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While the labor movement’s resurgence in Wisconsin receive much-deserved public and media attention, many hard-fought labor struggles often get overlooked, particularly those of immigrant labor. It is estimated that about 15 percent of the American workforce is made up of undocumented immigrants. Industries where immigrants dominate are farm work, service work, domestic work, and construction. In recent years, with the uptick in immigration detention and deportation — begun in earnest under President Bush and escalated under President Obama — immigrant labor is scapegoated on multiple fronts. Traditionally labor unions have seen immigrants as part of the problem of low wages, despite the pressures pushing Latin American workers into the U.S. through free-trade agreements like NAFTA. But immigrants have ben organizing on their own through union-like organizations, alliances, and networks, fighting for better working conditions and better wages. One such organization is the National Day Laborer Organizing Network.

GUEST: Pablo Alvarado, Executive Director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network

Find out more about the National Day Laborers ORganizing Network at www.ndlon.org