Who Wants Poverty Wages in Immigration Bill? Employers
What’s behind Republicans’ demands that surfaced last week that legislation to create a commonsense immigration process for America's 11 million aspiring citizens institutionalizes poverty wages and drags down workers already in the United States? Bloomberg columnist Margaret Carlson sums it up succinctly.
Who wants to adversely affect “wages and working conditions” of American workers? Employers, that’s who….Businesses (read: “Republicans”) would like an oversupply of labor to ensure a cheap price.
Senate Republicans rejected adding language to the bill that would ensure new W visas would only be issued when employing foreign workers would not hurt wages and working conditions of workers already in the United States. As Carlson writes, that’s an incredible stance to take “with unemployment stubbornly high and an income gap reminiscent of the Gilded Age.”
The language Senate Republicans rejected already is standard in other visa programs.
As we noted last week, the GOP's greed and insistence on ensuring new Americans are paid poverty wages is standing in the way of 11 million aspiring citizens being able to come out of the shadows, gain workplace rights and protections and be reunited with their families.
Read more about the united labor movement’s immigration principles for creating a commonsense immigration process.
