May Day NYC - click image to see more pictures.
Across the country, union members joined with people of faith, immigrant families and community activists on May Day to stand up for commonsense immigration reform. In NYC the celebration started in Union Square and ended with a march down Broadway to City Hall. May 1 is the day that working people around the world celebrate and demonstrate for workers’ rights. It’s a recognized holiday in more than 80 countries.
In 1867, American workers launched the first mass labor protest on May 1st to celebrate Illinois’s new eight-hour work day law. Today, nearly 150 years later, we carry on that May Day celebration of the rights of the working class by mobilizing for comprehensive immigration reform.
A pathway to citizenship for the country’s estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants is good news for ALL workers. How?
- Reform would improve the wages of both immigrant and native workers. The real wages of less-skilled newly legalized workers would increase by roughly $4,405 each year, while higher-skilled workers would get a boost of $6,185. The same study found native workers’ wages would “increase modestly.”
- Higher incomes would bolster consumer spending—enough to support 750,000 to 900,000 jobs in the United States.
- Increasing the number of legal immigrants would reduce the deficit. It’s a way to trim our national debt without raising taxes or cutting essential programs.
- The Gang of Eight proposal, which includes a 13-year path to citizenship, would inject $832 billion into the economy over the next decade. A strong economy means a strong workforce.
Source: CWA News