How Unions Can Protect Immigrants: An Interview With Faye Guenther

ABSTRACT: In February the labor reporter Luis Feliz Leon published an essay on the n+1 website on unions' varying responses to Trump. We were intrigued by his mention of a members' meeting organized by Faye Guenther, president of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 3000, to discuss immigration and how the union could prepare for the new administration's deportation plans. We spoke to Faye on February 28 about how she confronts divisions within her membership, and how unions can protect their immigrant members. Since then several union members have been detained—including former UAW member Mahmoud Khalil, Lewelyn Dixon and Rümeysa Öztürk of SEIU, and Alfredo Juárez of Familias Unidas por la Justicia—which only underscores the importance of this discussion.