Could someone give me a run down of the May 1rst strike/protest/boycotte?

[TraceOneInfinite Flat Earther 96']

Did it have much impact on the economy?

How many people actually didn't show up for work?  Enough to significantly impact any industry?

peace

[Javier]

from the L.A Times...

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-immigecon2may02,0,3207857.story?coll=la-home-headlines


Immigrant workers powerfully asserted their importance Monday, making clear they are vital to California's economy. Without us, they declared, industries would tremble, jobs go undone and prices rise.

Dolls from China, DVD players from Japan and shirts from Malaysia piled up at the ports. Lettuce wasn't picked in Blythe and strawberries languished in Oxnard. On one block of L.A.'s Koreatown, only two out of nine businesses were open. The garment district was nearly deserted.
By itself, the "Day Without Immigrants" won't hurt the economy in the long run, analysts said. Shoppers will quickly go back to shopping and workers to working.

The economic message, however, was emphatic and unmistakable.

"This was a reality check," said Economic Roundtable President Daniel Flaming. "You can't wish away these workers. They are rooted in the community. Not everyone realized that before."

Flaming and others have extensively studied the role played by recent arrivals, both legal and illegal. The protests provided vivid evidence that the bulk of the country's estimated 11 million to 12 million illegal immigrants don't just cut lawns and wash dishes in restaurants.

This is an unusual protest movement. There's little precedent in American history for a simultaneous combination of consumer boycotts, demonstrations and work stoppages. And there's none for a labor rights struggle that is cheered on by many employers.

"I don't remember hearing a single major business group complaining about today's actions," said Stephen Levy, director of the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy.

Employers haven't suddenly grown more compassionate. In this era of low unemployment, they are eager to have sources of cheap labor. And they fear the sanctions that would accompany a serious crackdown on illegal hiring.

Beyond this, Levy said, there is a sense that everyone is complicit. "I've hired a housekeeper or a gardener or a baby-sitter where I certainly didn't check their papers," he said. "There's an acknowledgment here that we're all involved."

The industries hit the hardest Monday were agriculture, long the domain of immigrants, and, somewhat surprisingly, the ports.

At the nation's largest seaport complex, the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, as few as 10% of the truckers showed up to haul freight.

"It's eerie, looking out at the Vincent Thomas Bridge with no trucks on it. It just looks kind of flat and lonely," said Teresa Adams Lopez, a spokeswoman for the Port of Los Angeles.

The 110, 710 and 47 freeways — the latter includes the Vincent Thomas Bridge — had only a few of the rigs that are normally so thick that motorists sometimes miss their exits because the trucks obscure the signs.

The work stoppage was quickly seized upon by union organizers, who hoped to redirect it into traditional labor activism. Organizers with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters made their case in several locations while in Wilmington's Banning Park, an independent movement to form a Los Angeles Port Truckers Assn. was gathering signatures. So far, every effort to organize most of the 10,000 drivers who work the ports has failed.

One driver who stayed away, 24-year-old George Fernandez of Los Angeles, said he supported the immigration rights movement. But he added that the drivers, who clear as little as $20,000 annually after their overhead, were also hoping for "some sort of relief from all the costs, like for fuel, and the low pay and the working conditions."

The effect in the fields was even more significant.

"No one is packing today," said strawberry grower Hector Gutierrez, managing partner of Otilio Farms in Oxnard. "This will put us behind, and we might have to throw some overripe fruit away."

Operations at Bart Fisher's 10,000-acre ranch in Blythe came to a halt as his 120 workers disappeared for the day. "We don't even have a tractor operating," said Fisher, who grows hay, lettuce, broccoli, melons and cotton.

On some farms it was a normal Monday. Tulare dairyman Rob Fletcher was relieved when his milkers, all immigrants, showed up to work his 700 cows.Overall, however, it was apparently the biggest agricultural work stoppage on record in the state. The 1973 grape strike in the Coachella and San Joaquin valleys and 1970's Salinas Valley vegetable strike had been the largest.

"But both of them only involved targeted crops and didn't come close to the numbers of farm workers participating today," said Marc Grossman, a spokesman for the United Farm Workers union. The state's year-round farm workforce numbers about 225,000, according to the California Farm Bureau Federation.It wasn't just the size of the farm worker protest that was eye-opening but the unusual harmony between growers and workers.

In Greenfield, south of Salinas, the frontage roads along U.S. 101 were lined with idled tractors, trailers and harvesters in a show of solidarity.

"The harvest companies are giving their workers the opportunity to bring out the equipment and make a statement," Greenfield Mayor John Huerta said.

It was a shift in attitude that Huerta — the son of a Mexican employed in the bracero guest worker program in the 1940s who went on to become a United Farm Workers organizer — found "amazing."

Across the nation, the protests touched many industries but hurt only a few. Major meat producers, including Tyson Foods Inc., Perdue Farms Inc., Cargill Inc. and Swift & Co., closed or cut back work at dozens of plants. Another industry that depends heavily on Latino labor, construction, also took a hit.

The protests were telegraphed far in advance, which intentionally muted their effect. Michael Niemira of the International Council of Shopping Centers said he didn't expect the demonstrations or boycott to have significant economic repercussions.

But he added, "From the political side, it made a statement."

A small, informal survey conducted by the California Assn. of Employers found that very few businesses shut down or operated with skeleton crews. The vast majority of the 88 firms surveyed operated normally.

"When you know it's a one-day thing, as an employer you say, 'We're going to survive it, and we're going to run our business as usual,' " said Kim Parker, executive vice president of the trade group.

In some parts of Los Angeles, however, the fallout was far greater. Some shopkeepers opened and then quickly gave up. "There's no business," said Sueli Shin, manager of Pelicana Fashion, a wholesaler of party dresses in the garment district. She had locked the door by 10:15 a.m.

Much of Koreatown was shuttered. One factor was the neighborhood's large Latino population. But some business owners, noting their proximity to the march route on Wilshire Boulevard, expressed fears that the demonstrations might get out of hand.

On a normal day, Ham Hung restaurant serves lunch to 200 people. On Monday, there were only 70 customers. Many "stayed away because of news reports that warned people not to drive around downtown," said assistant manager Calvin Zhin.

He noted that he lives in the San Fernando Valley and made it to work in record time. "Great day for driving, horrible day for business," Zhin said.

[herpes]

my little brother said there were only a handful of hispanic kids that showed up for school.  A good friend of mine said his whole family showed up to the ralley in nyc.  Except him, he needed the money so he wasnt missing work lol.

[Javier]

my little brother said there were only a handful of hispanic kids that showed up for school.  A good friend of mine said his whole family show up to the ralley in nyc.  Except him, he needed the money so he was missing work lol.

I saw that they did a human chain too

[J Bananas]

financially it had litte impact, other than sales of fishnet tanktops were down 87%

[virtuoso]

Day Without Gringos' a Flop

AP | May 3 2006

The boycott of U.S. businesses dubbed "A Day Without Gringos," and aimed at supporting migrants in the U.S., appears to have had little impact, the head of the American Chamber of Commerce in Mexico said Tuesday.

Monday's protests were timed to coincide with "the Great American Boycott" in the United States, where hundreds of thousands of immigrants stayed away from jobs and schools across the country.

"Even though we don't have conclusive numbers, I think there wasn't a lot of negative effect," Chamber President Larry Rubin said by telephone from Washington, where he and other business leaders are lobbying for comprehensive immigration reform. "We basically ... think it was more symbolic."

Rubin said the boycott unwisely targeted some of immigrants' best allies — U.S. corporations that have actively lobbied Congress for immigration reform, including legalization for many of the estimated 11 million undocumented migrants in the United States.
It was hard to measure the boycott's impact because business is normally reduced on the May Day holiday.
Businesses in Mexico City appeared to be operating as usual Monday, with customers streaming into Wal-Mart stores and McDonald's restaurants — though there were reports of people passing out leaflets and briefly blocking the entrance to at least one U.S.-owned store.

In some Mexican cities, however, the boycott campaign was felt.

Several hundred pro-boycott protesters in the border city of Tijuana blocked traffic on a bridge leading into the United States, waving flags and shouting slogans and forcing many drivers to turn back. The action converted the world's busiest border crossing into an empty parking lot for about two hours.

In the central city of Toluca, 35 miles west of Mexico City, a group of Mazahua Indian women entered a McDonald's on Monday with homemade food, encouraging customers to eat it instead of ordering hamburgers.

The Mazahuas managed to persuade many of the store's customers to leave, or to eat sopes, a traditional Mexican dish consisting of bean paste, lettuce or onions, and salsa on a thick corn tortilla, local news media reported.
They also passed out fliers urging customers to support the U.S. immigrant protests

INFOWARS: BECAUSE THERE'S A WAR ON FOR YOUR MIND

[Real American]

^^^^^^

That is right. Not only did immigrants in the US boycott America, but so did the entire country of Mexico with their "buy Nothing Gringo" campaign. Talk about racist. Without tthe US taking in millions of their poor people and giving them jobs to send money back home, their country would be shittier than it already is. And this is how they treat us? Fuck them.





http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12599439/site/newsweek/

Zero Impact’
An economist talks about the economics of illegal immigration—and why we may be overestimating the significance of undocumented workers.



May 2, 2006 - They marched in big cities and small towns. They boycotted work and businesses, and withdrew their children from school. Some walked out of their jobs. And as hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants took to the streets yesterday, they hoped for a dramatic impact: to prove to America that their work was significant to the successful function of the U.S. economy.


In certain industries, they made their case. In the West and Midwest, a number of meatpacking companies were forced to close. In California and Arizona, produce fields were absent of migrant pickers. And in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York, a number of businesses lacked sufficient staff to operate.

But the protests didn’t bring the economy to a halt, as some organizers had hoped. And that, says one economist, is because Americans overestimate the actual impact undocumented workers have on our economy. “It’s a positive benefit, but it’s not the be-all end-all of the economy,” says James P. Smith, an economist at the Rand Corporation who specializes in immigration labor. He spoke with NEWSWEEK’s Jessica Bennett about the relationship between the U.S. economy and the nation’s 11 million undocumented workers. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: Is it possible at this point to gauge the economic impact of Monday’s protests?
James P. Smith: At most, part of workers lost part of a day, [but] there’s no real effect on consumption. Whether it had a political effect or not—that’s a different question. But the economic impact was zero.


 
How would you assess the overall importance of undocumented workers to the U.S. economy?
Immigration [documented and undocumented] brings in about $10 billion a year more income for the native born. All immigrants are about 15 percent of the labor force, and illegal immigrants are about 5 percent. So it’s a positive effect—an important effect—but relative to a $10 trillion economy, it’s not driving the economy by any means.

If the United States were to lose their labor, due to strikes or possible deportation, which industries would be most affected?
If you take farming in California, 80 percent of the labor in farming in the San Joaquin Valley is undocumented workers. In the textile industry, also 80 percent of the workforce is undocumented. So there are specific industries in specific places that may not be able to exist without undocumented labor. [And] there are other industries—such as meatpacking, construction trade, and tobacco—that are heavily dependent on it, and those industries would be impacted as well. So you have a very small overall effect, but when you get the microscope down to particular places and particular industries at particular points in time, then the impact would be quite large.

How large?
Well, you may not have a textile industry in the United States without undocumented workers. There are sets of industries that are heavily dependent on undocumented workers and they would be threatened by this. And I think some of them would not be sustainable. In the narrow sense of a particular type of work in a particular place it can have a big impact, [though] the overall impact is quite modest.

How would the loss of these low-wage workers impact consumers?
Well, prices would be higher. That’s the benefit we get from undocumented workers: their wages are low so we can produce things more cheaply, and the prices are low. So [our] prices would be higher [because] we’ll be mainly importing [products] like textiles and produce, which we currently produce here.

But would it benefit consumers in any way—like a decrease in taxes?
At the federal level, [undocumented immigrants] turn out to be a net-positive benefit because immigrants are young and the federal government is spending money on programs for the elderly, like Medicare and Social Security. At the state and local level they tend to be a tax burden, not because of welfare and not because of health, but because of education. In California, we estimated that the native-born households were paying about $1,200 more in taxes than they received in benefits in order to pay for immigrants.

What’s the biggest misconception about the impact of undocumented workers on the U.S. economy?
I think people overstate their importance. It’s a positive benefit but it’s not the be-all end-all of the economy.

If a strike or deportation were to occur, would anyone be willing to fill these roles?
I don’t think there’s a supply of domestic labor that’s willing to do some of the jobs—like working in the fields—at a price that’s economically feasible for that industry. So I think that industry might go out of existence. But there are other [fields] where undocumented immigrants work—like cab drivers—where we also have a lot of native-born Americans. All that’s going to happen there is that the price of taking a taxi is going to go up.

What’s the pay scale like for an undocumented worker?
I thing the average income is about $15,000 a year.

Does that have anything to do with skill-gaps between undocumented and documented workers?
Undocumented immigrants tend to be very low skilled and also receive extremely low wages in their home countries, so they’re willing to work for quite low wages in the United States relative to our standards. Most Americans in those kinds of jobs are not going to work for those wages—and that’s the niche that the undocumented tend to [fill]. They work in low-skilled jobs at wages way below what domestic workers would be willing to work for, and those are the industries they tend to dominate. And we all benefit from that in lower prices for the services we buy.

[J @ M @ L]

And this is how they treat us? Fuck them.

LOL what a fucking tool

[Javier]

From the article, Real American Posted...

"But the protests didn’t bring the economy to a halt, as some organizers had hoped. And that, says one economist, is because Americans overestimate the actual impact undocumented workers have on our economy. “It’s a positive benefit, but it’s not the be-all end-all of the economy,” says James P. Smith, an economist at the Rand Corporation who specializes in immigration labor. He spoke with NEWSWEEK’s Jessica Bennett about the relationship between the U.S. economy and the nation’s 11 million undocumented workers. "

Very good article Real American, it shows the pros and cons of illegal immigrants

[Real American]

Very good article Real American, it shows the pros and cons of illegal immigrants

Oops. That isn't what I wanted. Maybe I should actually read the whole article next time.

[King Tech Quadafi]

financially it had litte impact, other than sales of fishnet tanktops were down 87%

 

[7even]

Very good article Real American, it shows the pros and cons of illegal immigrants

Oops. That isn't what I wanted. Maybe I should actually read the whole article next time.

LOL

[jeromechickenbone]

Very good article Real American, it shows the pros and cons of illegal immigrants

Oops. That isn't what I wanted. Maybe I should actually read the whole article next time.

LOL

LMFAO!