as small as a world and as large as alone

6:23am June 1, 2013

thatqueerchick:

diegueno:

Antonio Vanegas, usually soft-spoken, finally had enough. After getting paid below minimum wage for two years in a federally-owned building, he participated in a one-day strike with hundreds of others. Antonio demanded that President Obama pay him and two million others like him a living wage, the minimum someone needs to earn to meet their basic needs. How did the Obama administration’s respond? By putting Antonio into deportation proceedings.

This is outrageous. Not only does this show how workers’ immigration status is used to keep wages low, it is against the Obama administration’s own guidelines. We’ve stopped deportations before and we need to do it again, now. We need at least 15,000 people to shame the Obama administration into stopping deportation proceedings against Antonio. Can you sign and share to help us get here?

This isn’t just about Antonio. It’s about how immigrant workers are kept from fighting for better working conditions and it’s about the almost two million others who are getting paid poverty level wages through government contracts. They’re counting on us to step up now.

(via Presente | President Obama: Don’t Deport Antonio for Speaking Out!)

They’re willing to take the work, but not to pay them a living wage.

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