NYT: firing of undocumented workers "a consuming debate over what it means to be a liberal college"

[pnwmom]

9. Here are a couple of other links.

They have been trying to organize an "independent union." Someone identified as "Unite Here Local 11 Communications Coordinator Leigh Shelton" talked to the Huffington Post.

I can see why thoughtful, progressive people would be debating about this. On the one hand, we don't want American workers to be undercut by illegal aliens. On the other, we don't want people to be retaliated against for attempting to unionize. And we don't know what all the facts are . . . but the timing of the actions of Pomona -- taken alone, not coordinated with the other Claremont Colleges -- do make me wonder.

http://www.workersforjustice.org/2011/11/silence-and-fear-at-pomona-college/

Last week, activists send a petition to Pomona College to repeal its gag order that prohibits workers from talking to students in dining halls.

Now, Pomona College officials are demanding that some dining hall workers, along with some student employees and faculty, present documents authorizing them to work in the United States. And if they don’t produce the documents by Dec. 1, they face termination, college officials say. Pomona College is reverifying work documents even though no federal agency has told them to do so.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/02/pomona-college-protest-undocumented-workers_n_1125904.html

The action comes as dining hall workers have been trying to organize an independent union for about two years. As the Los Angeles Times reports, union negotiations with the college are currently stalled.
Cynthia Peters, media relations director for the college, told HuffPost, "The terminations had nothing to do with the union organizing. The two issues are completely separate."
SNIP

As the Pomona College student paper, Student Life, reports, Pomona visiting professor of politics and Yale law graduate Michael Teter challenged Efron’s legal reasoning in an open letter to the Board of Trustees, “The decision to conduct an audit of the I-9s demonstrates, at best, overzealousness and, at worst, a fundamental disregard for the dignity and privacy of every employee. To seek to justify the College’s actions by referring to a discredited allegation and to federal law is disingenuous."
Regarding the close timing of the termination to union organizing activity, Teter wrote that the college's “intrusive and arbitrary verifications.. may also have violated the National Labor Relations Act.”

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/11/pomona-college-dining-hall-workers-rally.html

Dining hall workers have been trying to organize an independent union for about two years, said Cristian Torres, a cook who has worked at the school for six years. Those efforts are stalled in negotiations with the university, he said.
Felipa Sanchez, a cook at the university for 23 years, said she felt the letter was meant to intimidate workers.
“Why now, after 23 years, are they doing this?” she said.
Sanchez initially kept her distance from ongoing union organizing efforts, believing that “if you’re at work, if you do a good job, you’ll be OK,” she said. “Now I realize it’s not like that.”