Retiring AFL-CIO vice president decries us-and-them mentality on immigration

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-sun_front0923sep23,0,4275998.story

FRONT AND CENTER

Retiring AFL-CIO official Chavez-Thompson decries 'us-and-them' views on immigration, seeks further progress for women, Latinos

BY STEPHEN FRANKLIN
September 23, 2007

Linda Chavez-Thompson, who rose up from picking cotton at age 10 to become the highest-ranking Latino with organized labor, is going home to Texas.

Last week was the executive vice president's last at the AFL-CIO. Chavez-Thompson, 63, started out at the organization working with Spanish-speaking laborers because nobody else spoke the language. Arlene Holt-Baker, a one-time labor organizer from California who has worked for the AFL-CIO since 1995, will serve out Chavez-Thompson's term, which expires in 2009.

When an unprecedented revolt swept the AFL-CIO 12 years ago, Chavez-Thompson was elected executive vice president, becoming the first woman and first Latino to reach such a position.

A truncated interview with Chavez-Thompson follows:

Q. You are leaving at a time when immigration is a key issue for unions, for politics, for the country. How do you feel about the way the issue has come up, especially the way people have talked about Latino immigrants in the United States?

A. It makes me sad when people bring it up and make it a Latino issue because they are pinpointing just one color or one ethnic makeup of the undocumented community. Yes, Latinos make up a majority of the undocumented community, but there are so many others. It makes me sad but it makes me want to fight the fight.


FULL story at link.