Massage Parlor Organizing Project (MPOP) invites all supporters of worker and immigrant rights to sign on to the Safety Not Stigma Campaign, and stand in solidarity with Asian massage workers.
This campaign is grounded in the fundamental principles that all workers deserve safe and dignified working conditions, free from the fear of state violence, exclusion, and workplace exploitation.
WE DEMAND:
1. Increased and diversified access to work for Asian massage workers2. An end to punitive and carceral anti-trafficking solutions
3. Safe workplaces and affordable housing
4. ICE out of our communities!
Demand 1: Increased and diversified access to work for Asian massage workers
- Asian massage workers are excluded from the massage licensure system by racist barriers, including lack of language accessibility for non-English/Spanish-speaking workers. Both the lengthy training school process and written exam have no language accommodations, making workers susceptible to exorbitant fees (upwards of $12-17K) and scammers.
- The FSMTB (Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards) are non-governmental regulators that WA makes responsible for the entire licensing process. FSMTB has explicitly stated that they share licensee and applicant information with DHS, FBI, and law enforcement. Workers should not be criminalized for the intentional denial of language-accessible licensure. Asian massage workers deserve alternative, culturally competent certification pathways.
Demand 2: An end to punitive and carceral anti-trafficking solutions
- Carceral ‘anti-trafficking’ is used to target and criminalize exploited workers— by the state, FSMTB, national think-tanks— all part of the anti-trafficking industrial complex. This criminalization drives workers deeper into precarious work and living conditions that increase their vulnerability to trafficking, especially labor trafficking
- Carceral anti-trafficking actors use unlicensed massage, caused by racist language and financial barriers, as ‘evidence’ of human trafficking. They raid, arrest and charge workers, displacing them from their places of work and homes, seizing their money and belongings, all in the name of “rescuing” them.
- We reject the rhetorical use of ‘anti-trafficking’ to justify harm to our communities, and demand real anti-trafficking solutions.
Demand 3: Safe workplaces and affordable housing
- Workers deserve safe workplaces and housing free from police raids, state violence, robberies and gun violence, and workplace exploitation. Safe workplaces and affordable housing are real anti-trafficking solutions, as they address key root causes of anti-trafficking— economic and housing instability.
- These solutions empower workers instead of profiting from pushing them underground through criminalization, dehumanization, and violence.
Demand 4: ICE out of our communities!
- We will continue to fight and canvas for the creation of ICE free zones across WA state, especially in immigrant neighborhoods like the CID.
- We continue to demand that Governor Ferguson stop sharing DOL data with ICE and CBP. His use of anti-trafficking as a rationale to reject community demands and continue sharing data with CBP once again demonstrates how powerful actors use anti-trafficking as a cover to expand policing and ICE attacks on immigrants.
- Sign on to the No DOL to ICE letter and call Governor Ferguson's office with these demands:
- 1. Block ALL data shares with federal agents
- 2. Provide restitution for impacted families
- 3. Invest in services NOT surveillance
- 🗣 Individual Letter-Sign On: bit.ly/NoDOL2ICE
- 👥 Organizational Endorsement: bit.ly/DOLHelpsICEorg
- ☎ Call Governor Ferguson's office: (360) 902-4111
Join us in our fights to collectively organize with and in defense of migrants and workers! Sign on to our campaign, Safety Not Stigma, and stand in solidarity with Asian massage workers!
