Striking Utah miners on labor tour in Bay Area
1/22/2004. The Militant
Juan Salazar, Ricardo Ch�vez, Benito Meza, and Alyson Kennedy arrived here January 12 for an intensive effort in the Bay Area to win solidarity with their struggle for union recognition at the Co-Op mine near Huntington, Utah. In the first five days of the labor tour, the coal miners spoke to 600 people and raised more than $8,500. The Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (AFL-CIO) in San Jose organized the tour. ...

2 Senators Counter Bush on Immigrants
1/22/2004. The Washington Post
Two prominent senators proposed yesterday a bipartisan alternative to President Bush's immigration initiative, including the prospect of permanent legal status for undocumented workers who fulfill residency, employment and other requirements....

NM Gov. Richardson Delivers Spanish-Language Response to President's Speech
1/21/2004. Albuquerque Journal
Gov. Bill Richardson, in a nationally televised Spanish-language speech, said Tuesday that President Bush's policies have failed to help Hispanics and he urged minority voters to back Democrats. In a Democratic National Committee-sponsored response to the president's State of the Union speech, Richardson said nearly 300,000 Hispanics have lost jobs since Bush took office. ...

Immigration policy a proven recipe for exploitation
1/21/2004. News-Press
On Jan. 7, President Bush invited Latino immigration activists to the White House for a press event unveiling an important new policy initiative. The president told those assembled that U.S. immigration policy �was not working� and proposed an ambitious new policy he said would better �reflect the American Dream.� ...

New immigration reform bill faces tough battle
1/21/2004. Contra Costa Times
Legislation to be unveiled today takes President Bush's immigration reform plan a step further by granting permanent residency to some undocumented workers, an immigrant advocate said Tuesday. Senators Tom Daschle, D-South Dakota, and Chuck Hagel, R-Nebraska, are scheduled to announce the bill at a news conference today....

Baltimore opens arms, outreach to immigrants
1/20/2004. Baltimore Sun
Jose Portillo left his native El Salvador 20 years ago for Baltimore and a better life. When his daughter followed 10 years later, she opened a business in the city's Spanish Town, but chose to live in Baltimore County....

Worker rights centers offer help
1/20/2004. The Journal Gazette
Immigrant and native workers can receive advice on their rights in the work place with toll-free telephone calls to the latest in a string of advocacy centers across Indiana. The Worker Rights Center, which opened Monday in a South Bend AFL-CIO office, takes calls in English, Spanish and Polish. Other worker rights centers across the state include The Workers' Project in Fort Wayne, Central Indiana Jobs With Justice and The Calumet Project in Lake County....

Rally focuses on immigrants� rights
1/20/2004. News Transcript
The inclement weather did not deter the motivation of those who came to honor the memory and the work of the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the Monmouth County Hall of Records Plaza, Freehold Borough, on Sunday. ...

King's message recalled, reapplied
1/20/2004. News-Record
Omer Omer doesn't need to be told about the importance of Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy. He's experienced it.After all, the civil rights movement in the 1950s -- led by King and others -- helped inspire an independence movement in Omer's native country of Sudan, in northeast Africa, that freed it from colonial rule in 1956....

Latinos organizing for strength
1/20/2004. The Desert Sun
Federico Reyes, a union organizer in Reno, Nev., is the new face of organized labor. In 1976, Reyes left Mexico to become a farm worker in California. He moved to Reno a year later to seek a better job in the city that was a gambling mecca, and worked as a dishwasher and kitchen helper. Twenty years later, he led a bitter struggle to organize one of the city�s largest hotels, the Hilton....