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Labor pushes for workers' rights in Immigration debate

Date Posted: June 8 2007

The number of illegal immigrants in the U.S. has grown to nearly 5 percent of the U.S. working population, or 12 million workers, according to a report last year by the Pew Hispanic Center. And about 20 percent of that population works in construction.

The building trades have a major stake in the ongoing immigration debate. Undocumented workers drag down wage scales, allowing unscrupulous employers to underbid legitimate contractors while taking away American jobs.

President Bush has suggested that undocumented workers are performing jobs that Americans don't want to do - but organized labor argues that if workers are paid properly, they will do just about anything.

Late last month, Bush and a bipartisan group of senators came up with a compromise immigration plan that drew nasty rhetoric from both parties. The centerpiece of the plan is a "Z Visa" which would set the 12 million illegal immigrants on the road to permanent residency if they pay fines, return to their countries to file paperwork, and learn English. Border security would also need to be improved under the measure.

Here are some reactions to the immigration debate, from several points of view in the organized labor and human rights community:

*"In the AFL-CIO's view, there is no good reason why any immigrant who comes… prepared to work, to pay taxes, and to abide by our laws and rules should be denied what has been offered throughout our history: a path to legal citizenship," said AFL-CIO General Counsel Jon Hiatt. He said the present law "has strengthened the perverse economic incentive employers have to violate immigration laws. As long as employers have access to a class of workers they can prevent from exercising labor rights by merely asking a simple question: 'Do you have papers?' the incentive to exploit will continue."

The bill's "touch back" requirement of having undocumented heads of households return to their home countries to apply for "green cards" and wait for them is not likely to work, said Hiatt. "Exploitation of undocumented workers is economically attractive," he said, and this bill will probably maintain that system.

Employers, he said, use immigration laws to quash worker activism. Hiatt cited one immigration law case from 2003 where the employer called the Immigration and Naturalization Service on itself to quash an organizing campaign.

*Service Employees Vice President Eliseo Medina said the "compromise" has "some positive aspects," notably building a path to eventually legalize undocumented workers now in the U.S. But Medina called the guest worker program "ludicrous." And he added the bill "still falls short of comprehensive immigration reform, and all workers ought to have full protection of labor, civil and employment laws."

There is one more big problem with the bill, said Kevin Appleby of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops: "Triggers," demanded by the GOP, that must be in place before legalization starts. They include hiring and training 20,000 more Border Patrol agents and finishing the fence along the U.S.-Mexico boundary.

"Assuming 'triggers' go forward, we would advocate a 'time definite' " for legalization and other parts of the bill "so they wouldn't be delayed for years and years," Appleby said. But workers seeking legalization would have to pay hefty fines and back taxes, show they worked here for eight years, have clean criminal records, learn English and apply for permanent residence "Z visas," similar to green cards. And they could have to wait up to five years for the visas. Their family members would also have to wait.

"How many families are going to wait eight years to 13 years to join their loved ones?" asked Appleby.

*Harry Kelber, the self-proclaimed "labor educator" and a frequent critic of the AFL-CIO, said the labor federation "has come up with an immigration policy that makes sense." He praised the AFL-CIO's call to give immigrant workers "full workplace rights, including the right to organize and protection for whistle-blowers."

Kelber continued: "The labor federation rejects President Bush's proposal for a "guest worker" program that calls for (allowing the importation of) 400,000 foreign workers under a three-year contract, Instead, (the AFL-CIO) proposes that "Labor and business together should design mechanisms to meet the legitimate needs for new workers without compromising the rights and opportunities of workers already here."

"If millions of undocumented workers can be persuaded that organized labor is their strong, steadfast and resourceful ally," Kelber said, "it will be a lot easier to recruit them into unions. They represent the biggest organizing target on the horizon, as well as an important political force. Can we take advantage of this opportunity?"

(Press Associates contributed to this report).