LA Unions Announce Final Schedule of Events for Thursday, July 29 in Phoenix, Arizona
L.A. unions send 550 activists to AZ on first day of new law
July 26, 2010
More than 550 members of Los Angeles unions, faith, and community groups will travel in a long caravan of 11 chartered buses bound for Phoenix on the day SB 1070 is scheduled to go into effect. Sponsored by the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, the L.A. activists will meet with working Arizonans already hit hard by a struggling economy and now facing the state’s new immigration law. L.A. unions will also kick off a new partnership with Arizona groups to increase Latino voter participation in the state.
“In 1994, California Gov. Pete Wilson’s attack on immigrants spurred Latinos to organize and fight for their rights alongside the rest of California’s working people, as never before in our state’s history,” says Maria Elena Durazo, executive secretary-treasurer of the L.A. labor federation. “The renewal of that attack in the form of SB 1070 has made our members realize that to protect our rights as working people we must reach out beyond our state’s borders and find ways to build a real long-term partnership with our neighbors in Arizona.”
Bus riders will gather at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles at 4 a.m. on Thursday, July 29. They will eat breakfast on the California-Arizona border in Blythe before crossing the border. In Phoenix, they will participate in a community forum on SB 1070 with Phoenix Councilman Michael Nowakowski, Phoenix Chief of Police Jack Harris and others. They will march to the Arizona state Capitol and end their journey with a vigil there before returning to L.A. The delegation will return to Dodger Stadium by midnight.
Petra Falcon, director of Promise Arizona and one of the event’s Arizona hosts, says she helped arrange the visit because “we believe it is extraordinarily important to look at the passage of SB 1070 and other similar legislation in the context of the continued struggles of all working people in Arizona, and of our state and federal lawmakers’ failure to address those struggles.”
The Phoenix events are also being hosted by CASE (Central Arizonans for a Sustainable Economy), a Phoenix non-profit concerned with raising the standards of people who work in Arizona’s low-wage service sector.
LOS ANGELES BUS RALLY, BLESSING OF THE BUSES AND DEPARTURE
WHO: 550 L.A. workers from 32 different unions, side-by-side with L.A.’s faith and community leaders
WHEN: Thursday, July 29, 2010, 4 to 5 a.m.
WHERE: Dodger Stadium Parking lot 13 (located on Stadium Way), Los Angeles, Calif.
VISUALS: A big rally with 11 buses in the background. Banners read, “We are all the same. Todos somos iguales.” A blessing of the buses by L.A. faith leaders wearing vestments. Riders boarding their buses.
PHOENIX SOLIDARITY RALLY AND COMMUNITY FORUM
WHO: Speakers include Phoenix Councilmember Michael Nowakowski, Phoenix Chief of Police Jack Harris, L.A. union leader Maria Elena Durazo, Arizona labor and community leaders, and Arizona workers and families impacted by SB 1070. Participants include hundreds of L.A. and Arizona activists and community members.
WHEN: Thursday, July 29, 2010, 2:30 p.m.
WHERE: St. Matthews Church, 320 N. 20th Dr., Phoenix, Ariz.
VISUALS: Pews are filled with hundreds of Los Angeles union, faith, community delegation plus Arizona working families and activists holding signs.
MARCH TO ARIZONA STATE CAPITOL FROM ST. MATTHEW’S CHURCH, PHOENIX
WHO: 550 Los Angeles labor, faith, and community members with their Arizona host groups
WHEN: Thursday, July 29, 2010, 4 p.m.
WHERE: From St. Matthew’s Church to Arizona state Capitol (route TBA)
VISUALS: Long line of marchers carrying signs and banners stating, “UNITY” and “We are all the same. Todos somos iguales.” Faith leaders in vestments lead the march.
CLOSING THE 110-DAY PRAYER VIGIL AT THE ARIZONA STATE CAPITOL
WHO: Hundreds of participants led by Los Angeles and Arizona faith leaders who will close the 110-day prayer vigil conducted by immigrants-rights activists since the passage of SB 1070.
WHEN: Thursday, July 29, 2010, 4:30 p.m.
WHERE: Arizona state Capitol, 1700 West Washington, Phoenix, Ariz.
VISUALS: Hundreds of protestors from Los Angeles and Arizona together, holding candles, carrying signs and praying in front of the Arizona state Capitol building. Faith leaders will close vigil dressed in vestments.
550 L.A. union members from 32 unions will pledge to help boost Arizona’s Latino vote
L.A. labor travels to Phoenix ‘without papers’ on July 29
July 16, 2010
More than 550 union members from 32 different unions in the Los Angeles along with several leaders from L.A.’s community and faith organizations will travel to Phoenix on July 29. They will travel “without papers” or identification the day SB 1070, Arizona’s anti-immigrant law, is scheduled to go into effect. Eleven chartered buses will depart from Dodger Stadium at 5 a.m. The Los Angeles labor movement and media is invited to attend the bus send-off at Dodger Stadium between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m.
The buses will be filled with L.A. letter carriers, teachers, city and county employees, truck drivers, stagehands, carwash workers, construction employees, nurses, homecare workers, hotel workers, grocery workers and steelworkers, among others. Among the 550 participants who oppose SB 1070 are immigrants and non-immigrants, U.S. born and foreign born, African Americans, Asians, Latinos and Anglos. All of the buses bound for Phoenix will be driven by local shop stewards of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1700.
“No one will be able to tell from looking at us who is illegal and who is not,” says Matt Kozlo, a letter carrier from San Dimas and U.S. veteran who will ride the bus on July 29. “Whether we are white, black, Asian, or Hispanic, we all came here at some point from somewhere else. Our immigration system does need to be fixed, but not the way Arizona is doing it.”
L.A. labor’s goal is not only to oppose SB 1070, but participate in activities in Phoenix where they will pledge to support efforts to register and turn out Arizona’s Latino vote. They will also kick off a new campaign joining Los Angeles and Arizona working families around issues of workers’ rights, good jobs and sensible solutions for national immigration reform.
“We faced the same racial profiling law masquerading as immigration reform back in 1994 with Pete Wilson and Prop. 187,” says Maria Elena Durazo, executive secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO. “It sparked major political change in California for the Latino community and workers issues. We want to support the Latino families of Arizona in defeating SB 1070 and the anti-worker agenda behind it.”
Details on sending off the bus caravan at Dodger Stadium to Phoenix, Arizona
WHO: 550 L.A. union workers and leaders from 32 unions and six faith and community organizations. Full listing of local unions and organizations is available here.
WHAT: Sending off bus caravan to Phoenix, Ariz. from Dodger Stadium with program. Spanish and English interviews with union leaders and members and faith leaders will be available.
WHEN: Thursday, July 29, 2010,from 4 a.m. to 5 a.m.
WHERE: Dodger Stadium, Lot 13, Stadium Way.
VISUALS: Faith leaders will be wearing their vestments. L.A. union members boarding 11 buses to Arizona will all wear, “Somos iguales” (“We are equal”) signs around their necks.
For more information on the busride, contact Priscilla Cheng at (213) 381-5611 x133 or immigrationreform@launionaflcio.org.
For media inquiries, contact Caroline O’Connor at (213) 381-5611 x114 or coconnor@launionaflcio.org.
