Philly Teamsters Demand Immigrant Justice

Casey Wilbanks is a Philadelphia-based UPS warehouse worker, member of Teamsters Local 623 and a shop steward. The text of the union’s recent resolution is copied at the bottom of the article. The following interview was edited for length and clarity.

Jeff Rosenberg: Your Teamsters local has recently passed a remarkable resolution through a vote by the membership. The resolution lays out how the union stands in solidarity with our immigrant brothers and sisters, and calls for the return of Kilmar Garcia and the release of Mahmoud Khalil and Rümeysa Öztürk. Rümeysa has since been released, which is a big win for the movement.We are excited to speak with you about how you and your coworkers made this happen and what’s coming next.

What’s in the resolution and why did you think it was important to bring this forward?

Casey Wilbanks: Our resolution is about our union taking a clear stand in solidarity with our immigrant brothers and sisters – working people who are being targeted and scapegoated for the problems caused by the billionaires. We highlighted especially the high profile cases of immigrant union members that have been snatched up – including Mahmoud Khalil, Rümeysa Öztürk, and Kilmar Garcia.

The resolution broadly calls on our union to defend any of our members who face these attacks, and for the U.S. government to stop these cruel deportations and family separations. Just as importantly, it calls for the education of our members to understand the attacks on immigrant communities today and why solidarity across borders and unity among working people is so important. Finally, it calls for our members to join actions and organize to defend against these attacks.

The racist, right-wing propaganda against immigrants is meant to divide and distract us. The rich and powerful are pushing an anti-working class agenda right now more aggressively than we have seen in decades. Turning working people against each other is a big part of how they hope to get away with it. If we blame our immigrant neighbors and coworkers for our problems instead of recognizing the real enemy – the billionaires and corporate America – then the rich win. They want to run a con game so we don’t notice them bleeding us dry. And they do the same thing on the job too. The boss tries to use racism to stoke divisions between groups of workers in our shop all the time.

JR: How did you feel when you all saw the news about Rümeysa’s release?

CW: We were thrilled to see the news about Rümeysa’s release, though her case is still ongoing. The only evidence provided by the U.S. government against her was an op-ed she co-authored critical of ongoing U.S. support for the Israeli genocide against Gaza. She was essentially picked up for what amounts to “thought crimes.”

It’s not a far stretch to see where this goes. If someone can be picked up for writing an op-ed, then workers can be picked up for calling out the abuses and dangerous practices of UPS or Amazon. In fact, these companies already punish people for speaking out. People get really hurt at our facilities. We've had multiple deaths at facilities in Philadelphia, and the only way that they can make it cheaper in the short run is to just put people in the meat grinder. We are often organizing to speak out on these issues and the boss tries to do everything they can to silence us.

These issues hit home for all of us ultimately. It’s important for us to go beyond just our immediate contract issues and day-to-day problems on the job if we are going to fight for the life working people deserve.

JR: What were some of the experiences in the shop that led to this resolution?

CW: A lot of the motivation for this came out of our experiences at UPS. Last year around October, right before peak season, UPS took on a couple hundred Haitian immigrant workers – mostly on Temporary Protected Status (TPS) visas. This was just after all this hysteria that Trump had stoked during the debate with Kamala Harris about Haitian immigrants eating dogs and cats in Springfield. A disgusting and racist lie.

Those lies came to the shop and created some animosity and distrust of our Haitian coworkers. The supervisors really stoked this too by treating them terribly and mocking them for their limited English skills. Because of the language barrier, management wouldn’t give workers clear instructions, and often put them in dangerous situations where people could have been seriously injured or even died. They also often showed total disregard for their hours, sending people home after 20 minutes, despite our union winning guarantees of at least 3 hours work when we come in.

We couldn’t just let this stand. Despite the challenges, we took it on. We got help to draft up handbills in Haitian Creole to educate our new coworkers on their rights and what it means to be in our union. Here's who you call, here's what to look out for, here's your guarantees. Don't let people do this or that. Stuff like that. We didn’t want to see them getting screwed over anymore because they didn’t know what protections and guarantees we already won through our union.

At the same time, we needed to talk with our American coworkers to help them understand what our immigrant coworkers were going through and why we needed to stand together and build solidarity. We made sure people could get to talk to each other with translation support, get to know each other on a personal level. Many of us learned for the first time about the history of Haiti and the political crises there today as a consequence of over 100 years of U.S. meddling.

Sometimes it was a real uphill battle, but it was necessary. Without it, people buy these awful stories about how someone else is taking their job or who they are. And it's never true. It's the boss pitting us against each other.

JR: Some people may feel like they don’t want to bring “politics” into their union, or feel pessimistic about their coworkers disagreeing with them. Some people may even be especially surprised to hear this resolution was passed near unanimously in a Teamsters local. What did it look like to organize and build unity with your coworkers around this resolution?

CW: In the end, it was a really pleasant surprise for me and the others who brought this forward to see just how widespread support for this resolution was – passing nearly unanimously. We had been speaking with our coworkers about this deliberately for a while. During the discussion period, many of our coworkers were actively speaking in support of the resolution from their own experience and in their own way.

Only one member raised any opposition to it, bringing up a question about “gang members” – reflecting the racist demonization we have seen weaponized by the Trump administration against Kilmar Garcia and hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan immigrants. Before I could even say anything in response to this, another coworker called it out. She stood up and said “There’s only one gang in the U.S. that I’m worried about and they’ve never been deported. They’re called the KKK.” A strong majority of our members are Black so this point resonated with a lot of people.

Some people in the union will always be uncomfortable talking about politics in the shop. What we found was that we needed to make it clear why this connects to all of us and to put in the effort to reach everyone. Some of my coworkers had never been to a union meeting before, but when they heard about the resolution they decided to go for the first time because it was about something they cared about deeply. We made sure the people we talked to who really cared started to bring these conversations to the people on their shift too.

All of this led to the moment where the resolution was voted on and passed almost unanimously. I’m a proud union member, and that was one of my proudest moments to wear the Teamsters jacket.

JR: The resolution also talked about a commitment to turn this energy and unity into action. What’s coming up next?

CW: We’re starting with more education work first. That means tabling at the gates about the resolution for people who missed the meeting. Those have been great conversations. We also want to get it out there to other Teamsters locals and other unions. Really, the whole labor movement needs to be on board with this and not just in words, but in action.

Our only hope to fight against these brutal attacks on working people today is to continue to build this unity and use our power as working people, as organized labor, to win immigrant justice. Justice for Kilmar, justice for Mahmoud, justice for Rümeysa, justice for everyone who has been cruelly deported. Justice for all the working people who make this country run, not the billionaires getting rich off our backs. No one is going to save us, so it’s up to us to do it ourselves.

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Resolution Demanding the Release of Mahmoud Khalil and Rümeysa Öztürk and the Return of Kilmar Garcia

Whereas, Kilmar Garcia, a dedicated union member of SMART Local 100 and sheet metal apprentice has been unjustly detained and deported, and thus been robbed of his due process rights caused by a recognized administrative error, separating him from his family, workplace, and community; and

Whereas, Mahmoud Khalil and Rümeysa Öztürk, who are both union members, have been abducted and jailed due to their pro-Palestine activism and immigration status by the Trump administration in an attempt to sow fear amongst immigrant students who speak out for justice and against war; and

Whereas, the labor movement has a long and proud tradition of standing against injustice, defending the rights of all workers regardless of immigration status, or political beliefs and fighting against repression; and

Whereas, attacks on any worker are attacks on all workers, and we must unite to protect our members and communities from repression, discrimination, and state violence;

Therefore, be it resolved, that IBT Local 623 demands the immediate return of Kilmar Garcia to his family, job, and community, and the immediate release of Mahmoud Khalil and Rümeysa Öztürk.

Be it further resolved, that IBT Local 623 commits to educating the union’s membership on why the attack on Mahmoud, Rümeysa, and all international students is a union issue.

Be it further resolved that IBT Local 623 is committed to immigrant and worker justice, and pledges to defend any member facing deportation, detention, or workplace repression, and calls on all relevant authorities to cease deportations and family separations.

Be it further resolved that IBT Local 623 will mobilize its membership in solidarity, including participation in rallies, petitions, and labor actions to demand justice for Kilmar, Mahmoud, and Rümeysa, and all workers under attack.

In Solidarity, IBT Local 623