Biz Labor Deal Excludes Us

So, Big business and Big Labor have struck an agreement on the convoluted math of immigration reform.

Under the tentative agreement, thousands of low-skilled workers would be allowed in the United States to fill jobs in construction, hotels and resorts, nursing homes and restaurants, and other industries, according to a Washington Post article.

In year one of the program, 20,000 workers would be allowed in; in year two, 35,000; in year three, 55,000; and in year four, 75,000, the Post article reported.

Ultimately the program would be capped at 200,000 workers a year, but the number of visas would fluctuate, depending on unemployment rates, job openings, employer demand and data collected by a new federal bureau pushed by the labor movement as an objective monitor of the market, the article said.

Workers would earn actual wages paid to American workers or the prevailing wages for the industry they’re working in, whichever is higher, the article said. (But the article never said if employers will pay health insurance and some form of retirement benefit for these workers.) 

The Labor Department would determine prevailing wage based on customary rates in specific localities, so that it would vary from city to city, the article said. 

One hang up: jobs in the construction industry. Unions argue that the construction industry is different from other industries in the new program because it can be more seasonal in nature and includes a number of higher-skilled trades.

The Post quoted an anonymous source, saying the resolution will cap at 15,000 a year the number of visas that can be sought by the construction industry.

Big Business, represented by its proxy, the US Chamber of Commerce, doesn’t represent me, and I doubt if it represents you.

Neither does Big Labor.

So these two giants of the US economy have virtually cut a deal that really leaves most Americans out in the cold.

This, when 12 million Americans are unemployed.

This, when 8 million Americans work part-time, because their hours have been cut or they can’t find full-time work.

Yet membership in unions has dropped from 11.8 percent in 2011 to 11.3 percent in 2012, and only 14.4 million Americans belong to Big Labor in a working labor pool that is 85 percent larger.  

The deal, at face value, gives US companies the right to hire more workers at maybe less cost while unions get protection for their miniscule membership.

But if workers will be paid the prevailing wage in localities, why the push to open the door to more low-skilled laborers when we already have a pool of low-skilled workers?

Take Norfolk and Portsmouth, for example.

Both cities suffer from double-digit poverty rates.

You mean to tell me there isn’t a pool of low-skilled workers available for US companies in this region?

 It seems to me that this deal is more politics than pragmatism.

Open the door to more low-skilled workers at a time when the unemployment rate is 7.7 and you will see wages stay flat or decline.

Not my deal.