[lbo-talk] Organized Labor Split Over Immigration Bill

gboozell at juno.com gboozell at juno.com
Sat Apr 8 13:32:47 PDT 2006


For low-wage and day labor workers in Illinois, citizen status has no bearing on labor law enforcement or even the right of private legal action against employers. That said, enforcement is sparse and private legal action is fairly unlikely from undocumented immigrant workers fearing retaliation and deportation. My concern is that the proposed guest worker program will do little or nothing to address that fear.

The new law seems to do more to legally sanction the unequal relationship between employers and many undocumented workers, and to minimize or eliminate any legal exposure an employer might have under current law.

Greg gboozell at juno.com

On Sat, 08 Apr 2006 20:08:15 +0000 srobin21 at comcast.net (Steven L. Robinson) writes: Even if the guest worker was present completely at the pleasure of the employer - and I am not familiar with the language of the current bill - the fact that the status is in some sense regularized means that there is greater space for activity to protect their rights - even if only for such things as litigation to enforce wage and hour standards and administrative agency litigation with immigration agency, than is the case now where the undocumented are forced to live completely iin the shadows of the economy. Granted, however, that amnesty is far preferable. SR

-------------- Original message -------------- From: gboozell at juno.com

I thought that under the proposed guest worker program, immigrant workers remained in this country at the pleasure of the employer.

If that's true, how does that enhance job security - or has the guest worker proposal changed?

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