{"id":374101,"date":"2018-08-20T07:19:12","date_gmt":"2018-08-20T06:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/building-a-rapid-response-network-to-defend-immigrant-workers\/"},"modified":"2018-08-20T07:19:12","modified_gmt":"2018-08-20T06:19:12","slug":"building-a-rapid-response-network-to-defend-immigrant-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/building-a-rapid-response-network-to-defend-immigrant-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"Building a Rapid-Response Network to Defend Immigrant Workers"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<figure class=\"featured-media wp-caption\"><img width=\"833\" height=\"403\" class=\"attachment-large size-large to4-lazy-load wp-post-image\" alt=\"Pioneer Valley Workers Center activists celebrated victories defending immigrant workers at the municipal level on May 1, 2018.\" srcset=\"https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/PioneerValleyWorkersCenter1.jpg 833w, https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/PioneerValleyWorkersCenter1-200x97.jpg 200w, https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/PioneerValleyWorkersCenter1-400x194.jpg 400w, https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/PioneerValleyWorkersCenter1-800x387.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 833px) 100vw, 833px\" data-src=\"https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/PioneerValleyWorkersCenter1.jpg\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pioneer Valley Workers Center activists celebrated victories defending immigrant workers at the municipal level on May 1, 2018.<\/figcaption><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-credit\">Pioneer Valley Workers Center<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>As the Trump administration cracks down on undocumented immigrants, it\u2019s urgent for worker centers and unions to organize to defend immigrant members.<\/p>\n<p>In Western Massachusetts, the Pioneer Valley Workers Center has created a rapid-response network it calls \u201cSanctuary in the Streets\u201d (SiS). The worker center, founded in 2014, organizes restaurant workers and farmworkers in the area. Worker committees set the network\u2019s priorities.<\/p>\n<p>The rapid-response network consists of a 24-hour emergency hotline, 2,000 members, and 20 religious congregations. Forty bilingual responders are trained to manage the hotline, where they instruct callers in their constitutional rights, connect them to services, and activate the response team if necessary.<\/p>\n<p>Since November 2016, members of the network have supported 35 families and individuals facing deportation and workplace abuse, including wage theft and sexual harassment.<\/p>\n<p>The network has trained 800 Rapid Responders to document and peacefully denounce a deportation or raid as it is taking place, and is currently training to accompany immigrants to court hearings. It\u2019s also defending two immigrants who have taken sanctuary in local churches after facing threats of deportation.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s some advice from Pioneer Valley Workers Center organizers on setting up a rapid-response network:<\/p>\n<p><b>1. Make sure it\u2019s led by immigrant workers.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The volunteers in the network include many non-immigrant supporters from all walks of life. But \u201cwhat makes our model strong is that we have an existing worker committee, and the Sanctuary in the Streets network is accountable to the worker committee,\u201d says Diana Sierra, an organizer with the Center.<\/p>\n<p>In a series of forums, members of the worker center identified the most urgent issues affecting their community: workplace abuse; detentions, raids, and&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/truthout.org\/articles\/building-a-rapid-response-network-to-defend-immigrant-workers\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pioneer Valley Workers Center activists celebrated victories defending immigrant workers at the municipal level on May 1, 2018.Pioneer Valley Workers Center As the Trump administration cracks down on undocumented immigrants, it\u2019s urgent for worker centers and unions to organize to defend immigrant members. In Western Massachusetts, the Pioneer Valley Workers Center has created a rapid-response [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":374102,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-374101","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}