FAIR Reacts: AFL-CIO Says Unionize Illegal Workers and Give Them Amnesty

WASHINGTON, Feb. 17 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Yesterday, the executive council of the AFL-CIO called for an attempt at unionizing the millions of illegal alien workers in this country. It also called for a repeal of employer sanctions and a massive amnesty/reward program that will both fail in its intent, and ultimately send millions more illegal immigrants surging into the country, charged the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). At a time when numerous studies have shown that, in spite of a booming economy, blue-collar workers are not reaping the rewards, repeal of employer sanctions and another amnesty for illegal aliens would be disastrous for workers who are struggling to maintain a middle class existence.

In industry after industry where large numbers of illegal immigrants are found, American workers and legal immigrants have suffered significant wage losses, declining work conditions, and displacement. Removing whatever minimal protections that the employer sanctions law has provided to American workers will only accelerate the "race to the bottom" for millions of people in this country.

On unionizing illegal workers: The effort to organize illegal workers can never succeed unless the continued flow of cheap labor is cut off. The track record of the United Farm Workers is a case in point: After twenty years of trying unionize farm workers while illegal immigration continued, the Department of Agriculture found that wages still trailed behind inflation, "making it hard for many of them to afford adequate housing and other necessities." Farm wages actually fell between 1977 and 1997. They continue to fall today.

-- In domestic-based industries, such as agriculture, meatpacking, hotel and janitorial service, there has been a steep decline in wages and working conditions, as large numbers of illegal alien have moved into those fields.

-- Conditions in the U.S. labor market, especially in agriculture and meatpacking, have been declining over the past 15 years.

-- Easy access to foreign labor is what has led to displacement and wage stagnation in many formerly unionized industries.

-- Blue-collar workers became the core of the American middle class in the 1950s and 1960s, when immigration was relatively low. With the onset of mass immigration, wage stagnation emerged and union influence ebbed.

On the amnesty and repeal sanctions idea: FAIR suggests Americans wanting to help American workers and taxpayers consider the following:

-- The first amnesty in 1986 cost taxpayers about $78 billion over ten years, according to a study by the Center for Immigration Studies (May 1997).

-- An "amnesty" is actually an "official pardon" for criminal conduct and a "reward" in the form of permanent residence. The best analogy would be to both pardon a bank robber for his crime and give him the money he stole as a reward. No wonder this bonanza fosters more illegal immigration.

-- Amnesty recipients from 1986 appear to vote heavily Democrat. That program was riddled with fraud.

-- When Congress granted an unpopular and fraud-ridden amnesty to some 3 million illegal immigrants in 1986, they pledged to the American public that it would be a one-time-only offer.

"Unless the AFL-CIO can find a way to simultaneously repeal the law of supply and demand, unionization will fail, and they will guarantee stagnant wages for many of their members who stay in these industries," stated Stein of FAIR. "Even if they could be certain that the government would enforce labor laws vigorously, the best that they could hope for would be a work force that is perpetually stuck at or near minimum wage -- creating a negative tax liability that shifts costs onto the community."

"Apart from the fact that Big Labor is no longer protecting the American worker, the big problem is the AFL-CIO's position would leave this country without any effective immigration enforcement potential. If the executive committee has its way, and another legalization program is enacted, America might just as well end the charade and adopt an open borders policy," said Stein. "Wages will plummet, and the end result is a society of few very rich and hundreds of millions of very poor; a society that looks more like Brazil than the America we've come to know and love."