Expanding Guest Worker Program Would Hurt U.S. Workers

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/05/12/expanding-guest-worker-program-would-hurt-us-workers/

by James Parks, May 12, 2008

With 7 million U.S. workers unemployed, why do employers clamor that they need to import foreign workers to work in low-wage jobs as dishwashers, hotel maids, crab pickers and landscape laborers? The answer is simple, according to Ross Eisenbrey, vice president of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI):

There isn’t a shortage of workers willing to do these jobs. There’s a shortage of employers willing to pay a decent wage.

In a recent op-ed column in Newsday, Eisenbrey points out that at a time when hundreds of thousands of families are facing foreclosures on their homes and wages are stagnant, corporate interests and their allies in Congress on both sides of the aisle are pushing to expand the number of foreign guest workers.

That would be bad news for low-wage workers in this country, whether immigrant or native-born, Eisenbrey says, because it would bring in more workers willing to accept low wages and less likely to join unions or otherwise seek to fulfill their workplace rights.

Current law caps the number of guest workers allowed to enter the country each year at 66,000 under the H-2B visa program, if employers fail to find qualified U.S. workers. But the law is rigged, Eisenbrey says. For example, employers only are required to advertise for workers for four months before the jobs become vacant. In the past 10 years, the number of H-2B visas have grown from 20,000 to 130,000. If Congress lifts the cap and allows all the foreign workers who used H-2B visas in the past three years to re-enter, potentially more than 200,000 visas could be issues. Employers want to bring in more guest workers to keep wages low, he says, because almost all H-2B employers pay less than a living wage. Eisenbrey says EPI

examined wages and unemployment in the seven occupations with the most H-2B workers, which include hotel and restaurant workers. In these occupations, unemployment was higher and had risen faster since 2000 than the national average, while wages were lower and had risen more slowly than the national average.

Click here to read the entire column: http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-opfritop5679067may09,0,4629211,print.story

FULL story at link.

[Deja Q]

1. And it's decent wages that keep this economy going.

A symbiosis just like any other.

I know some have gripes with the unions; I share some of those concerns. But good work and loyal workers ought to be rewarded; surely in return productivity would skyrocket? Pride in one's company, et cetera? Maybe I'm out of touch or raised by someone of a different generational mindset, I don't know...