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Building trades hold major stake in immigration debate

Date Posted: April 14 2006

Large protests in various cities about American immigration policy has placed the issue on the front burner in Congress - and it's a subject that should be closely watched by U.S. construction workers.

The Pew Research Group released a report last month which showed there are about 7.2 million unauthorized migrant workers in the U.S., accounting for nearly 5 percent of the entire U.S. labor force. The construction industry had the second-highest percent of undocumented workers - a situation which leads to lower wages, lower safety standards, lower quality standards and a black eye for the industry.

WASHINGTON (PAI) - In a move that could help determine the future makeup of the U.S. population, the Senate opened debate March 29 on a wide-ranging immigration bill. It features a combination of a path to legal rights for the 11 million undocumented workers already within the country, a "guest worker" program and more enforcement.

By bringing undocumented workers out from the underground economy, the bill could prevent their exploitation by venal employers who now use the threat of deportation to depress workers' wages and impose terrible working conditions. It could also stop employers from using the threat of importing undocumented workers to force native workers into lower wages and working conditions.

"This is a defining issue: Are we going to welcome new blood legally or be an exclusionist nation that betrays the American dream?" asked U.S. Sen. McCain (R-Ariz.), co-author, with Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) McCain was speaking last week to delegates of the AFL-CIO Building Trades Conference.

Many building trades union members would beg to differ. The first trade union worker to question McCain at the conference stated that "it's time for your party to listen to working people." Then he challenged the senator about why undocumented workers should be hired for well-paying U.S. construction jobs.

The debate started as lawmakers felt the impact of mass protests, organized by labor, its allies and immigration rights groups. Marchers paraded in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and cities in between, with at least 400,000 turning out in Chicago and half a million in L.A. Further marches are planned in Washington, D.C.

One predominant theme at the marches: it is time to bring the undocumented workers, out of the legal shadows and put them on the path to permanent resident status, through obtaining "green cards" letting them live here without the threat of deportation.

The other theme is that immigrants, and especially their supporters, vote - and that what happens on Capitol Hill would be a key issue at the ballot box this fall.

On the flip side of that argument is that there are existing U.S. laws that should be enforced, which limit the number of immigrant workers into the U.S. While jobs taken by illegal immigrants are said to be for work that Americans don't want to do, that would be news to the tens of thousands of drywallers, framers, painters and landscapers who lose work every day to low-paid, undocumented immigrants

"Too many of those jobs pay poverty-level wages, have no benefits and allow intolerable working conditions," said U.S. labor observer Harry Kelber. "If those jobs paid an attractive wage and health insurance and a safe workplace, there'd be plenty of our people, especially among the unemployed, who would be flocking to fill them."

The protests had at least one immediate impact: The GOP-run Senate Judiciary Committee pulled together and reported the compromise bill, which union leaders applauded. It included legalization procedures, the guest worker plan and a special measure for farm workers that growers and the United Farm Workers hammered out.

And UNITE HERE co-president John Wilhelm noted that the panel's bill, unlike the original legislation authored by Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) contained specific protections for immigrant workers' rights on the job.

Both the AFL-CIO and Change To Win Coalition praised and lobbied for the compromise measure the panel approved, 12-6, on March 27. Four Republicans and all eight Democrats voted for the compromise. Six Republicans voted against it. GOP President George W. Bush apparently likes it.

"I think it would be a mistake for the Senate not to pass a comprehensive bill,"
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), one of the four GOP "yes" voters, told Reuters News Service. "I think politically it would be a mistake and policy-wise it would be a mistake."

The union leaders portrayed the compromise as a fairer bill for undocumented workers. AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney said the "guest worker" program leaves too much power over each worker in the employer's hands.