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BTN News Executive-Secretary Immigration: An Issue of Money and Politics
BTN News Executive-Secretary Immigration: An Issue of Money and Politics
| Immigration: An Issue of Money and Politics |
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| By Richard Slawson, Executive-Secretary | |
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These jobs have familiar occupational titles: Cement Masons, Operating Engineers, Electricians, Plumbers, Roofers, Sheet Metal Workers, Iron Workers, Brick & Tile Layers, Painters, Drywall Finishers and Tapers, Floor Layers, Teamsters and Carpenters. Even with the huge increase in prices that housing developers are charging and the profits that have been registered by Del Webb, Broad, Lennar, Standard and many other home builders, they hire contractors who increase profits by the sweat and suffering of immigrant labor. This is labor that won’t be organized because they are constantly under the threat of termination or deportation if they are working illegally, making unions’ attempts to organize the industry reduced to wages and benefit cuts, which most won’t do. With manufacturing flat and the export of more and more jobs to foreign nations, for everything from automobile manufacturing to airliner production, the construction industry had been one of the few industries that cannot be outsourced. But American business found a way to boost profits by hiring immigrant workers who will work for a fraction of the wages that are necessary to raise a family. And, with the responsible government agencies never to charging or penalizing employers who “willfully” violates hiring laws to put more profits in his pockets, the practice will continue. America isn’t anti immigrant, but we believe in fair wages and decent working conditions. Because immigration laws are not being evenly enforced, workers are nervous. No job security, and therefore no job seniority, has turned the immigration debate into a false “us against them” argument. The only one who wins is the unscrupulous employer who continues to break the law while workers are pitted against each other over jobs and how low they are willing to go in their pay rate. With a steady increase of both legal and illegal immigrants into the United States, from 6.2% of the population in 1980 to 11.7% - over 32 million - through 2004, they cannot be absorbed into the labor force without creating more pain for working families. The General Presidents of our Craft International Unions and the Building & Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO, have been consistent in their support for fair immigration laws and they have proposed some minimum standards. The first is to include a wage floor for all work and Prevailing Wages for construction where an employer makes a request for legal immigrant workers to supplement current American workers. The second is to require employers to advertise any job for 6 months in local newspaper and other media before any request for U.S. Government visas to import foreign workers is granted. But, although these are needed improvements, workers in America should demand that any employee have the right to organize, join a Union and have a Union contract, no matter how they got here. If we don’t, employers will continue to use immigrant workers to undermine wages and Unions. Call your U.S. Senator and demand that these protections be a part of any final immigration legislation. |
The immigration debate raging across America isn’t about
whether or not there should be legislation, but rather, what kind of
immigration rules should be enacted to address the huge numbers of
illegal immigrants who are coming into America every day. | < Prev | Next > |
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