This paper argues that worker protection necessarily includes worker information protection. As a case study, this paper considers the problem of immigration enforcement agencies’ workplace raids in meatpacking plants. Collective organizing and other forms of advocacy rely on bringing visibility to deplorable working conditions. But because visibility poses heightened risks to immigrant workers, undocumented or otherwise, exploitation goes unchallenged. This paper considers two strategies for pursuing better working conditions while protecting worker information: antitrust claims and surveillance transparency. First, this paper situates antitrust actions against the major meat companies within the proworker history of antitrust, arguing that worker-focused antitrust litigation can win better conditions for meat processing workers without putting undocumented workers at heightened risk. Then, this paper examines how transparency law can disrupt immigration enforcement agencies’ reliance on private surveillance. Taken together, these strategies demonstrate how advocates for workers’ rights can subvert the coercive function of status quo information privacy norms, while evading the violent impacts of surveillance.

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