Lively crowd tonight … why is it always like this when there’s a labor issues post?

Because labor and immigration issues are irrevocably joined.

No immigration policy is anything but bluster if it does not create a system to manage the job supply side, which corporate America has paid off the government to ignore.

Why?

Cheap, exploitable labor, which drives down prosperity not only for other labor, but for the middle class. By shrinking the roots of the economy, growth ceases, and big shots make a tree house at the top for only themselves.

Thanks for this post, Tula.

Agreed wholeheartedly,

We have an “employment problem” with immigration symptoms. Fix the employment problem by addressing the lack of labor protections and our failed labor policies. Then the illegal immigration symptoms start to alleviate themselves.

As long as employers are permitted to impose obscene wage and work conditions on their employees, these employers will continue to be vacuum magnets for illegal and exploitable labor. As long as there remains a vast illegal and exploitable labor pool, legal working conditions remain stagnant and we are deprived of a much needed healthy middle/working class of citizens.

It is a vicious circle and the symptoms (immigration and economic competitiveness) are being blamed for the problem.

slainte,
cl

First, the way to protect the rights of working people is to protect the rights of all working people. Yes, including the undocumented. If undocumented workers are entitled to the same rights and protections as everyone else, the incentive to hire them is eliminated.

Second, whenever you hear someone using any variation of the phrase “taking our jobs”, please take the time to point out that a job can’t be taken, like a pie from a windowsill. If you have a job, someone gave it to you. That’s where the focus should be. There can be no illegal workers without illegal employers. It’s time to call them on it, and put the burden where it belongs.

Seriously. No protectionism needed: just tell the American companies who buy their entire operation ready-made in China that goods imported into the US have to meet a basic value standard and not fall apart after 15 minutes.

Many of those refered to above aren’t “immigrants”, they’re illegal aliens. The UCLA study, for instance, says that 75% of day laborers are illegal aliens.

The concept that a massive influx of low-wage foreign workers will not harm U.S. low-wage workers ranks right down there with the flat Earth theory.

And, it’s joined by the idea that the “reforms” promoted won’t lead to even more massive illegal immigration and even more harm to low-wage U.S. workers.

so free are homebuilders here in southern california to hire anyone that they rarely bother to even conceal the fact that most homes are now not built by union labor. KB Homes is a prime example of this.

skyscrapers are still built by union ironworkers. but who hangs the sheetrock? more often than not, illegal laborers.

i admire the work you do here, but i speak from experience – i was a union carpenter in the 1980s and saw my industry literally wiped out here in california. today, the labor temples are mostly all about dealing with pensioners.

it’s very sad.

AirportCat @ 24

Lively crowd tonight … why is it always like this when there’s a labor issues post?

I think people agree with the general premise, but don’t see much hope for change – or at least a direct impact from what they might do or say.

It’s a bit short-sighted. The work unions do, even though such a small percentage of workers are unionized, has a multiplier effect. Non-union companies have to compete to keep unions out, so the better unionized workers do, the better everyone does.

Even more than you suspect. When I co-chaired a union legislative committe, we lobbied Congress on working class issues beyond the portfolio of our negotiated contracts. Social Security, OSHA, Medicare, pension reform, minimum wage, you name it. We were at bat for every working stiff.