.

According to news reports, a new labor movement is unfolding across the U.S., fueled in part by anti-racist organizing, the pandemic, and the “Great Resignation.” Workers at high-profile companies like Trader Joe’s and Chipotle have recently voted to unionize, and coverage of union efforts at Amazon and Starbucks regularly dominates headlines. A recent poll found that 71% of Americans approve of labor unions, the highest Gallup has recorded on this measure since 1965. But something is missing from national conversations about America’s reckoning with labor: migrant workers.

Across labor-intensive industries pivotal to the nation’s growth and survival—hospitality, food service, agriculture, construction, manufacturing, meat and poultry processing, domestic service—migrant workers make up a bulk of the workforce and receive poverty wages, experience unsafe conditions, and face immigration-related retaliation. Undocumented workers in outdoor industries are also at the mercy of climate change and extreme heat, subjecting them to deadly working conditions where the ability to access water, shade, and rest breaks are still being legislated. If migrant workers are the bedrock of the American workforce, why aren’t they at the center of all labor organizing efforts?