Two big unions, the Service Employees and the Laborers, are part of a coalition with the Catholic bishops and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to push for comprehensive and fair immigration reform ? and to stop a punitive enforcement-only immigration bill the GOP-run House passed in December.
At a Jan. 19 press conference, the group leaders, including SEIU President Andrew Stern, Laborers President Terry O'Sullivan and Chamber of Commerce Thomas J. Donahue, backed measures by several senators, notably Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., and John McCain, R-Ariz. The AFL-CIO also backs the Kennedy-McCain immigration reform measure.
Calling their group the Essential Worker Immigration Coalition, the speakers also spent much of their time blasting the House bill. That measure, responding to anti-immigrant sentiment, is enforcement-only. It also orders employers to check the citizenship of virtually every U.S. work applicant ? all 140 million of us ? and penalizes them if they don't, and outlaws aid to undocumented workers by churches and charities.
It also demands imprisonment or deportation of the estimated 11 million undocumented workers in the U.S. Speakers said that's "ridiculous" and "stupid."
By contrast, the legislation Stern, O'Sullivan and the others back creates legal channels for undocumented workers to stay in the United States, after paying a fine for illegal entry, working here for a set period of years while paying taxes and playing by the rules, and then seeking permanent resident or "Green Card" status.
"This is not an amnesty," Donahue said repeatedly.
President George W. Bush offered a differing proposal last year, but downplayed it. His administration was silent on the House GOP's bill. Bush calls for three-year, one-time-renewable work permits for undocumented workers with clean records. Those workers would then have to return to their home nations to apply for green cards.
The coalition opposes that. "That would create a permanent underclass," O'Sullivan said.
An immigration reform law "needs to reflect today's realities and not election-year rhetoric," added Stern, whose union has a high proportion of immigrants in occupations such as nursing and cafeteria work.
"It's immoral to expect them to build our highways, remove asbestos from buildings, empty bedpans, clean hotel rooms and erect structures and then say we ignore them," added O'Sullivan. His construction union includes high numbers of Latin American and Asian immigrants.
Doing so not only harms undocumented workers, but native U.S. workers, O'Sullivan said. That's because unscrupulous employers import the undocumented workers and subject them to low pay and terrible working conditions, confident that the workers cannot fight back because of the threat of deportation.
Those employers then tell native workers that they must sacrifice pay and benefits, or lose their jobs to undocumented workers. The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case later this year where a major Georgia rug manufacturer allegedly worked with Mexican-border "coyotes" to deliberately import undocumented workers, depriving the native workers of jobs. The U.S. workers sued under racketeering laws.
"This reform must insure that immigrants and non-immigrants alike must be covered by labor laws, and that they get fair wages so that they (immigrants) don't undermine U.S. workers," added O'Sullivan.
But while the speakers welcomed the Kennedy-McCain bill as a starting point for debate, they said it may need some improvement. Stern called its labor law coverage and enforcement weak.
This article was written by Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.
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Two big unions, the Service Employees and the Laborers, are part of a coalition with the Catholic bishops and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to push for comprehensive and fair immigration reform ? and to stop a punitive enforcement-only immigration bill the GOP-run House passed in December.
At a Jan. 19 press conference, the group leaders, including SEIU President Andrew Stern, Laborers President Terry O’Sullivan and Chamber of Commerce Thomas J. Donahue, backed measures by several senators, notably Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., and John McCain, R-Ariz. The AFL-CIO also backs the Kennedy-McCain immigration reform measure.
Calling their group the Essential Worker Immigration Coalition, the speakers also spent much of their time blasting the House bill. That measure, responding to anti-immigrant sentiment, is enforcement-only. It also orders employers to check the citizenship of virtually every U.S. work applicant ? all 140 million of us ? and penalizes them if they don’t, and outlaws aid to undocumented workers by churches and charities.
It also demands imprisonment or deportation of the estimated 11 million undocumented workers in the U.S. Speakers said that’s “ridiculous” and “stupid.”
By contrast, the legislation Stern, O’Sullivan and the others back creates legal channels for undocumented workers to stay in the United States, after paying a fine for illegal entry, working here for a set period of years while paying taxes and playing by the rules, and then seeking permanent resident or “Green Card” status.
“This is not an amnesty,” Donahue said repeatedly.
President George W. Bush offered a differing proposal last year, but downplayed it. His administration was silent on the House GOP’s bill. Bush calls for three-year, one-time-renewable work permits for undocumented workers with clean records. Those workers would then have to return to their home nations to apply for green cards.
The coalition opposes that. “That would create a permanent underclass,” O’Sullivan said.
An immigration reform law “needs to reflect today’s realities and not election-year rhetoric,” added Stern, whose union has a high proportion of immigrants in occupations such as nursing and cafeteria work.
“It’s immoral to expect them to build our highways, remove asbestos from buildings, empty bedpans, clean hotel rooms and erect structures and then say we ignore them,” added O’Sullivan. His construction union includes high numbers of Latin American and Asian immigrants.
Doing so not only harms undocumented workers, but native U.S. workers, O’Sullivan said. That’s because unscrupulous employers import the undocumented workers and subject them to low pay and terrible working conditions, confident that the workers cannot fight back because of the threat of deportation.
Those employers then tell native workers that they must sacrifice pay and benefits, or lose their jobs to undocumented workers. The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case later this year where a major Georgia rug manufacturer allegedly worked with Mexican-border “coyotes” to deliberately import undocumented workers, depriving the native workers of jobs. The U.S. workers sued under racketeering laws.
“This reform must insure that immigrants and non-immigrants alike must be covered by labor laws, and that they get fair wages so that they (immigrants) don’t undermine U.S. workers,” added O’Sullivan.
But while the speakers welcomed the Kennedy-McCain bill as a starting point for debate, they said it may need some improvement. Stern called its labor law coverage and enforcement weak.
This article was written by Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.