The Mexican American Experience, a radio program produced by the Longhorn Radio Network, includes interviews, music, and informational programs related to the Mexican American community and their concerns. Program summary: Antonio Orendain, director of the Texas Farm Workers Union and Union organizer, Estella Salinas. Interview is in Spanish and concerns the position of the TFW in organizing the undocumented worker, efforts to abolish the right to work law and establish collective bargaining in Texas. Orendain explains how undocumented workers are exploited in both Mexico and the United States and the only way to protect all workers is through union contracts. He also draws comparisons between farm workers and industrial workers who are protected by unions. The TFWU is currently lobbying to pass an Agriculture Labor Relations Act in Texas that will protect farm workers just as the 1935 Labor Relations act protected industrial workers. Orendain also discusses the recent International Conference for the Defense of the Undocumented Worker, which several U.S. union leaders attended. Estella Salinas then discusses the precarious situation of the undocumented worker. She explains that transnational agribusiness has been able to neutralize strikes by planting on the Mexican side of the border. Similarly packing and oil companies have made several incursions into Mexico where they are able to pay workers low wages and obtain significant concessions. Salinas also talks about the many ways immigrants contribute to the U.S. economy and the continued vulnerability they face. While undocumented workers pay taxes, they are often too afraid to ask for aid and social services. Moreover, they are often the target of violence from both vigilantes and law enforcement agents and employer abuse. Keywords: AFL-CIO, Agribusiness, Agriculture Labor Relations Act, Antonio Orendain, Auto Workers, Bill Clements, Border Patrol, Chicanos and the Media, Civil Rights Commission, Collective Bargaining, Collective Rights, Del Monte, Economic Contribution of the Undocumented Worker, Education, Ejidos, Employer Abuses, Employer Abuses, Estella Salinas, Exploitation, Farm Workers, Free Trade, General Foods, Guatemala, Illegal Alien, Illegal Immigration, Immigration and Naturalization Service, Industrial Workers, Mexican Unions, Mexican Workers, Mexico, National Labor Relations Act, Oil Companies, Onion Strike, Police Brutality, Political Vulnerability, Protest, Rape, Right to Work Laws, San Antonio, San Juan March, Taft-Hartley Act, Texas Farm Workers Union, Texas-Mexico Border, Transnational Agribusiness, Transnational Corporations, Transnationalism, Undocumented workers, Union organizing, Vulnerability of the Undocumented Worker, Wagner Act. Broadcast date: 1980-05-17.
Creator/Contributor:
Longhorn Radio Network (creator), Fregoso, Rosa Linda. (host), Orendain, Antonio (interviewee), and Salinas, Estella (interviewee)
Date Created/Date Issued:
5/9/1980
Owning Repository:
Benson Latin American Collection, LLILAS Benson Latin American Studies and Collections, The University of Texas at Austin
sound recordings, grabaciones sonoras, radio programs, programas de radio, and Audio
Extent:
25 minutes, 13 seconds
Rights - Use and Reproduction:
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Language:
English and Spanish
Place of Publication:
Austin (Tex.)
Topic:
Mexican Americans--Political activity, Open and closed shop, Mexican American migrant agricultural laborers, Migrant agricultural laborers--Law and legislation, and Migrant agricultural laborers--Labor unions