Alabama Immigration Law Opponents File Complaint With Mexican Government, Say HB 56 Violates NAFTA
The Service Employees International Union continued its fight against Alabama immigration law HB 56 on Monday by filing a complaint with the Mexican Department of Labor, calling the law discriminatory and in violation of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
SEIU coupled with the Mexican National Association of Democratic Lawyers in issuing the complaint, which says HB 56 violates NAFTA's North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation. The law "contradicts key provisions of the [North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation] and has devastating consequences for migrant and immigrant workers in Alabama, as well as for all workers in the state," the group wrote in its complaint.
The SEIU is part of a coalition -- along with the NAACP, the National Council of La Raza, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the United Auto Workers and the Southern Poverty Law Center -- that hopes to bring more businesses to the anti-HB 56 movement.
Monday's filing over HB 56 and NAFTA was preceded by a separate complaint filed by the SEIU on April 2 to the United Nations' Labour Organization Committee, which deals with workers' rights.
The newer complaint will lead to an investigation by the Mexican labor department, according to a press release from the SEIU on Monday. One charge it will look into is whether the law, as the SEIU claims, would lead to racial discrimination, wage violations and workplace safety hazards.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/30/alabama-immigration-law-mexico_n_1464861.html
Alabama's immigration law target of complaint filed with United Nations
A union that represents a number of immigrants filed a complaint Monday with the United Nations aimed at Alabama's immigration law.
The Service Employees International Union filed the complaint regarding the Alabama law -- commonly called HB 56 -- with the UN's International Labour Organization Committee on Freedom of Association. The ILO is an agency of the UN that promotes the rights of laborers.
"From a trade union perspective, HB 56 is emblematic of the U.S. government's failure to respect its obligations to protect and defend the right to form and join trade unions, and to bargain collectively," the complaint stated.
A spokesman for Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley denied the allegations. "Alabama's immigration law simply seeks to ensure that people who live and work in this state are doing so legally, and there is nothing unjust about that," Jeremy King, spokesman for the governor, stated in an email.
http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2012/04/alabamas_immigration_law_targe.html
The SEIU seems to be pulling out all the stops in opposition to Alabama's HB 56.