The new strategy for the union movement in America...

[kentuck]

First of all, they must become US citizens. Then they can ask for more. Many illegals are doing construction work, including concrete, carpentry, roofing, etc. Many more are farm workers. The unions see the potential to revive the movement with these workers. The recent decline in union jobs could be turned around with these new workers, if they become unionized. However, they are afraid to do anything to rock the boat so long as they are considered "illegal" or "criminal". The first step for freedom and equal opportunity is for these folks to become US citizens.

[Virginia Dare]

1. Which is why big business wants the guest worker program..

not an avenue towards citizenship. The so-called "amnesty" program scares the shit out of them.

[kentuck]

2. Uh-huh..

:)

[robinlynne]

5. Right on! Finally someone else says it.

I keep trying to awaken people to what the guest worker program means, but people just don't seem to get it. Thank-you.

[RaleighNCDUer]

6. But wouldn't official guest worker status, no longer being 'illegal'

give them cover enough to organize?

It's their being illegal that makes them unable to unionize, not their not being citizens. There is no way we are going to, with the stroke of a pen, grant citizenship to 12 million people. It is going to take some time. But they can be made legal that easily, and start the process.

[kentuck]

7. They have no legal rights as a "guest worker"..

They can always be deported and another "guest" invited to take their place.

[RaleighNCDUer]

11. The guest-worker program has not been created yet --

if we could get those protections written into it at the outset that would keep that from happening.

Why do you think so many repubs are against the guest-worker program? Because it work against their preferred illegal status. It's the illegals who can be deported at will, now, to be replaced if they make any effort to organize.

I just don't see it being a logistical possiblity to abruptly grant citizenship to 12 million people. Set up a guest worker program that affords the immigrants a legal status, so if it takes two or five or 10 years to get citizenship they cannot be exploited during that time.

[Virginia Dare]

13. Big business is lobbying for the guest worker program..

check out this little gem of an organization:

http://www.ewic.org/

[kentuck]

14. In effect, they want to continue the status quo...

Hire "illegal aliens to work for $8-10 per hour but do it under the table. No income taxes, no insurance, no unemployment insurance...this is a cash cow operation for many employers in this country.

[RaleighNCDUer]

15. Where does it suggest that they want to continue with the way things

are now?
______________________________________________________________

EWIC PRINCIPLES FOR IMMIGRATION REFORM
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Reform should be comprehensive: addressing both future economic needs for future workers and undocumented workers already in the United States.

Reform should strengthen national security by providing for the screening of foreign workers and creating a disincentive for illegal immigration.

Reform should strengthen the rule of law by establishing clear, sensible immigration laws that are efficiently and vigorously enforced.

Reform should create an immigration system that functions efficiently for employers, workers, and government agencies.

Reform should create a program that allows hard working, tax paying undocumented workers to earn legal status.

Reform should ensure that U.S. workers are not displaced by foreign workers.

Reform should ensure that all workers enjoy the same labor law protections.

________________________________________________________________

Particularly note the last point - that means pay, benefits and a right to organize.

Unbelievable as it may seem, the immigrants aren't coming here because they want to be Americans. They are coming here for the work. A proper guest worker program will serve them and us. It's their illegal status that makes them exploitable, and that undercuts our own workforce.

[Virginia Dare]

16. That is if you trust these people...

I don't they are in cahoots with Bush and the Cato Insitute, read further about the EWIC

http://zmagsite.zmag.org/Nov2004/bacon1104.html

I would continue to urge you and all other Democrats to rethink your position on the guest worker program. Any law that gets written will be written by lobbying organizations like this one. It will not serve them or us. Just my opinion, but I urge you to research it further.

[kentuck]

17. If they are good enough to work in this country....

they are good enough to be citizens. Period.

[robinlynne]

18. You missed most of it:

Actually they changed it this week. The "reform" list you quoted was not there a week ago!
For seven years it stated something completely different:
It was a paragraph about why the employers need guest workers, because there is "a current shortage of skilled and unskilled labor in the United States".


People started talking about this program,and they have completely changed their stated principles!
This is not what they want or who they are.

[Virginia Dare]

8. Makes it much harder to organize them....

if not impossible, depending on the industry.

[Selatius]

3. Why not form a worker co-op movement, too?

Businesses that are owned and operated by the workers are, in my mind, better than businesses owned by a few because there is no inherent conflict in the structure of the firm.

Many states are "right to work" states, but there are currently no laws against worker co-op movements.

Bring those 12,000,000 out of the shadows, register them, put them through the process of citizenship.

[kentuck]

4. Great idea!

Thanks!

[Virginia Dare]

9. Repubs would say...

isn't that socialism? ;-)

[Selatius]

12. Oh no, I've been discovered as a pinko commie dirtbag!

When's Homeland Security gonna show up my door so I can be "liquidated"? :)

[DBoon]

10. Any possibility of working with Mexican unions?

I know nothing about the Mexican labor movement, but I imagiune there must be some progressive unions willing to work cross-border on organizing migrants