Governor Tina Kotek spoke at the May Day event in Salem today on the Capitol Mall. The May Day event is a collective call to defend workers' rights and protect immigrant communities that is led by Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noreste (PCUN).
Governor Kotek’s remarks during the event:
May Day is about workers’ rights and immigrant rights. May Day is about human rights.
Last month, I signed the Immigration Justice bills into law. These new laws will help protect our communities. Immigrants and refugees built this country and are essential to our collective future success.
Immigrant workers are the backbone of businesses that sustain our daily lives. And immigrants are our neighbors, our friends, our families. We must keep up the fight and keep working together!
No one should be afraid to go to work, take their child to school, or seek medical care because of where they come from. And no one should face unsafe working conditions or be robbed of the wages they deserve.
As the Trump government wages unlawful attacks on our neighbors and threatens our values and our right to govern ourselves, I will not back down from this fight, and I will stand shoulder to shoulder with you.
I will keep fighting for you. Oregon is your home. Oregon is a welcoming place, and you deserve to live here without fear, to work with dignity, and to raise your families in safety.
And to those in Washington D.C. who think they can bully Oregon into abandoning our values and abandoning our neighbor:
You. Are. Wrong.
Oregon will not be quiet. And we’re not backing down.
Thank you.