Listen: Pushing Back Against Trumpian Assaults on Workers; Nurses Fight Union-Busting
By Bob Hennelly
Last Thursday, federal immigration officers executed a warrantless raid at an Ironbound business in Newark, New Jersey. Undocumented workers and American citizens—as well as a U.S. military veteran—were all swept up in the raid.
Trump border czar Tom Homan told the press ICE arrested more than 1,300 immigrants in nearly 10 major cities across the U.S. and claimed that at least 1,000 of those detained had criminal records.
At a packed press conference held the following day, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka rebuked the feds and accused them of terrorizing Ironbound’s closely knit mulit-racial community, which has deep ties to Portugal.
On this week’s episode of the Stuck Nation Labor Radio Hour, Ana Maria Hill, 32 BJ SEIU executive director in New Jersey, joins veteran Newark Councilman Luis Quintana to discuss the profoundly negative impacts of the raid on the region's undocumented immigrants who live in households where family members are often here legally and are U.S. citizens.
Similar raids sparked similar reactions from local officials across the country who renewed their commitment to supporting their undocumented residents.
In the second half of this week’s show, we visit with Marylene Teopengco-Meredith, RN, who has been a nurse for 30 years and is a courageous member of the New York State Nurses Association [NYSNA]. Marylene was fired from her job at Mount Sinai South Nassau in Oceanside, New York because of her union organizing activity. She successfully fought back with her union, however, and was reinstated thanks to a National Labor Relations Board ruling back in September that she was unlawfully disciplined and terminated by her employer.
"It's very important for the nurses to understand the union is not there to separate us from management," Teopengco-Meredith says. "We are all working together for a common goal to serve our patients and our communities. There should be no division. For the union is the best way to improve patient care and outcomes."
Listen to the entire show below: