Labor & Employment Law

Immigration Reform Bill Protects All Workers

By James Parks

The AFL-CIO is backing comprehensive immigration reform legislation introduced today, which provides a long overdue and sensible approach to immigration reform and protects the interests of all workers?foreign and U.S.-born.

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), the main sponsor and several co-sponsors announced introduction of the Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America’s Security and Prosperity Act of 2009 (CIR ASAP) at a Capitol Hill press conference this afternoon.  

In a statement, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said “the current [immigration] system can no longer allow a broken immigration system to strips workers of their rights on the job,”

robbing them of earned pay, the ability to collectively bargain for benefits and often placing their lives in danger, forced to work in unsafe conditions. It also penalizes law-abiding employers by forcing them into unfair competition with those that violate workers’ rights to grow their profit margins and then use the excuse of immigration status to avoid penalty or prosecution.

The bill contains some key elements of the union movement’s joint framework for immigration reform, including:

• An inclusive and effective solution that allows a path for undocumented immigrants to come forward and regularize their status. Trumka says “this is fundamental to our ability to crack down on employers who are using unauthorized workers to drive down wages and other standards.” 
• An independent commission to assess and manage future flow of immigrants, based on labor market shortages that are determined on the basis of actual need.
• Reform, not expansion of existing temporary worker programs immediately to stop the exploitation of workers and safeguard standards in impacted industries.

The union movement also is urging reforms that will create oversight and enforcement tools to relevant agencies to regulate foreign labor recruiters, essential to stopping the current and on-going exploitation of these vulnerable workers.

Gutierrez  told the Capitol Hill press conference:

The time for waiting is over. This bill will be presented before Congress recesses for the holidays so that there is no excuse for inaction in the new year. It is the product of months of collaboration with civil rights advocates, labor organizations, and members of Congress. It is an answer to too many years of pain?mothers separated from their children, workers exploited and undermined security at the border?all caused at the hands of a broken immigration system. This bill says “enough,” and presents a solution to our broken system that we as a nation of immigrants can be proud of.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on December 15, 2009 (boomark / email).