The Hood River Latino Network Immigrant Help Center Grand Opening Is Saturday, June 15 from 4:00-8:00 PM

From the Rural Organizing Project:

For over seven years, the Hood River Latino Network, a Rural Organizing Project member group, has worked to create and organize events to connect the Latino community in the Gorge and advocate for more representation. In early 2024, ROP and Hood River Latino Network partnered to open ROP’s newest field office, the Hood River Latino Network Immigrant Help Center.

Our doors have been officially open since March! We serve our immigrant neighbors and community in the Gorge with help navigating issues like registering to vote, signing up for Oregon Paid Leave, getting a license, the citizenship process, and green card support, as well as any other questions and concerns that arise. The Center is a cultural resource, training, and event hub to foster community leadership development.

Now it’s time to celebrate with all of you! Read more here!

Who: You, your friends, and your family!

When: Saturday, June 15th from 4-8 pm

Where: Hood River Latino Network Immigrant Help Center, 1406 12th St, Hood River, OR 97031

What: Celebrate the grand opening of the Immigrant Help Center. We will have music, food, face painting, and give tours of the space!

Questions? Please call Martha "Tita" or Amber if you have any questions. Tel: 541-436-4756 or email Tita at martha@rop.org.

Not able to make it to Hood River for the grand opening? Show your support by donating to ROP or even better, by becoming a monthly sustainer.

Warmly,
Martha and the ROP team

American Friends Service Committee---Migration Justice Webinar Series: Employment and Worker Rights

Migration Justice Webinar Series: Employment and Worker Rights

May 28, 7 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. PT

Please join AFSC staff from Oregon and from the Central Valley in California to learn about issues faced by immigrant workers in various sectors.  We will offer an analysis of the current conditions and some ideas and opportunities for advocacy to ensure that all workers are able to access labor protections. This webinar will be bilingual in English and Spanish.

Register here;

https://afsc.org/events/migration-justice-webinar-series-employment-and-worker-rights

Is this justice?

 

A great opportunity to learn about what's happening in Mexico

From the Mexico Solidarity Project:

WE’RE EXCITED TO ANNOUNCE MÉXICO SOLIDARITY PROJECT MEMBER JOSÉ LUIS GRANADOS CEJA’S IN-PERSON WEST COAST SPEAKING TOUR!

This accomplished investigative journalist from México City spoke with hundreds of people on his East Coast tour, sparking much interest in México. He spoke about changes in México since AMLO (Andrés Manuel López Obrador)'s election in 2018, and what they mean for México and US progressives. He will visit various West Coast cities in January/February, 2024. Stay tuned!

Bring friends and feel free to share this notice. Donations gratefully accepted.

Any questions? Contact Betty Forrester

The news stories and analyses of José Luis Granados Ceja, a freelance writer and photojournalist based in México City, focus on contemporary political issues, especially those that involve grassroots efforts to affect social change in México and Latin America. He is currently finishing up a degree in Human Rights at UNAM (the Autonomous University of México City). His Anti-Imperialista column appears monthly in the México Solidarity Bulletin, he writes regularly for Venezuela Analysis, and among many publications, recently authored an article on México’s electoral reforms for The Nation. An experienced speaker, he was a panelist on México’s economy at the March 2023 Burying 200 Years of the Monroe Doctrine conference. You can follow his comments on democratic struggles in Latin America on Twitter via @GranadosCeja.

This tour is not sponsored by the Marion-Polk-Yamhill Central Labor Chapter or the Oregon AFL-CIO.

"Retail Janitors Clean Up After Holiday Shoppers. They Don’t Get Time Off for Themselves."

The following is an excerpt from an article by Sarah Lazare that appeared in Jacobin on December 11. A link to the article is provided at the nd of the excerpt Many of us will shop at Cabela's and other big box stores for holiday gifts without thinking about the many kinds of retail workers who work to keep the stores clean and in order. As the article points out, their working conditions can change through union organizing. 

For Elbida Gomez, the winter holiday season is not marked by cheer or family time, but by an exponential increase in her workload — cleaning bathrooms and store offices, taking out the trash, mopping entrances, and wiping up food from the floor of the employee cafeteria.

The forty-three-year-old mother of two says she is one of just two people whose primary job is to clean the Woodbury, Minnesota, location of Cabela’s, a big box store chain that sells hunting, fishing, and camping goods. Foot traffic increases as patrons do their holiday shopping. Parents line up with their children to take a photograph with Santa Claus. The floor gets covered in chocolate, candy wrappers, and footprints, and, once the snow comes, the store entrance is perpetually coated in salt and sand, she says.

“There is little time and a lot of work,” says Gomez, who has done janitorial work since she moved to the United States from Honduras around fifteen years ago.

But in a sector where she is — quite literally — tasked with sanitizing the holiday experiences of other families, she is denied the opportunity to relax and rejuvenate with her own. Gomez does not get paid holidays from her employer, Carlson Building Maintenance, which is contracted to clean Cabela’s. Her vacation time is paltry, she says, and management has made it clear that she is discouraged from taking consecutive days off during the holiday crunch, when her labor is needed most. While her store is closed on Christmas, she does not get paid for this holiday, she says. And, crucially, she still has to work on Christmas Eve, despite its central importance to her family.

Read the entire article here.