Eight UE people were among the 150 arrested in civil disobedience for immigrant workers’ rights on November 6. Organized by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, the protestors rallied in front of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) building in Downtown Chicago and blocked traffic on Clark Street for almost an hour.
They were demanding that Republicans in Congress stop blocking a vote on immigration reform and that President Obama halt deportations, which have totaled nearly 2 million during his administration.
UE's "Chicago Eight" were Western Region President Carl Rosen; Armando Robles, Local 1110 and his son Armando Jr.; Juan Orozco and Ramon Oyoque, Local 1166; Sean Fulkerson and Elce Redmond, Warehouse Workers for Justice (WWJ); and retired UE International Representative Tim Curtin.
“We know that we need action now out of both Congress and the White House on immigration,” says Carl Rosen. "We’ve got a crisis right now for working people with the number of deportations and the millions of people being forced to live with virtually no legal protections while they’re working and that’s driving down living standards for all workers in the U.S. A lot of people have said ‘enough is enough’ and so there’s been civil disobedience actions in many cities over the last couple of weeks. This one in Chicago was actually the biggest one other than a central one that was done in Washington, DC.”
Juan Orozco and Ramon Oyoque, UE Young Activists in Local 1166, were proud to take part in this important event. Oyoque, who is also a UE shop steward at APL Logistics, says, “I enjoyed it very much. It is the first time I did something like this and it felt good to help make a difference.”