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Centro Comunitario de los Trabajadores of New Bedford, a membership-based workers’ center advocating for economic justice in the workplace that is supported by Catholic Social Services and the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, recently participated in the Moreau Lecture For the HOPE students, the program began January 25 with a presentation by Rev. Daniel Groody, C.S.C., of the University of Notre Dame on the Theology of Migration. After the students’ overview of immigration concerns in the light of Catholic pastoral theology and present legislation, the workers’ centers leaders addressed them on February 8. Heiny Maldonado of Fuerza Laboral began with an overview of the abuses in the areas of wage & hour violations and workplace safety that management and temporary labor agencies perpetrate against immigrant workers. Many owners assume that immigrant workers will not complain about such misconduct, assuming that all immigrant workers lack proper documentation. In point of fact, many workers have valid cases for political asylum or have journeyed north to join a spouse who may have documentation. Ms. Maldonado insisted that political advocacy and activism in conjunction with churches, labor unions, and community advocates is critical for protecting workers. Fuerza’s five years of experience in membership advocacy provides their credibility in the community. Next CCT center President Leonardo Tavares provided an overview of the political and economic inequalities between North and Central America that drive young people to leave their homes and travel to work in a different culture. Neoliberal economic theorists defend free trade as if it were a God itself, according to Mr. Tavares. While monied elites send their capital throughout the world instantly, seeking the greatest return on their investment alongside the lowest wage base, nation states collude to compel young workers remain within the boundaries of their nation of birth, pressuring down wages for the latest maquiladora factory investment. Economists compare this to “shooting fish in a barrel.” Outreach Director Adrian Ventura summarized the series of workers’ rights trainings that have taken place in New Bedford since the draconian federal incursion at the Michael Bianco factory of March 2007. These trainings served as the stepping stones for the formation of CCT, which now counts seventy-five members placed at twelve local employers of concern. He briefly noted the center’s advocacy in several recent civil settlements and ongoing cases under the investigation of the Attorney The presentation concluded with comments from Diego Low of the MetroWest Workers’ Center. While much of the outreach and training consists of education on minimum wage, overtime, and safety laws, a significant catalyst to prompting worker participation in the movement is based in reflections on human rights, the dignity of the person, and theories of justice. The tipping point is often when a worker realizes that the theoretical has become truly personal. Mr. Low has trained and advocated for immigrant workers in New Bedford for several years, long before he and Greater Boston Legal Services attorneys won a settlement of $850,000 in back wages on behalf of over five hundred Bianco workers in November 2008. An animated discussion ensued, showing that the service learning students had taken the leaders’ issues to heart. Several made immediate connections to student efforts to keep sweatshop-produced garments out of their bookstores and to follow distribution chains of food served on campus according to just wage and other criteria. The Catholic Campaign for Human Development stands in the strong history of the Church over the past century supporting community and labor organizing along with economic justice. The CCHD takes strength from a memorable quote of Pope Paul VI: “If you want peace, work for justice.” These remarkable leaders representing the workers’ centers of southern New England presented their struggles, faith, and values for a group of equally committed undergraduates in compelling fashion.
For more information please contact: FR. MARC FALLON (Se Habla Español)
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Series at Stonehill College in Easton. Outreach Director Adrian Ventura and President Leonardo Tavares joined colleagues from Fuerza Laboral (The Strength of Workers) of Central Falls, RI, and the MetroWest Workers’ Center of Framingham in a panel discussion on issues of concern to immigrant workers in southern New England. The attentive audience was comprised of fifty students who participate in the HOPE service learning program. All plan to spend their March semester break journeying to be in one of six service learning trips in the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Peru, and the United States.
Rev. Groody, who has published widely on the theological implications of Latin American migration to the United States for all of the churches of the Americas, has most recently conducted interviews with undocumented migrants to Europe. While the socio-economic data suggest that the absence of real economic development for nation states adjoining highly developed states, along with the stressors of the global economy and the absence of NAFTA or other bilateral provisions for economically displaced populations, serve as causes for large-scale migration, our faith reminds us that these are genuine losses for the Church of the South and pastoral challenges for the receiving Church of the North. The Church considers this issue as one of cooperative ecclesiology and to provide a humanitarian voice in an arena filled with racism and misanthropic xenophobia. One week later Rev. Mark Cregan, C.S.C., an immigration attorney and president of the college, posited a number of examples for the students of the many inconsistencies and obstacles that stand in the way of the lived experiences of working families.