NYC Labor Movement Joins Community Groups In Support of Immigrant Rights

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.laborradio.org/node/8786

By Doug Cunningham

Organized labor and community groups in New York City are uniting in support of immigrant worker rights to set a progressive example. Ed Ott is Executive Director of the New York City Central Labor Council. He says the rights of all workers are human rights and are the basis of a just society. Ott says the human rights of workers must be protected regardless of immigration status.

: “I believe organized labor's a worker's movement. Every worker has to find a place in it. We don't buy into this that there's an immigrant movement and there's an American-born movement. It's never served the working class in this country well when people fought like that. We've spent years to enfranchise everybody. All we're really trying to do is to have respectful and productive relationships with these groups. We see that in the finest tradition of the American labor movement."