NYT: Protest Rallies End in Job Loss for Immigrants

[Pirate Smile]

In Bonita Springs, Fla., 10 restaurant workers were fired this week after skipping their shifts to attend a rally against legislation in Congress cracking down on illegal immigrants. In Tyler, Tex., 22 welders lost their jobs making parts for air conditioners after missing work for a similar demonstration in that city.

And so it went for employees of an asbestos removal firm in Indianapolis, a restaurant in Milwaukee, a meatpacking company in Detroit, a factory in Bellwood, Ill.

In the last month, as hundreds of thousands of people around the country have held demonstrations pressing for legal status and citizenship for illegal immigrants, companies, particularly those who employ large numbers of immigrants, have found themselves wrestling with difficult and uncharted terrain.

They worry about how to keep their businesses operating, fully staffed, but also not to appear insensitive to a growing political movement that in many cases sustains their work force.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/15/us/15protest.html?hp&ex=1145073600&en=c889cc7a3533e30f&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[GrumpyGreg]

1. If i had taken a day off for a rally I would have lost my job too.

[Cobalt Violet]

2. $6.75 hr. for a welder!!!

That's fucked up! :grr:

Since when is welding a job an American won't do? Since they starting paying $6.75 to illegals immigrants. These companies just want slaves.



No wonder we have 37 million Americans living in poverty now, and millions more not to far away.

[Blue_Tires]

3. yeah

that hiring manager got himself a nice tasty deal on that labor cost....

[DBoon]

4. and by firing them they proved they had slaves

not only do they pay crappy, they won't let them have a day off, either

[Deja Q]

8. Bingo.

[Rose Siding]

5. LOL Firing them is how they decided "not to appear insensitive"?

In WA state, a group of immigrants including some undocumented workers gave over a week's notice, made sure no work schedules were affected (meticulously noted in the article I read), took off 2 hours early to attend a rally and still got canned.

[henslee]

6. They knew losing their jobs was a possible consequence of protesting, yet

they did it anway. It was something they believed in and they took the risk. And they can sleep at night.

[Deja Q]

7. I wish I saw this post first.

The previous post I made stated that illegals who stop working to protest only out themselves, with da' man ocmin' to take them away. :dunce:

I wonder if their home countries' governments will bail them out... (I doubt it, they left their home country for obvious reasons. They preferred it here. So therefore they don't give a shit about the country they left. Same goes for Americans who left. Is there loyalty to one's country anymore?)