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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 17, 2006)
Carpenters organizer faces prison, deportation By DON McINTOSH Associate Editor In a case that has brought immi- gration controversy to the heart of a local union, a Portland-area labor or- ganizer is facing prison and deporta- tion, stemming from the fact that he was in the United States illegally. José Alfredo Cobián, 36, known to local union members as Jose Luis Mendoza, or simply Luis, spent the last five years working for the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Car- penters. As an organizer, Cobián visited non-union construction sites to tout the benefits of joining the union — and fight for the rights of non-union workers when their employers broke labor and safety laws or failed to pay wages. Many of the workers on whose be- half he advocated were illegal immi- grants. “He was fighting for people in the same situation as him, and we didn’t realize it,” said Pete Savage, regional manager of the Pacific Northwest Re- gional Council of Carpenters. “He was taking a great risk.” Cobián says his journey began at the age of 19, when he left his native Colima, Mexico, and made his way to the Portland area. He found under- the-table work doing carpentry for construction contractors, putting up new houses in suburban develop- ments. Once, he returned from lunch to find that most of his co-workers had been arrested in an immigration raid. But he was determined to stay. Every day he made a point to con- verse in English with someone, and every night he locked himself in his room for two hours reading English books, listening to English audio- tapes, and watching English language television. Within a few years, he was a fluent English speaker. Missing his family, he went home and came back again in 1994, cross- ing the border clandestinely. Then in 1996, visiting family in Compton, California, he says he met some men on the street who offered to sell him a valid U.S. birth certifi- cate and Social Security number for $800. It would mean fewer hardships finding work — employers would have the documentation they were seeking, and wouldn’t have to risk breaking the law to hire him. The name on the birth certificate was Jose Luis Mendoza. Mendoza had been born a year after Cobián, in Willows, California, and had died at the age of four, without obtaining a Social Security number. To make it work, Cobián would have to take on a new name, and forge a new identity. Now that he had pa- pers, he could put his skills to work on the union side, and he joined Car- penters Local 2154 in March 1997. Later that year, while taking com- puter classes at Clackamas Commu- nity College, he met Maria de Rosario Lucio, a native of Tampico, Mexico. Lucio was in the country legally, vis- iting relatives in the United States. They soon married, and had a daugh- ter, Alexis. A son, Dante, followed four years later. By then, Cobián had become an active union supporter. When a call came for Spanish-speaking organiz- ers in 2001, he responded. The union had decided to try to unionize the mostly-immigrant nonunion workers flooding the construction industry. Cobián, fully bilingual and by all ac- counts gutsy and hard-working, was a natural fit. He helped construction workers press pay claims, and held nonunion contractors to account. He was part of a drive to organize general contractor Swinerton of Oregon, and he helped campaign against Sideco in the resi- dential sector and drywall contractors Ron Rust and Ramon Tapia. When the Carpenters Union took a stand in favor of federal immigration reform, Cobián became an activist, speaking at immigration rallies and even at a press conference outside the Portland immigration office. Meanwhile Cobián had saved his pennies, and in 2002 was able to real- ize his lifelong goal of buying a home — a tidy ranch house in Molalla, a Portland suburb in Clackamas County. Lucio stayed home to care for the kids. Alexis enrolled in Mulino Ele- mentary School. Despite a rough start, it seemed Cobián, as Mendoza, had achieved the American dream. It was all about to unravel. (Turn to Page 8) Carpenters organizer Jose Cobián (aka José Luis Mendoza) awaits deportation and a prison term on immigration-related charges. Cobián and his wife Maria de Rosario Lucio, both 36, are Mexican nationals, while their U.S. born daughter Alexis, 8, and son Dante, 4, are U.S. citizens. Broadway Floral for the BEST flowers call 503-288-5537 1638 NE Broadway, Portland Southgate Mobile & RV Park 7911 SE 82nd Ave. Portland, Oregon Spaces Available up to 35’ 503-771-5262 I've helped you design and build factories all over the west. Now I'd like to help you design and build your residential and investment real estate portfolio. Lyman Warnock, Broker 503-860-7724 lymanwarnock@msn.com NOVEMBER 17, 2006 NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS PAGE 7
