UFCW, ALLIES RESUME FIGHT AGAINST USE OF ‘NO-MATCH’ LETTERS AGAINST WORKERS

Friday, March 28, 2008

(PAI)

By Mark Gruenberg

PAI Staff Writer

WASHINGTON (PAI)--The United Food and Commercial Workers and its labor and community allies, plus business groups, have had to resume their fight against the GOP Bush regime’s use of “no match” Social Security letters to force employers to fire workers whose identification with the agency and ID on the job don’t match--and that also forces workers to prove they’re legally here or face deportation.

The union, along with Maria Elena Durazo of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor and representatives of the American Federation of Government Employees, business, and community groups, said they would fight against Bush’s Department of Homeland Security on the issue, in court--again.

Their decision, announced in a joint telephone press conference on March 27 came the day DHS, in response to a federal judge’s ruling last October blocking the use of the letters, re-issued its proposed “no match” rules. At the end of 44 pages of rules, DHS said it “is re-promulgating these rules without change,” even after the judge halted enforcement due to widespread problems with their accuracy and impact.

“The new rule exacerbates the confusion for both companies and employees,” said Ester Lopez, UFCW’s director of civil rights and community action. “Companies that want to do the right thing, to follow the law and protect their workers, find themselves in a muddy situation.”

But the workers are even worse off, she added. That’s because unscrupulous employers use the no-match letters--even though the judge halted DHS’ program--to halt organizing drives or to threaten workers who complain about safety and health.

“At Fresh Direct, two weeks before the (union representation) election in December, the employers pulled out the no-match letters and the organizing campaign was devastated,” she said. There have been similar incidents in the D.C. suburbs, in New Bedford, Mass., and at the Smithfield plant in Tar Heel, N.C., among other places.

And DHS suspicion of “no matches”--with or without letters--were used in the agency’s infamous raids on six Swift & Co. meatpacking plants and its roundup of more than 1,200 workers--all but 62 of whom were legal.

Bush’s DHS demands employers use the letters from Social Security to prove workers are legally in the U.S. It says that if records do not match between the agency and company records, firms must force workers to prove they’re legal. If that doesn’t occur within 90 days, the companies must fire the workers or face federal penalties for allegedly employing people who are ineligible to work in the U.S.

But speakers at the press conference noted the last data available, for 2006 --before the no-match program started--showed there were “17.8 million discrepancies in Social Security’s database of workers,” one speaker said. The discrepancies ranged from transposed Social Security numbers to people failing to give the agency their married names. And 70% of those “no-matches” affected U.S. citizens.

“This will lead to discrimination against people of color and people who they (DHS) felt to be out of status” as citizens or legal residents, Durazo said.

In one example, Fernando Tinoco, a 30-year resident of the U.S., tried to get a job with Tyson Foods on Chicago’s South Side. Despite written statements from Social Security that he had been a citizen for 18 years, the company human resources personnel refused to believe him and accept his Social Security records. They threatened to call the police to have him arrested when he tried to present the letters.

A pro-worker community group in Chicago sued on Tinoco’s behalf and reached an out-of-court discrimination settlement with Tyson, but he never got to work at Tyson. After months of joblessness, Tinoco became a custodian at a Catholic high school.

The speakers said there are millions of Tinocos who could be affected by the no-match letter issue--and DHS is ignoring that.

It’s also ignoring the fact that the no-match program is administratively unworkable, and that will hurt workers, too, said Witold Skweirczynski, President of AFGE Council 220, the National Council of Social Security Administration Field Operations Locals.

He explained Congress keeps loading duties on the agency--the latest was to check on eligibility for the Bush regime’s prescription drugs program--without increasing its staff. That especially goes for staff that must review employment matters, such as the no-match letters. It’s at its lowest level since 1972, he said.

“Social Security is not in the business of saying whether they’re legal or illegal” he said of workers who must come to the agency when they get no-match letters. “We just want to correct their earnings records.”

But DHS insists on using the no-match letters to determine legal work status. That insistence will land DHS back in court in San Francisco, speakers said. It should lose there, too, they added. And then, they said, an appeal will finally bring the issue of the no-match letters to trial on the merits. ###