We came here in droves to work in auto and its auxiliary plants. We came from people who had picked sugar beets, harvested the crops, cleaned the homes and took care of the children of the wealthy. When the Depression
hit, thousands of Mexican families were rounded up and deported or "repatriated" and exiled. My family is one of the thousands who returned because it was home. It has not been easy for those before us, nor us, to get to a place of dignity as working class people. We have worked hard to raise our standard of living for generations.

The battles fought at the Overpass, the Hunger Marches, the Rebellions of 1943, of 1967 saw the blood of workers in Detroit shed in the service of the dream of better lives for poor people. My father and grandfather retired from Chrysler with good pensions and health care for life. My parents have retired comfortably to
North Carolina, away from the brutal Detroit winters to live the life they, and millions of other workers have earned. They made auto magnates rich and also carved out good lives for themselves and for us. People from all over the world and all over this country came North to work in the plants. They made cars and built Detroit.
This is what made this the Promised Land: You could come here and change your life without changing your class.

Now we see our immigrant brothers and sisters toiling in the parts suppliers for half the wages of their union counterparts. We see them get injured and denied medical attention because they don't have social security numbers. We see them load parts onto non union trucks and deliver them to union plants. We see our union sisters and brothers take the parts and use them to build cars made in Detroit, in Canada, in all parts of the
US. We see that some are still making a good living while newly arrived immigrants provide necessary parts and labor for others to continue to live decently.

But the road is ending before us. I have represented cafeteria workers who fed auto workers in the plants. Union women who worked in the industrial catering in the auto plants made a good living and retired with pensions.
We watched as some of the lines began to shut down, one by one and our members would lose work and lose hours and lose benefits and lose wages due to the steady decline in US auto's "market share." We would watch in wonder as the quality of food declined and prices rose, but never wages or benefits. We called strike votes to hold on to health care and hope to maintain status quo from one contract to the next.

In May of 2006, Latinos Unidos and several labor and community activists in Detroit opened Centro Obrero. We are housed in a UAW Local; the old Cadillac Local 22. The visionary officers invited us in to plan our work
and helped us financially and in every way to move forward on grappling with the difficult issues of immigrations, outsourcing, stolen wages, all manner of issues that we knew were plaguing the lives of the new people in our midst.

In our worker center in Detroit, a woman came in last week to tell us that she did not get paid for three weeks and her employer told her that he would call immigration if she tried to pursue her paycheck. The catering
business she works for is in the basement of a Pentecostal church in the heart of our own community. This used to be decent paying work. Now it can be sourced out anywhere, anytime. Free labor is hard to beat in the race to
the bottom. She made sandwiches for a caterer who sold them at the Auto Show. That was the work of the catering union; there was a time when no non union anything got sold in Detroit. Now they break the union and steal the wages of the already lowest paid people. With impunity. for awhile. And what are we doing?

In our worker center, three men came who were injured at work and denied medical attention, for which they are in dire need. They made flywheels for the auto industry. All parts they make are sold to Ford, Chrysler, General Motors, right here in Detroit. They were all undocumented, so they were denied medical attention at the hospital. The employer refuses to recognize any responsibility for their injuries, even though the accident happened at work. They are ineligible for anything. But they keep the plants supplied in the final days of auto in Detroit. No transportation costs, no health care costs, no social security, no FICA, no Comp; how long can this go on? Where are all the savings going for using sweatshop labor right here in Detroit? Why is no one challenging this? What is the real cost of the automobile, including insurance, etc, when the stolen wages and benefits are figured in?

How did we allow it to come to this? How is it that we have not challenged the company's rights to obscene profits, and instead allow parts to come from sweat shops IN DETROIT AT THE POINT OF PRODUCTION?
It was, perhaps, understandable to allow cheap labor to provide parts to expensive labor when you could not see the parts being made. They were far away; Mexico, China, Korea…but Canton, Redford, Romeo, Sterling Heights, wherever there's an auto plant, there is a sweat shop making parts. How long can we ignore the reality of exploited workers in our midst? How can we remain silent while they are getting injured from absolutely no health and safety provisions in the plants? They are not eligible for comp, for unemployment when they are off due to lay offs, any of the things Detroit workers have enjoyed for these past two generations. How have we let it come to this?

We are paying the high price of not being our brother's keeper. Our brothers and sisters are replacing us because they are exploitable and expendable. Because we stood idly by.

Why? Because we don't want to lose what we got. Not now; not on our clock. We sold out our own promise in the Promised Land. It was meant for everyone who came. Shame on us.

Elena Herrada is the Director, Centro Obrero in Detroit and an endorser of the Center for Labor Renewal.
elenaherrada@comcast.net