Important Update to AFL-CIO Endorsement of McKennedy
Important Update to AFL-CIO Endorsement of McKennedy
Date: Tuesday, June 07, 2005 11:33 PM
JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER
by Rob Sanchez
June 07, 2005 No. 1274
In the previous newsletter I assumed that the document attached to the
letter by John Sweeney was written by Communications Workers of America
(CWA), Morton Bahr. Actually the CWA didn't author the document - what
we see is a fax sent out on a machine from Morton Bahr's office. The
entire document was authored by John Sweeney's office, not the CWA's.
Since I don't know what position the CWA is taking on the McKennedy
bill, I will correct this newsletter to take out all references to Bahr
except for the fax date mark. The entire document will be attributed to
Sweeney.
I will be happy to publish the CWA position on the McKennedy bill when
they come out with one. I apologize for any misunderstandings that the
previous newsletter may have caused but strongly believe that all of us
should hold CWA's feet to the fire to oppose the AFL-CIO position. If
the unions give blanket approval to this bill it will gain momentum and
be very difficult to stop.
Please use the updated newsletter for all internet postings, and delete
the previous one. There is an important update in the conclusion
section that you should read.
----- Updated Newsletter with CWA references removed -----
AFL-CIO Endorses McKennedy bill
There once was a day that unions were the voice of American workers.
Things have sure changed since then. Nowadays the sole purpose of the
unions seems to be to collect union dues and to push globalist
political agendas. The latest actions of the AFL-CIO are tantamount to
a declaration of war against American labor and its vaunted middle
class.
John Sweeney and the AFL-CIO endorsed the bill we euphemistically call
the McKennedy or McCainedy bill. The bill got its nickname because it
is sponsored by Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Ed Kennedy (D-MA). The
"Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act" is called S. 1033 in the
Senate and H.R. 2330 in the House.
John Sweeney's letter of support to the union can be viewed as an image
file of a fax from the Communication Workers of America (CWA).
http://www.cwalocal4250.org/outsourcing/binarydata/Sweeney%20S1033.pdf
I converted the documents into text with an OCR which you can read
following my commentary.
The first thing that struck me about Sweeney's letter was how little he
cares about the blue collar workers that are the bedrock of the unions.
In the statement below he says that the H-5 visa will be used to import
foreign workers that don't require college degrees. He casually brushes
aside the fact that foreign workers will take jobs away from
hard-working Americans that haven't gone to college, and he totally
ignores the plight of white collar workers that will also lose their
jobs. Refer to the newsletter "May 31, 2005 No. 1268 Skilled Worker
Visas in McKennedy Bill" to get a better understanding of the immense
impact this bill will have on professional white-collar workers. While
it's almost understandable that Sweeney ignores white-collar workers
because they are a small portion of the total union membership it's
unconscionable that he is willing to force his rank and file into
unemployment and labor arbitrage. These words are right off Sweeney's
letter:
The bill also creates a new temporary worker program, which
will provide foreign workers from all over the world the
opportunity to work in the United States in non-agricultural,
non-degreed jobs, including in the service and hotel industries,
construction, retail, food processing, meatpacking, and other
currently unionized industries.
Sweeney and the AFL-CIO admit that the McKennedy bill will destroy
American jobs BUT THEY ENDORSE THIS MONSTER ANYWAY!
Sweeney says that although the bill has no labor protections the unions
will support it and hope that the corporate lobbyists and our money
grubbing politicians in Congress will make it labor-friendly some time
in the future. Sweeney isn't making a compromise; he is admitting that
the unions have been defeated.
We are also in agreement that if this bill moves forward, we will
seek expand its labor protections considerably to ensure a
positive outcome for all workers.
Sweeney wrote a document that is nothing less than a manifesto against
American labor. In the manifesto Sweeney said that the unions consider
the rights of foreign workers to be equally as important as the
well-being of American born workers. That's quite interesting
considering that foreign workers don't pay union dues.
Ending the exploitation of workers, whether US born or
foreign-born, has been our other equally important
fundamental guiding principle.
Sweeney lists the following problems with the McKennedy bill - AND YET
HE STILL SUPPORTS IT! Of course he claims that the AFL-CIO wants the
bill to be changed to be more labor-friendly but that's nothing but
pie-in-the-sky and a seasoned labor leader like Sweeney shouldn't be
fooled by false promises. His reason for the blind support of this
monster is simply a matter of priority - he thinks giving aliens
amnesty is more important than protecting millions of American workers.
Amnesty has become the "reason du jour" for the AFL-CIO and they are
willing to pursue it despite the problems that they acknowledge with
the McKennedy bill. Keep in mind that the the authors of the bill,
McCain, Flake, and Kolbe of Arizona all claim that the bill isn't an
amnesty, and yet even the unions are smart enough to see that it is.
Here just a few of the things that Sweeney wrote about what American
workers have to look forward to if the AFL-CIO gets their way and the
bill becomes law:
* This will likely result in millions of workers losing their jobs.
[Comment from Rob: Since when did labor unions support the destruction
of millions of jobs?]
* The bill gives employers who employed them [illegal aliens] complete
amnesty from criminal and civil tax liability.
[Comment from Rob: Pay very close attention to this one. Sweeney is
admitting that employers will be immune from prosecution even if they
break the law!]
* The bill requires that workers present a job offer in order to get a
visa, which will likely result in massive recruiting abroad at
exploitative conditions, and lead to the deterioration of wages and
working conditions in industries that recruit USA workers.
[Comment from Rob: This may be the first time a union has endorsed
legislation that will reduce wages and make working conditions worse.]
* [The bill] creates an incentive for employers seeking to hire H5A
workers to offer wages far below those which any worker who was already
in the country and in a position to actually choose among available
jobs would ever willingly accept.
[Comment from Rob: Sweeney admits that these guest-workers will not be
paid a fair wage so any notion of a prevalent wage is irrelevant.
That's not enough reason for the AFL-CIO to oppose this legislation
though.]
* H5A workers are permitted to quit, and seek other employment, but if
they do so before the term specified in the offers, they may be subject
to damages for breach of contract.
[Comment from Rob: Sweeney acknowledges that this bill is indentured
servitude, but that doesn't stop him from endorsing it!]
* The visas will be available world-wide.
[Comment from Rob: Foreign workers will be able to come from any
country in the world, and they will be able to take any jobs in the
U.S. they can get. Global labor arbitrage doesn't seem to concern the
unions.].
* The likely result is that Tyson and other recruiters are going to be
selling "McCain/Kennedy job offers" around the world, for thousands of
dollars (disguised as transportation costs), and then bringing these
workers to the US to work to the limits of human endurance in order to
repay that debt.
[Comment From Rob: Sweeney not only admits that the McKennedy bill is
indentured labor but goes on to describe how workers will be forced to
work in sweatshops!]
* While the legislation provides some regulation of labor recruiting
activities, the weak enforcement system and small fines will not deter
employers and recruiters from engaging in this lucrative practice.
[Comment from Rob: Sweeney understands that there is so little
enforcement in this bill that employers and recruiters will have
complete freedom to cheat and exploit. Now the unions want to coddle
the robber barons!]
* The bill requires that Workers return to their native country or the
country of their last residence if they are unemployed for more than 45
consecutive days; any unemployed worker who is still in the US after 45
days of unemployment forfeits his legal status and may never again be
eligible for an H5A visa. These draconian measures will result in
exploitation of visa holders and drive many of them into the
underground economy, thereby driving down wages and working conditions
for all workers in the TLS.
[Comment from Rob: Sweeney understands that the McKennedy bill will not
stop illegal immigration. The only thing the bill accomplishes is to
make indentured servitude the official policy of the United States!]
* There are a minimum of 400,000 visas available each year, and the
number grows based on a demand-based formula. The visas are only
available for non-degreed, nonagricultural jobs (like construction,
retail, packing and food processing);
[Comment from Rob: Sweeney is wrong about the fact that only
non-degreed people can use visas to work in this country. Even if he
was correct, he is saying that it's OK to force Americans that don't
have college degrees into joblessness. I cannot understand why so many
people think nothing of throwing these hard working Americans into the
streets.]
* The visas last a minimum of 3 years, and are renewable for a second
3year term which means that in year 3, there could be nearly 1.5
million I3 [5A workers in the US, and nearly 4 million by year 6.
[Comment from Rob: The numbers of foreign workers is immense, and yet
only 75,000 jobs were created in May. GM just announced that 25,000
people will be losing jobs and most of those are union workers. If
Sweeney and his union cronies get their way there won't jobs for
Americans!]
* The bill does not remove the incentives to hire undocumented workers.
[Comment from Rob: According to Sweeney this bill will not stop the
hiring of illegal aliens. The union understands all claims to stop
illegal immigration are lies, but that doesn't stop them from
supporting the bill!]
* Any violation of the law by an employer will be handled by the
Secretary of Labor under a new administrative process that has even
less teeth than the NLRB process.
[Comment from Rob: Labor secretary Elaine Chau is anti-labor and
anti-union, and yet the unions will now trust her to protect their
interests. If Sweeney actually believes Chau will act in the best
interests of workers he is so grossly incompetent that members of the
AFL-CIO should remove him before more harm can be done. I really don't
think Sweeney is that stupid - he had an agenda that doesn't include
the security of American workers.]
* What undocumented workers lack--and what H5A workers will lack-is the
ability to bargain for improved wages and working conditions;
[Comment from Rob: This is perhaps the most astonishing statement by
Sweeney. He understands that as nonimmigrants H-5 visa holders cannot
collectively bargain and cannot be unionized. The McKennedy bill will
import millions of scabs to destroy what little is left of the unions,
and yet Sweeney still supports it! Sweeney is committing the AFL-CIO to
a mass suicide.]
* The bill does not address employers' ability to threaten to withhold
sponsorship for a green card if the worker engages in organizing, which
is a standard union-busting method, particularly in the construction
industry;
[Comment from Rob: Dr. Norm Matloff and I have said for years that the
Green Card is used as a carrot dangling on a string to control
nonimmigrant workers. It's unlikely that anyone in the unions will have
read this far, but if they did, they might learn something by going to
the following web page:
http://www.zazona.com/shameh1b/H1BvsGreenCard.htm ]
----- Conclusion -----
The endorsement of the McCainnedy bill by the AFL-CIO can be for only
one reason - the union leaders have decided to pursue an agenda of
open-border globalism at all costs, even if it leads to the destruction
of American jobs. It makes no practical difference to American workers
whether the motivations of AFL-CIO leaders are to ally themselves with
the corporatists in the Chamber of Commerce or whether they have been
hijacked by left-wing extremists - either way the middle-class
lifestyles Americans have enjoyed for so long are in extreme jeopardy.
The McKennedy bill continues to gather momentum. This latest
endorsement will be used as a propaganda coup by the enemies of labor
to push this bill through Congress. In a very real sense the AFL-CIO
has offered their own heads on a platter by signing on to this bill.
Not all union activists are so eager to betray their rank and file
members but unfortunately they aren't being represented at the top
levels of the AFL-CIO. Hopefully some sane union activists will be able
to gain enough support to get rid of Sweeney and his open-border
cronies before more damage is done. Until then I recommend that all
white-collar workers shun unionization attempts until the AFL-CIO
changes their self-destructive policies. Support for the CWA and their
sister organization Techsunite should be witheld until they come out
with a strong position against the Sweeney Manifesto. Some of the
unions such as the Steelworkers are jumping in line to support the
McKennedy bill so it will take tremendous pressure on the CWA to
convince them to oppose Sweeney.
Skip to the end of this newsletter for more information on the
Steelworkers.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
From; John J. Sweeney
Re: Immigration Reform bill
On May 12, 2005 Senators McCain and Kennedy introduced a comprehensive
immigration reform bill that will provide a path to legal status to the
12 million people who have been working hard, paying their taxes and
contributing to their communities. The bill also creates a new
temporary worker program, which will provide foreign workers from all
over
the world the opportunity to work in the United States in
non-agricultural, non-degreed jobs, including in the service and hotel
industries, construction, retail, food processing, meatpacking, and
other currently unionized industries.
Attached is a document that sets forth a unified response from the
labor movement to this bill. This is the product of staff-level work
with the affiliates who have expressed an interest in working on
immigration matters. We are strongly supportive of the concept of
legalization, recognizing that raising the floor for undocumented
workers and bringing them out of the shadows will improve working
conditions for all workers. We are also in agreement that if this bill
moves forward, we will seek expand its labor protections considerably
to ensure a positive outcome for all workers.
If you have any questions about the statement, please contact Ana
Avendano-Denjer, Director of the Immigrant Worker Program at (202)
637-3949.
FAX: )6/03/05 03:26:06PM Morton Bahr President :CWA
LABOR'S CONTINUED SUPPORT FOR COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM
AND OUR RESPONSE TO THE MCCAIN-KENNEDY BILL
Reform of the nation's broken immigration system has been a top
priority for the labor movement for many years, and we continue to
support comprehensive immigration reform. One of our fundamental
principles has been that the foundation of any reform of our
immigration laws must begin& with a broad legalization plan that
provides undocumented workers and their families who have been working
hard, paying taxes and contributing to their communities with the
opportunity to adjust to a legal status. Undocumented workers are often
unable to exercise their legal rights, and are subject to exploitation
that leads to the deterioration of working conditions for all workers.
Ending the exploitation of workers, whether US born or foreign-born,
has been our other equally important fundamental guiding principle.
We recognize that immigrants have been under attack in the public eye,
and as a unified labor movement, we have taken strong public measures
to protect immigrants rights including:
" Strongly supporting the AgJOBS bill, which would have brought much
needed legalization to farm workers, within a framework that adequately
protects those workers' rights;
" Strongly opposing Senator Chambliss' substitute amendment to that
bill, which would have stripped the temporary worker program of all
labor protections and government oversight;
" Strongly opposing the REAL ID Act, which is a mean-spirited attack on
immigrants that pushes immigrants further into the shadows and provides
no real solution to the broken immigration system_
We will continue to oppose legislation that does not provide workers a
path to permanent residence in the United States.
We recognize that the Secure America and Orderly immigration Act
recently introduced by Senators Kennedy and McCain is an important
legislative accomplishment, because of its bipartisan nature and
because it contains a path for many of those currently living and
working within the United States to earn their way to permanent legal
status and promotes the reunification of families_
If this proposal moves forward, we will seek to expand its labor
protections considerably to ensure a positive outcome for all workers.
Some of the provisions of the bill that must be adjusted are:
LEGALIZATION PROGRAM.
The bill does not give protection to workers who provide correct
information to the employer after legalizing
" This will likely result in millions of workers losing their jobs
because employers will claim that they are required (under "no
falsification"policies) to terminate anyone who has provided any false
information at anytime;
" This is a current standard industry practice. In many instances,
workers who have come forward are re-hired immediately, under their
proper name, but at starting wages, with loss of seniority and
benefits.
Although workers are required to pay any back taxes owed before they
become eligible to legalize, the bill gives employers who employed them
complete amnesty from criminal and civil tax liability
" Although the supposed rationale for this provision is that employers
will otherwise be unwilling to provide workers with documentation they
need to legalize their status, this amnesty applies to all employers
who have ever employed an undocumented worker at any time, regardless
of whether the employer helps the worker to legalize her status.
TEMPORARY WORKER PROGRAM
The bill requires that workers present a job offer in order to get a
visa, which will likely result in massive recruiting abroad at
exploitative conditions, and lead to the deterioration of wages and
working conditions in industries that recruit USA workers
" Although the job offer must first be posted on America's Job Bank for
30 days, there is no requirement that the jobs be posted at any
prevailing or other specific wage, which creates an incentive for
employers seeking to hire H5A workers to offer wages far below those
which any worker who was already in the country and in a position to
actually choose among available jobs would ever willingly accept.
Because visa seekers must have a job offer to be eligible for a visa,
they will be forced to accept those terms;
" There are no restrictions an conditions employers are permitted to
impose in that offer, including the length of employment, etc. H5A
workers are permitted to quit, and seek other employment, but if they
do so before the term specified in the offers, they may be subject to
damages for breach of contract;
" The visas will be available world-wide, and workers in Mexico, or
Thailand, or Bosnia, or other remote developing nations are not going
to have access to job offers in their native countries unless companies
recruit them, either directly (as some companies do now), or through
labor contractors;
" The likely result is that Tyson and other recruiters are going to be
selling "McCain/Kennedy job offers" around the world, for thousands of
dollars (disguised as transportation costs), and then bringing these
workers to the US to work to the limits of human endurance in order to
repay that debt;
" While the legislation provides some regulation of labor recruiting
activities, the weak enforcement system and small fines will not deter
employers and recruiters from engaging in this lucrative practice.
The bill requires that Workers return to their native country or the
country of their last residence if they are unemployed for more than 45
consecutive days; any unemployed worker who is still in the US after 45
days of unemployment forfeits his legal status and may never again be
eligible for an H5A visa. These draconian measures will result in
exploitation of visa holders and drive many of them into the
underground economy, thereby driving down wages and working conditions
for all workers in the TLS.
" Workers who are fearful that they will lose their legal status if
they become or remain unemployed will be much more willing to accept
standard wages than they would if they had the same rights as U.S.
workers;
" Workers From distant countries cannot realistically be expected to
travel back and forth to their home countries every time they suffer a
6-week spell of unemployment and are much more likely to continue to
work illegally.
The size and scope of the program does not address the current illegal
flow of workers
" There are a minimum of 400,000 visas available each year, and the
number grows based on a demand-based formula. The visas are only
available for non-degreed, nonagricultural jobs (like construction,
retail, packing and food processing);
" The visas last a minimum of 3 years, and are renewable for a second
3year term which means that in year 3, there could be nearly 1.5
million I3 [5A workers in the US, and nearly 4 million by year 6,
" The visas are not targeted at countries that are currently the source
of illegal immigration. Given that visas will be available all over the
world, illegal immigration from Mexico and Central America is likely to
continue;
" The bill does not remove the incentives to hire undocumented workers
created by the Supreme Court's Hoffman Plastic Compounds v. NLRB
decision. Coupled with the fact that the bill does not target sending
countries, the lack of a Hoffman fix will continue to give au incentive
to employers to recruit and hire undocumented workers;
" Many industries that now lire undocumented workers are likely to
continue hiring undocumented workers rather than going through the LISA
program. For example, construction employers who need workers for
projects that last a few hours or a few days are not going to use the
electronic verification system to find workers, and will continue to
exploit the readily available undocumented pool of workers.
Meaningful enforcement for labor protections are necessary, not a new
weak administrative process.
" Any violation of the law by an employer will be handled by the
Secretary of Labor under a new administrative process that has even
less teeth than the NLRB process;
" For example, Secretary Chao can only start an investigation after she
determines that there is "reasonable cause" to start the investigation.
That means that anyone who wants to prosecute a violation has to
convince the Secretary that a violation has occurred before she even
starts the investigation;
" If Secretary Chao fails to or refuses to determine that there is
"reasonable cause," then an aggrieved person has the right to petition
the Secretary for a hearing-.-which she again has the discretion to
refuse. The bill does not provide for any appellate process.
The bill should do more to reduce organizing hurdles
" Any H5A worker who is out of work for 45 consecutive days will fall
out of status and become "undocumented," regardless if she is out of
work because of a job-related injury, or because of an unlawful
termination. (The average length of unemployment right now is 19
weeks);
" Requiring that these workers find jobs so quickly in order to keep
their legal status makes workers reluctant to engage in organizing,
because of the very real fear of losing their jobs;
" The "portability" provision means little under these circumstances;
undocumented workers now have full "portability" because of the lack of
enforcement of immigration laws, and readily change jobs. What
undocumented workers lack--and what H5A workers will lack-is the
ability to bargain for improved wages and working conditions;
" The bill does not address employers' ability to threaten to withhold
sponsorship for a green card if the worker engages in organizing, which
is a standard union-busting method, particularly in the construction
industry;
" There are no anti-retaliation protections for workers who expose
violations of labor laws;
" The "whistle-blower" protections are not meaningful: the bill
provides that a worker who is in status will remain in status if he
exposes a violation of the SAOIA; his lawful stay period is not
extended and if he is blacklisted for malting such a complaint (and
thus remains out of work for longer than 45 days), he becomes
undocumented.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
H.R.2330
Title: To improve border security and immigration.
Sponsor: Rep Kolbe, Jim [AZ-8] (introduced 5/12/2005) Cosponsors
(10)
Related Bills: S.1033
Latest Major Action: 5/31/2005 Referred to House subcommittee. Status:
Referred to the Subcommittee on 21st Century Competitiveness.
COSPONSORS(10), ALPHABETICAL [followed by Cosponsors withdrawn]:
(Sort: by date)
Rep Crowley, Joseph [NY-7] - 5/26/2005
Rep Diaz-Balart, Lincoln [FL-21] - 5/12/2005
Rep Diaz-Balart, Mario [FL-25]
5/12/2005 Rep Flake, Jeff [AZ-6] - 5/12/2005
Rep Gutierrez, Luis V. [IL-4] - 5/12/2005
Rep Napolitano, Grace F. [CA-38] - 5/12/2005
Rep Pastor, Ed [AZ-4] - 5/12/2005
Rep Pelosi, Nancy [CA-8] - 5/19/2005
Rep Ros-Lehtinen, Ileana [FL-18] - 5/19/2005
Rep Walsh, James T. [NY-25] - 5/26/2005
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
S.1033
Title: A bill to improve border security and immigration.
Sponsor: Sen McCain, John [AZ] (introduced 5/12/2005) Cosponsors
(5)
Related Bills: H.R.2330
Latest Major Action: 5/12/2005 Referred to Senate committee. Status:
Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
COSPONSORS(5), ALPHABETICAL [followed by Cosponsors withdrawn]:
(Sort: by date)
Sen Brownback, Sam [KS] - 5/12/2005
Sen Graham, Lindsey [SC] - 5/12/2005
Sen Kennedy, Edward M. [MA] - 5/12/2005
Sen Lieberman, Joseph I. [CT] - 5/12/2005
Sen Salazar, Ken [CO] - 5/12/2005
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Steelworkers Union (USWA) describes the McKennedy bill as "a bill
to improve border security and immigration," on their legislative
website. This position is in direct conflict with the original intent
of the Rescue American Jobs organization, which is now run by the
Steelworkers Union. The original founder, Dawn Teo, was forced to leave
the organization a couple of months ago for health reasons.
http://capwiz.com/uswa/issues/bills/?billtype=S.&billnumb=1033&congress=109
Congressional Legislation
'A bill to improve border security and immigration. '
Bill # S.1033
Original Sponsor:
John McCain (R-AZ)
Cosponsor Total: 6
(last sponsor added 05/12/2005)
3 Democrats
3 Republicans
About This Legislation:
A bill to improve border security and immigration.
www.ZaZona.com
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