--- Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> Steven L. Robinson wrote:
>
> >AFL-CIO's executive vice president, Linda
> Chavez-Thompson says that workers
> >in these guest programs "are always dependent on
> their host employers for
> >both their livelihoods and legal status to work in
> the United States. Guest
> >workers are never truly free, rendering them ripe
> for exploitation."
> >
> >Eliseo Medina, vice president of the Service
> Employees Union, says that
> >supporting the McCain-Kennedy bill, including its
> guest worker provision,
> >gives his union an opportunity to be part of the
> debate in Congress. "You
> >can't just simply get into that debate by saying
> nothing out there meets our
> >expectations."
>
> What do people think of these competing positions?
>
> Doug
I am 100% with Medina on this. Not just because being part of the debate in Congress, but above all because of internationalism (remember workers of all countries unite?). US unions supporting migrant laborers is an excellent oportunity to build a truly interntionalist labor movement. It is because of the division of the working class by the national borders that allows the capitalist class the divide-and-rule approach to labor. Besides, immigrant workers are prospective union members, and this creates an opportunity to reverse the decline of union density in this country.
The ALF-CIO's dependency argument seems to be a diversion to cover up xenophobia. Even if there is such dependency on the employer, it only creates an opportunity for unions to break it by organizing such workers, provding theme with legal assistance, and making sure that sweatshops laws are enforced. I think that the perception that migrant workers somehow "compete" with the US workers is mostly false because of labor market segmentation. Each of these classes of workers occupy different niches and seldom compete with one another.
Wojtek
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