How the Democrats Let Business Undermine Their Major Supporter—Labor

The

runaway invasion of illegal aliens into the US is
finally coming under serious scrutiny in 2006. As a
supporter and contributor to the

Democratic Party, I wonder how it could have gotten
its stance on immigration

so wrong for

so long.

Let`s review the facts. In the past
30 years, some 35 million new immigrants have come into
the US labor market, most of them with

low skills and education, most of them finding the
jobs of our poorest Americans, those in the

most menial jobs. Often the lesser language and
other skills of the newcomers were more than offset by
the fact that they will accept

much lower pay.

By allowing an old saw to go
unchallenged ("Immigrants do jobs Americans

won`t do"), we Democrats consistently ignored
the effects and sided with ethnic lobbies making
arguments about open borders. This has allowed business
interests to get away with kneecapping the organized

American labor movement. Sad story.

This point was graphically
illustrated by Lynn Duke`s article in the January 3rd
Washington Post, "Love,
Labor, Loss" on how Andrew Stern, President of
the

Service Employees International Union (SEIU) led
SEIU and 6 other unions to break away from the AFL-CIO.
They represented 40% of the total pre-split membership.

As Duke notes,

"Only
12 percent of the American labor force is

unionized these days, down from 35 percent three
decades ago. Surveys show that Americans want unions but
are afraid of how bosses will react, because organizers
often are fired illegally for their activities."

So SEIU`s Stern sees these new, low
wage workers as a huge new market for recruiting new
members.

"Stern
says…he is trying to change the way Americans view labor
and the economy as a whole. In the world according to
Stern, low-wage workers too often succumb to a form of

economic Darwinism. Stern travels the country
delivering that message in speeches and rallies. He
talks about how the global economy has made things
worse, with multinationals competing to find the
cheapest labor, minus unions—the

Wal-Mart effect."

But here is the big point he makes:
"For workers to thrive, big labor has to act as big
business does: Go global,

recruit without borders, unionize

workers across entire economic sectors."

Stern describes organized labor as
a "lap dog" for the Democratic Party.

"Labor,
he says, should follow a political agenda that`s good
for workers, regardless of party."

The Post article never
mentions the citizenship status of SEIU`s 1.8 million
members, but the economic level of its employees is not
high. One wonders with what care SEIU determines worker

legality when SEIU is recruiting. Stern`s big goal
of course is to unionize Wal-Mart and efforts to capture
that major employer by SEIU are vigorous.

So let`s now review the bidding.
The Democrats are losing the fealty of a large sector of
organized labor. Reason: I think by being

late on reforming immigration. If there was any
prospect of immigration reform in the U.S., the SEIU
would not have to “go global.” It could “go
American.”

But many Democrats including
Minority Leader,

Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), seem far more anxious to court
non-citizens than to enforce our borders. This
ambivalence is shared by many Republicans, including
George Bush, who is happily flogging a major amnesty
proposal in the Senate whose version of a reform bill
may be used to supplant the

Clear Act just passed by the House.

As a Democrat, I am confused.

I thought we wanted to win back at
least the House in 2006 and have a shot at the White
House in 2008.

I think it is likely that Senator
John McCain (R-AZ) will be the Republican Presidential
candidate in 2008. He is

terrible on immigration reform, as his coupling with
open border maven, Senator

Ted Kennedy (D-MA), on another huge amnesty for
illegal aliens discloses.

Democrats could really make hay
against McCain if they pick up the slogan, "Let`s
not give away American jobs to non citizen illegal
aliens."

How can my party be so blind as to
not say,

"American union workers we stand behind you. We will
help you and one of the ways to help you most is not
allowing this continuous flow of cheap illegal labor to

undercut your wages and jobs. It is particularly
true for the

low wages earners among us, many of you legal
American citizens of Hispanic origin."

Democrats have fallen into the trap
of killing organized labor by allowing massive new
immigration. Why don`t we wake up? We will never win the
hearts and minds of working class America by toadying to
the Hispanic lobbies such as La Raza and

LULAC. These organizations are not our true friends
and our sad recent history at the polls proves it.

One final point. How about the will
to remove illegal aliens from the US when they are
discovered, as they will be if those provisions of the
Clear Act are enacted? I am guessing that many
Republicans will be on the side of deporting those who
jumped the line of legality, under the time honored
rubric of our Rule of Law.

Where will my party be?

Standing out in the cold with our
noses pressed against the glass watching another
Republican inauguration party? despite Bush`s abysmal
eight years of mishandling virtually every aspect of

governance?

Of course, if the

Republicans screw up and allow

another big amnesty, the voters may at last decide
it is

Third Party Time!

Donald A. Collins [email
him], is a freelance writer living in Washington DC and a former long time member of the board of FAIR, the Federation for American Immigration Reform. His views are his own.