May 1, or May Day—also known as International Workers Day—honors the sacrifices that workers have made throughout history to secure hard-won rights. As the list of these rights grows increasingly robust, however, it is important that we do not take the most basic ones for granted.
For 5.2 percent of the U.S. workforce—the 8 million undocumented immigrant workers—securing fundamental protections is a daily struggle. Employee-employer relationships are drastically different for undocumented immigrants, who show up for work day after day knowing that they can be taken advantage of due to their legal status. But such violations of basic rights do not have to be the status quo.
For more on this topic, please see:
- ‘Mayday!’ A Crisis Call for Undocumented Workers by Micah Jones