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February 27, 2006
Wrapping Our Minds Around Immigration
It will be an interesting day in New York. Over at the union hall for SEIU's 32BJ, there will be a public briefing for the bi-partisan Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act of 2005. Here's another place where I part with the AFL-CIO. I think this is a pretty decent bill, though not perfect, while the AFL-CIO is vehemently opposed to the legislation.
The briefing will unite some pretty strange political bedfellows who you normally don't see in one room together: Senator John McCain (who is co-sponsoring the bill with Ted Kennedy) and Reps. Charles Rangel, Jose Serrano and Nydia Velázquez. The New York Immigrant Coalition views this bill as a positive step because it:
• Reunites families;
• Establishes smart enforcement policies;
• Provides an earned path to citizenship;
• Creates legal channels for immigrants to work in the U.S.; and
• Encourages immigrants to participate in the civic life of the U.S.
As I see it, of all the legislation out there, the bill, with some weaknesses, tracks most closely to two principles that I think are worth following, which were developed by the Drum Major Institute:
1) Immigration policy should bolster—not undermine—the critical contribution that immigrants make to our economy as workers, entrepreneurs, taxpayers and consumers, because:
• On average, immigrants pay more in taxes each year than they use in government services, and these taxes fund programs like Social Security that strengthen and expand the middle class.
• The middle class relies on the goods and services that immigrants produce.
• By increasing consumer demand, immigrants generate economic growth that benefits the middle class: immigration is a major contributor to the expansion of Hispanic and Asian-American consumer markets—an estimated 12 percent of the nation’s 2004 purchasing power.
• Immigrants also stimulate the economy by starting small businesses and attracting investment capital from their countries of origin. Since the American middle class relies on the economic contributions of immigrants, a pro-middle-class immigration policy must not include mass deportation or aim to shut down future immigration.2) Immigration policy must strengthen the rights of immigrants in the workplace.
• Under current immigration law, immigrant workers compete with their U.S.-born counterparts on an uneven playing field—to the detriment of both groups.
• Because employers threaten undocumented immigrants with deportation, these workers cannot effectively assert their rights in the workplace by, for example, asking for raises, complaining about violations of wage and hour or workplace safety laws, or by supporting union organizing drives.
• As long as this cheaper and more compliant pool of immigrant labor is available, employers are all too willing to take advantage of the situation to keep their labor costs down and are less willing to hire U.S.-born workers if they demand better wages and working conditions.
• U.S.-born workers are left to either accept the same diminished wages and degraded working conditions as immigrants living under threat of deportation or to be shut out of whole industries where employers hire predominantly undocumented immigrants. When immigrants lack rights in the workplace, labor standards are driven down, and all working people have less opportunity to enter or remain part of the middle class. So a pro-middle-class immigration policy must guarantee immigrants full labor rights and make sure that employers cannot use deportation as a coercive tool in the labor market.
It just seems to me the AFL-CIO's opposition will leave it, once again, behind the curve. This bill is a fair attempt to blunt the wing-nut attacks on immigrants. It would be a much better bill if it was stronger on immigrants' rights in the workplace--and that's a fight worth having as the bill moves forward. But, I don't think saying "no" period on this bill makes sense, given the other far scarier bills that are popping up.
February 27, 2006 in Labor | Permalink
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Senator John McCain comes to NYC today, joined with an unusual assortment of NY Congress members including Rep. Charles Rangel, Rep. Nydia Velazquez and Rep. Anthony Weiner. The topic is immigration reform- the McCain/Kennedy Bill to be precise, also c... [Read More]
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» McCain comes to NYC to talk immigration reform from DMI Blog
Senator John McCain comes to NYC today, joined with an unusual assortment of NY Congress members including Rep. Charles Rangel, Rep. Nydia Velazquez and Rep. Anthony Weiner. The topic is immigration reform- the McCain/Kennedy Bill to be precise, also c... [Read More]
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Comments
Am I right that this bill creates a "guest worker" (slave labor) population with no remotely plausible path to legal residency? If so, labor support for this legislation is suicidal.
Posted by: janinsanfran | Feb 28, 2006 1:44:08 AM
Agreement with Jan. While I support the militant calls for amnesty, there is also the DREAM ACT which provides what I think is a much more progressive alternative.
Posted by: giuseppe | Feb 28, 2006 2:55:38 PM
It's always difficult to know when to take a principled stance, and when to chose expediency. But the AFL can't win with Tasini. Usually he's on its back about lacking principle. It finally takes a principled stance, and he's wacking them on the head for being "behind the curve." Was the AFL "in front of the curve" when both parties led us to war and the AFL let its silence condone the invastion? I'll take the "behind the curve" AFL any day.
Posted by: None | Feb 28, 2006 3:58:36 PM
I need to add to this discussion from the standpoint of AFL-CIO policy, and I want to make sure that people who read this blog understand that we view immigration reform from the standpoint of working people. We are not making distinctions between native-born workers and US-born workers, as those who want to divide us on this issue are. We have developed our policy from the view point of regular working people, who are the backbone of our society.
First, I want all of you to know that I personally e-mailed and called Jonathan Tasini a while ago, asking him to contact me so that I could explain our policy, and give him our various policy statements to post on this blog for your comment, but he never returned my call or email.
So if you rely on this blog, you were denied the chance to see the development of what is now universally accepted as the labor movement’s –care of the AFL-CIO-- most progressive statement ever on immigration reform and immigrant workers.
Given that Jonathan wasn’t willing to provide a link to our policy, I’m pasting it below.
I do this as an immigrant, who is proud to be staff member of the current AFL-CIO and who, as a migrant, has known and lived through real political strife (my family and I suffered through the Chilean repression of the 1970’s and were exiled to Canada, and later came to the US as permanent residents), and who has spent the bulk of her professional and personal life fighting for the political and social rights of immigrants in the U.S.
I do not take the political and social dimensions of this work lightly.
Those who understand the value of standing firm on principle will surely see the value of our policy.
I invite those who see the value of compromising on the principles we’ve outlined (as Jonathan and his friends do) to tell us what working people have gained by that compromise.
Responsible Reform of Immigration Laws Must Protect Working Conditions for all Workers in the U.S.
ADOPTED by the AFL-CIO Executive Council, March 1, 2006.
Overhaul of our nation’s immigration laws is long overdue. The current system is a blueprint for exploitation of workers, both foreign-born and native, and is feeding a multimillion dollar criminal enterprise at the US-Mexico border.
America deserves an immigration system that protects all workers within our borders—both native-born and foreign—and at same time guarantees the safety of our nation without compromising our fundamental civil rights and civil liberties.
Any viable solution to this crisis must address the reasons why people are coming to the U.S. Most immigrants come from countries where the international development process has failed, and many are from countries where International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and trade policies have weakened countries’ economies and labor protections, causing a devastating impact on all workers. In some developing countries, IMF policies have caused public-sector workers to lose their jobs and their union protections, forcing them into competition in the private sector, where few, if any, jobs are available, driving down wages and working conditions even further. Trade agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement undermine the agricultural economies of developing countries, leading workers to leave the fields and consider moving north. Without rising living standards abroad for workers and the poor, the pressure for illegal immigration will continue and escalate.
At the same time that global forces are pushing workers to our borders, judicial and public policies toward immigrants have created new so-called pull factors for migration into the United States, namely, an incentive for employers to recruit undocumented immigrants for economic exploitation. Too many employers seek to avoid, evade, and ultimately negate US labor and employment laws through the recruitment and importation of undocumented workers. The U.S. Supreme Court created a powerful new incentive for such exploitation by its decision in Hoffman Plastic Compounds v. National Labor Relations Board. In that case, the Court determined that an undocumented worker is not entitled to back pay – the only monetary remedy available to workers under the National Labor Relations Act – when he or she is fired illegally for trying to organize a union. This has made the cost of exploiting immigrants insignificant to unscrupulous employers. The end result is that industries that cannot export jobs – such as those in construction – are attempting to use flawed immigration policies to import the labor standards of developing nations into the United States.
The broken immigration system has allowed employers to create an underclass of workers, which has effectively reduced working standards for all workers. Immigrant workers are over-represented in the highest risk, lowest paid jobs, but the exploited immigrants do not work in isolation. U.S.-born workers who work side by side with immigrants suffer the same exploitation. The U.S. Department of Labor, for example, determined the poultry industry – which is nearly half African American and half immigrant – was 100 percent out of compliance with federal wage and hour laws. The Department of Labor also estimated more than half of the country’s garment factories violate wage and hour laws, and more than 75 percent violate health and safety laws. Of course, workplaces that are dangerous for immigrant workers are equally dangerous for their U.S.-born counterparts and co-workers.
Our failed immigration policies also have encouraged employers to use guest worker programs to lower labor standards and working conditions for all workers within our borders. We’ve seen employers turn tens of thousands of permanent, well-paying jobs in the United States into temporary jobs through the use of various guest worker programs. The temporary guest worker jobs come with few or no benefits, lower wages and often are staffed through temporary agencies, whose fees come out of workers’ pockets. The foreign workers recruited to fill these jobs remain legally tied to the employers that recruited them and are thus naturally vulnerable to exploitation.
Guest worker programs, such as the L and H-1B visa programs, operate with little employer accountability and to the detriment of all professional workers. None of these programs connect to the realities of current U.S. labor market conditions. In fact, employers are allowed to turn permanent jobs into temporary jobs and import workers, despite the unusually high current rate of unemployment among professional and technical workers. As a result, working conditions for all professional workers have suffered: Pressures caused by employer exploitation of professional guest workers coupled with the increases in outsourcing continue to have a chilling effect on any real wage increases for professionals, even those not directly or immediately impacted by these matters.
Immigrant workers, like all workers, should be full social partners. We will continue to support effective, credible and enforceable rights for all workers, regardless of their country of origin or immigration status. At the same time, we will ensure that our member mobilization efforts include our immigrant brothers and sisters, and ultimately place immigration squarely within a progressive and sustainable economic agenda that benefits all working families in our nation.
We hereby renew our call for comprehensive and responsible reform of our immigration laws, which must—at a minimum—comply with the following standards:
• Uniform enforcement of workplace standards must be a priority. History, economics and common sense dictate that exploitation of workers will continue as long, as it makes economic sense to do so, to the detriment of US-born and foreign-born workers alike. Unfortunately, the lax enforcement of labor and employment laws has given too many unscrupulous employers the economic incentive to recruit undocumented workers, and has penalized those employers who abide by the law because it has put them at a competitive disadvantage.
The only meaningful way to remove that perverse economic incentive and to equalize the competitive playing field is to ensure that all those who gain the benefit of a worker’s labor, whether that worker is an employee or an independent contractor, abide by all labor and employment laws. That means that the immigration reform law must provide real and enforceable remedies for labor and employment law violations that are available to all workers, regardless of their immigration status, and that there must be a mechanism by which all workers can vindicate their rights without having to face restrictive standing requirements or meaningless regulatory hurdles;
• Reforms must provide a path to permanent residency for the currently undocumented workers who have paid taxes and made positive contributions to their communities. Legalization is an important worker protection. History shows that legalizing this population benefits all workers: Wages and working standards of undocumented workers increased significantly after the legalization program of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act, thereby raising the floor for all workers. Without a legalization program, the economic incentive to hire and exploit the undocumented will remain, to the detriment of U.S. workers who labor in the same industries as the undocumented, because all workers will see their working conditions plummet.
• We must reverse the trend of allowing employers to turn permanent, full-time year-round jobs into temporary jobs through attempts to broaden the size and scope of guest worker programs. Long-standing U.S. guestworker policy requires that temporary workers can be used only to satisfy short-term or seasonal labor needs. The agricultural guestworker program, for example, the best known of these programs, is designed to satisfy the seasonal needs of employers who need to temporarily hire large numbers of workers during the growing season, which may be as short as 6 weeks. Similarly, the H2B program allows non-agricultural employers in industries such as landscaping, hospitality and crabbing, to hire non-U.S. workers on a temporary basis to fill their seasonal needs.
Guestworker programs are bad public policy and operate to the detriment of workers, in the both the public and private sector, and of working families in the U.S. The abuses suffered by workers in the first such program, the post World-War II Bracero program, are well documented. The negative effects that the modern versions of the “guest worker” construct—such as the H1-B and H2-B programs—are all too evident today. Workers around the country are witnessing the transformation of formerly well-paying, permanent jobs into temporary jobs with little or no benefits, which employers are staffing with vulnerable foreign workers who have no real enforceable rights through the guestworker programs. These modern programs have had a major and substantial detrimental effect on important sectors of our economy.
The massive expansion of guestworker programs contemplated by current legislation before the Senate—which would more than quadruple the number of foreign workers admitted annually and would allow employers to import workers into the public and private sector-- will not only harm U.S. workers, but also represents a radical and dark departure from our long-held vision of a democratic U.S. society. We are not a nation of “guests,” who, by definition, have only short-term and short-lived interests, but a nation of people who believe in investing in our communities, in our future, in the future of our children, and in our democracy. It defies everything that our nation stands for to legitimize a system that forces our communities to simply be “hosts” for “guests” who are only here to lend their labor, and who have no reason to become invested in that community, and who will never have a voice in their future within that community. We are not a nation of guests; we are a nation of citizens.
In our view, there is no good reason why any immigrant who comes to this country prepared to work, to pay taxes, and to abide by our laws and rules should be denied what has been offered to immigrants throughout our country’s history, a path to legal citizenship. To embrace instead the creation of a permanent two-tier workforce, with non-U.S. workers relegated to second-class “guestworker” status, would be repugnant to our traditions and our ideals and disastrous for the living standards of working families.
We fully support the right of all workers to bargain collectively, and we fully support and endorse the existing arrangement within the H2A program that the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) negotitated with the North Carolina Growers Association, which provides the protections of a collective bargaining agreement to Mexican H2A workers at the Mt. Olive, NC facility.
• Long Term Labor Shortages Should be Filled With Workers with Full Rights. We recognize that our economy may face real labor shortages in the coming years, as the baby boomer generation retires. Instead of relying on a construct that guarantees the deterioration of working conditions in the U.S., we should focus on a meaningful solution that guarantees full workplace rights for all workers, both foreign-born and native, and also permits employers to hire foreign workers to fill proven labor shortages. The solution is simple: Congress should revise the permanent employment-based visas system and devote more resources to removing processing delays.
Employment-based admissions for permanent visas (commonly known as “green cards”) are subject to labor certification provisions: the employer must show that there are not sufficient workers in the U.S. who are able, willing, qualified and available at the time and at the place where the foreign worker is to perform the job. To demonstrate this adequately, the employer must offer the job at a prevailing wage, and must attest that the employment of the foreign worker will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of similarly employed workers in the U.S. Congress has arbitrarily set the number of these visas at 140,000 annually. That approach should be changed so that the number of visas available responds to actual, demonstrated labor shortages, which will satisfy employers’ needs for workers, and will prevent the creation of a secondary class of workers and residents, because the new foreign workers will have full employment rights and the promise of a permanent future in our democracy.
• Reform of immigration laws must consider the root causes of migration, and must take into account the global economic policies, as well as US foreign policy that are pushing workers to migrate. Without rising living standards abroad for workers and the poor, the pressure for illegal immigration will continue. US foreign policy, as well as trade and globalization policies must be grounded upon a coherent national economic strategy, as described in An Economic Agenda for Working Families, adopted at the AFL-CIO’s 2005 Convention.
If you have any questions or comments, please email me at aavendan@aflcio.org.
Posted by: Ana Avendano | Mar 3, 2006 3:28:30 AM
We are conducting a survey on amnesty for illegal immigrants in the UK and the USA for the next 6 months at http://www.skillipedia.com . We want to hear opinions from normal people - not political parties or think tanks.
Your opinions or feedback are much appreciated
Viz
Posted by: viz | Oct 17, 2006 3:31:45 PM
