Folks,
Greetings from Pittsburgh, where more than 60 businesses were closed as part of “Day Without Immigrants” protests.
“Day Without Immigrants” Nationwide Protest Ignored by Press
Earlier today, the popular Mexican bakery Panderia Jazmin, located in the affluent Pittsburgh suburb of Mt. Lebanon, posted on Instagram that they were closed today as part of the “Day Without Immigrants” protest.
‘We will be closed on Monday February 3, 2025 in light of recent events affecting our Latino community,” posted the bakery. “We stand in solidarity with them during this time. Estamos Unidos.”
The business was one of 60 businesses that closed in response to “Day Without Immigrants”
“We really wanted to do is just show the economic impact that immigrants have here in the United States,” Monica Ruiz, executive director of Casa San Jose, a local immigrants rights group in Pittsburgh, told Payday Report in an interview. “If you look at where we are right now in Pittsburgh, our population has been steadily declining, and we need more people, because we need a bigger tax base to pay for our bridges and our roads.”
LIttle Union Involvement in “Day Without Immigrants” Protests
Ruiz says that Casa San Jose began organizing “Day Without Immigrants” just 3 days ago. So far, no unions in the region have gotten involved, but Ruiz hopes that soon more local unions will.
On such short notice, no unions got involved on the local level. Nor did any get involved at the national level.
However, Ruiz stated that the “Day Without Immigrants” action today was likely the first in a series of such actions to put pressure on immigration policy.
“We came up with this in like two or three days, so it was really a short time. So we didn't have much time to do outreach”, Ruiz told Payday Report.
In 2006, “Day Without Immigrants” protests mobilized millions of immigrants across the United States, derailing a draconian immigration policy proposed by the Bush Administration. Now, immigrants hope to have the same effect again.
For more, on the 2006 “Day Without Immigrants” protests, check out this American Prospect piece.
Donate to Help Map “Day Without Immigrants” Protests
Despite widespread social media reports showing “Day Without Immigrants” actions in dozens of cities, the movement got very little coverage today.
To help us amplify these voices, we want to create a map showing where these protests are occurring. During the pandemic, our strike tracker helped create a national conversation over the strike wave.
Donate to help us map these “Day Without Immigrants” protests. Please, if you can, sign up as one of our recurring donors today.
National Letter Carriers Reject Contract
In a sign of a looming labor dispute at the federal level, the National Letter Carriers, which represents over a hundred thousand federal employees, has voted to reject a tentative agreement by a margin of 63,680 members voting against to 26,304 members voting for it.
“In a democratic vote, the will of NALC’s membership has been made clear - the tentative agreement that represented the best offer the Postal Service put on the table is not good enough for America’s city letter carriers. We have earned more and we deserve more,” said NALC President Brian L. Renfroe in a statement.
Dept of Education Employees Placed on Leave for Attending Diversity Training
During the first Trump Administration, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos encouraged employees to attend a diversity training. Now, 55 employees, who attended this training, have been placed on paid leave by the Trump Administration.
“It looks like they’re entrapping people, because they encouraged people to take these trainings ... and are now maybe using these trainings as a basis to put them on administrative leave,” American Federation of Government Employees Local 252 President Sheria Smith told NBC. “I think it is shock and awe. They’re trying to send us emails that make no sense and are super confusing to intimidate us or to make us run scared so we quit.”
Costco and Teamsters Avert Strike
On Friday night, Teamsters President Sean O’Brien announced that his union had reached a tentative agreement with Costco to prevent a strike.
The details of the agreement have, so far, not been released, and it’s unclear if they will pass. Still, Teamsters leadership celebrated the tentative agreement as a victory.
“From day one, we’ve told Costco that our members won’t work a day past January 31 without a historic, industry-leading agreement,” said the Teamsters General President, Sean O’Brien, in a statement.
Alright folks, that’s all for today. Keep sending tips, story ideas, comments and complaints to melk@paydayreport.com
Donate to help us cover “Day Without Immigrants” actions. Please, if you can, sign up as one of our recurring donors today.
Thanks for reading and support Payday,
Melk
