Do you support a guest worker program?

[TheFarseer]

It doesn't have to be bush's guest worker program. I just want to know if you support a guest worker program in general.

[The Magistrate]

1. No, Sir

All such things are nothing but an attempt by employers to refuse the market derived price of labor, and drive it down to a level they prefer.

[rodeodance]

2. tune into cspan now--it is AFL-CIO talking of immigration.

[rodeodance]

5. talking of the Day of ACTION, April 10

[John Barrett]

18. Amen brother

Actually I get a little outraged by the business interests and others including some in the Democratic Party who want the law of supply and demand rescinded for American labor.

For those jobs that can't be outsourced they want a never ending supply of cheap labor. And if they can be outsourced, they'll send them to China. It's no win situation if you are a working American citizen (skilled and unskilled) because if the business interests don't get you on one side with outsourcing, the church, politicians and others looking out for their own self serving agendas will with illegal immigration.

Americans and America first for a change.

[Warpy]

3. I don't support any aid to keeping wages for Americans artificially

suppressed. I don't support unrestricted immigration, I don't support H1-B visas, I don't support guest worker programs.

I do support forcing bidnessmen to start paying a living wage in order to attract scarcer labor resources. I don't care if that head of lettuce costs and extra quarter. That is a price I'm perfectly willing to pay in order to insure fair wages to the people who grew it and picked it.

[no_hypocrisy]

4. Guest worker program depends on an Honor Code and trust that the

individuals will leave this country and repatriate after a certain number of years.

What if he/she/they don't and/or refuses? They want to stay here. Then aren't we back to where we are now? Are we going to load them up on railroad cars and take them back across the border? I don't think so . . .

This situation is too complicated for a simple solution.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

6. Yes. As a measure leading to citizenship.

Though I prefer "open borders", a guest worker program with citizenship to follow is a step in the right direction.

[rman]

7. We're not short on labor,

so why would we need guest workers?

The corporations want them because they're cheap labor, and the govt wants it because it is owned by corporations. The corporate media/MSM push it because they to are owned by corporations.

[TheFarseer]

9. Yeah, it might make more sense

if the job market wasn't in shambles. They can point to the unemployment rate all they want - finding a job in your career field sucks right now. I heard a comedian once say, "there aren't any illegal immigrant investment bankers." The hell there aren't! You think the United States is the only country with investment bankers? Get off your high horse!

[NaturalHigh]

8. No, and I don't buy the line that...

Americans won't do these jobs.

[Gin]

13. saw a panel on CSPAN talking about this issue....one man said

our porous borders and lack of enforcement policies are "flooding" the market with illegals at the low end of the pay scale...and unemployment in that category is 13-14%...and getting higher..bringing down wages and standards of living.

The illegals are networked...they have locations to congregate every day...then they get picked up by employers...who don't have to pay for advertising the jobs...they just drive up and pick these people up... and still make mucho dollars.

He also said that when the last guest worker program ended...agriculture said it would be dooms day for that industry....but...they mechanized instead of using poor, low wage laborers.. and things improved and got even better.

Who did the landscaping before the illegals came? also who did the roofing and construction? and even the manufacturing?

I must have been asleep while all these things were being done by others, before the flood of illegals made it profitable to use them instead of citizens.

When the flood hits all levels of income...then we will wake up...but it may be too late. (IMHO)

[izzybeans]

10. No, but I like streamlining Citizenship processes so these workers

are protected by the same legal system that buttresses "the market".

[DetroitProle]

11. NOPE.

Pay all workers a living wage. Unionize these workers.
I'll do any job for a living wage. I've been scrubbing toilets, cleaning up human feces, operating a forklift at 15 years old, waking up at 5am to toil in a stock room, working in searing heat and freezing cold...all for pennies that can hardly put gas in my car, let alone allow me independence from my family or allow me to pay my tuition.
LIVING WAGE. FULL EMPLOYMENT FOR THOSE WILLING TO WORK. HEALTH INSURANCE. And I'll work under ANY conditions, as long as they are safe and legal.
That is NOT asking a lot. Our economy would be in much better shape if people could afford to live and SPEND their money.

[Nikia]

12. Only in certain circumstances

The circumstances that I am thinking about are seasonal employment, especially at a time when there wouldn't be as many people available for seasonal employment, such as Septmeber/October for certain vegtableharvests and processing in colder climates. A company, located in a rural area, might suddenly need a couple hundred people for just a couple of months and might have a difficult time attracting that many, especially if other companies in the area are in the same situation.
To be eligible, the company must pay a rate comparable to full time work in the particuliar industry. I am not sure how this rate would be figured, but no paying people $6-$8/hour when a full time, year round person would be making $10-$12 for the same work. They would also have to publically advertise their positions before recruiting the foreign workers.

[0rganism]

14. Yes, to the extent it stops jobs from going overseas

Compared with offshoring to 3rd-world maquiladoras, I would far rather people came to this country to work, where they still have a chance at labor safety standards, fair wages, and some availability of social infrastructure. Then, perhaps when they return to their countries, they can bring some experience of a different system with them. Plus, as long as they're here, they contribute some share of their wage back into the local economy.

As a corollary, I'd like to charge a stiff tariff on all imported manufactured goods and services (i.e., telemarketing, tech support, etc.) When those jobs go elsewhere, they represent a direct drain on the American workforce.

[beyond_the_pale]

15. Hispanic Majority is inevitable

Witness South Florida, in my lifetime Miami Dade County, one of the biggest metropolitan areas in the Southeast, is now 95% hispanic. Latinos will be the majority culture in the USA by 2050, my guess (IMHO). Dont' shoot me, but Chris Matthews quoted a learned economist that said "big populations are good, that is the advantage of the Chinese."

Well, if some economists espouse this theory, Mexico has a really big population that can augment the aging population of the U.S. Where are all the greyheaded baby boomers retiring? Mexico! And the industrious, young, go-getter Mexican workforce is headed North! This is my theory. There are a lot of US Citizens spending their Social Security checks South of the Border now.

Mexico seems willing and eager to be our Best Friend Forever and Mexico is probably a safer bet than Pakistan, JMHO. Strategic partnering with Mexico is important to our national security, whether Mexican Gangs, other illegal nationals using Mexico as transfer point, or just to offset the new China/Russia Coldway that is underway. We can't piss off Mexicans too!

[pinto]

16. No. It's a federal "back door" guarantee to business that amounts to

an exemption from even minimum established wage/benefit standards.

Guest worker programs are a poor band aid for a systemic problem.

When we find a way to support unskilled labor at a livable wage, illegal residency is apt to decrease, imo.

Just off the top of my head, a start may be to establish a livable minimum wage.

And, provide tax benefits for employers who offer "education" benefits for unskilled employees.

And, provide seasonal workers - migrants - with visas, social security cards, driver's licenses, etc. In other words a level of legitimacy, legality, that supports cross border access and accountability.

All this assumes the participation of business in an honest, transparent solution, not a federal "ghost worker" scheme.

[B Calm]

17. Guest worker program = CHEAP LABOR

[Strelnikov_]

19. Yes, Strongly. But Like Everything, The Devil Is In The Details.

I am sure most here support a democratic Iraq, and we all know how well that is working out.

It appears to me that (uncontrolled) immigrant labor fills a void that it perpetuates, low wages that make the jobs undesirable due to an oversupply of labor, the classic supply/demand relationship. All the current immigration policy of this country does is create a black market for labor, exploiting those who are here illegally, and driving down the wages and working conditions so for legal residents and immigrants the job is a step backward.

I feel that a well-regulated Guest Worker program will deal with illegal immigration by addressing demand (the employer). It would hopefully stop the exploitation of immigrants and end the flooding of the labor market due to uncontrolled immigration.

Just like the ‘war on drugs’, illegal immigration cannot be reduced by simply militarizing the border and locking up half of the ‘victims’. On the other hand, we have to do something to protect the other ‘victims’, the working people of this country who are citizens or here legally.

The key points of the program would be as follows:

- Hiring of guest workers by businesses would be coordinated through workforce development (unemployment) offices. These offices would maintain a set of procedures/surveys to verify a shortage of labor in a classification before guest workers could be hired.

- A wage rates system would have to be maintained to prevent low wages from being used as way to create a labor shortage.

- All labor laws, including minimum wage rates and social security payments, would be enforced for guest workers. After participation in the program over time, the guest worker would be eligible for a retirement SS annuity based on what they paid in.

- Severe penalties for those employers violating the above provisions.

- A worker certification system, also administered by workforce development, to take the burden of verifying an employees legal status off of the employer. If an employer takes the step to verify the employees status though this system, they will be held harmless in the event the employee is found to not have legal standing.

Some thoughts on immigration policy from John Sayles which sums up my feelings on this issue.

John Sayles
From:A People's Democratic Platform

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20040802&s=forum

The Democratic platform should call for an end to the hypocrisy of our immigration policy. Our current policy, an enormously expensive cat-and-mouse game, most notably on our southern border, calls on the INS to enforce immigration laws that are openly expected to be ignored by countless US industries and private employers. Some sort of regulated guest-worker program is needed.

Once it is in place, if immigrants continue to enter the country illegally and can't find work, word will filter back and the numbers will decrease dramatically. While in our country, however, those guest workers need to be protected from exploitation--to be assured they will be paid for their work, that their working conditions will meet state and federal safety standards and that they will receive no less than the federally mandated minimum wage (which needs to be raised).

Employers would be required to withhold some percentage (perhaps the equivalent of federal taxes and Social Security) from wages to help defray the costs of the program. Penalties for hiring foreign workers outside of the program would be high enough (and sufficiently enforced) to end the black market in labor that is thriving now.

Protecting all workers in this country is an important first step toward the amendment or abolition of NAFTA and the protection of workers throughout the world.

[cascadiance]

20. As long as our CEO's have artificially high salaries and benefits...

... that lead our housing prices and other similar investments to be artificially high, NO! I don't want our wages (and the products at Walmart they point to as having no inflation now) being artificially low!