MORE LABOR DAY -- Unions Pushing Amnesty Should At Least Push For Immigration Time-Out
On Labor Day, a top union leader asked voters to "call out" corporations that ship jobs overseas. But how is that any more harmful to U.S. workers than when unions lobby to bring more foreign workers into this country to take more U.S. jobs?
We're looking for leaders who will call out corporations that ship our good jobs overseas . . .
-- AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka quoted by the Associated Press
For a decade now, the AFL-CIO and most of the rest of the organized labor movement have worked with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and National Council of La Raza to flood U.S. occupations with millions more foreign workers with green cards.
In doing so, they abandoned a century of efforts by AFL-CIO leaders to limit foreign-labor importation in order to protect jobs for American workers and to keep the labor market tight enough to push up wages, benefits and working conditions.
One of the most common questions I am asked when speaking is why union leaders would do this?
I UNDERSTAND WHY UNIONS SUPPORT AMNESTY
Although I strongly disagree with them, I do understand why union leaders support amnesty for the 7-8 million illegal aliens who are holding U.S. jobs.
In the minds of the union leaders, the federal government let these illegal foreign workers take the jobs in the first place. The feds allowed the illegal aliens to keep the jobs. And the feds don't appear interested in moving any of the illegal aliens out of those jobs.
To the union leaders, if those illegal aliens are going to fill those jobs, they might as well be legal so they are less easily exploited by unscrupulous employers.
Furthermore, a lot of the unions' members are illegal aliens. In fact, unions tend to do better attracting illegal aliens than American workers. Illegal aliens are an important part of the dues production for unions. And dues are the business of unions. Hopefully, dues aren't the mission of unions, but they are the business that pays the bills.
NO GOOD REASON FOR UNIONS TO SUPPORT CONTINUED IMMIGRATION
So, the unions pour huge amounts of money into trying to force a vote on amnesty in Congress.
But future legal immigration is another issue.
The illegal aliens are already here, and the unions don't think they will ever leave -- so make them legal. That's the union leaders' way of thinking.
But future immigrants haven't arrived yet. The union economists are well aware that large waves of new foreign workers (even if they are all legal) will drive down wages and benefits because of the law of supply and demand. These future flows don't have to happen. All Congress has to do is pass simple legislation that dramatically reduces the number of future immigrants.
Why aren't the unions combining their fight for amnesty with an equally rigorous effort for a time-out on most legal immigration of foreign workers -- at least until the Jobs Depression is over?
Instead, the unions have tied themselves to the idea of "comprehensive immigration reform." That means comprehensive increases in foreign workers. Some of the comprehensive bills would have doubled the flow of permanent legal foreign workers (which already is 75,000 per MONTH).
While AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka urges voters to call out corporations shipping jobs overseas to be filled by foreign workers, I urge all of you union households to call out Trumka for his efforts to ship foreign workers into the U.S. to take the jobs here.
ROY BECK is Founder & CEO of NumbersUSA