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UFCW Urges Senate to Support Immigration Bill Amendment
Dorgan-Stabenow amendment would strip unfair guestworker programs from bill

                                                                                                May 9, 2006

TO ALL MEMBERS OF THE U. S. SENATE

Dear Senator:

On behalf of the 1.4 million members of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), I am writing today to urge your support for the Dorgan/Stabenow amendment to the Senate immigration legislation.   This amendment would strip out the title including H-2C guestworker programs.  We believe that this is a necessary component for fair and comprehensive immigration reform.

At the UFCW, we know that immigrant rights and workers’ rights are intertwined.   We represent workers in numerous industries but meatpacking, poultry processing, and food processing have always had high concentrations of immigrant labor.  One hundred years ago, the book, The Jungle, was published, documenting the challenges to the industry, including─even then─the immigrant nature of the workforce.  The immigrant workers of today─from Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Africa, and the Caribbean─work the processing lines of the packing and processing industries.  These immigrants, documented and undocumented, deserve an equal and fair path to legalization─a path to legalization that will treat all undocumented workers equally and fairly. 

However, it is equally important that we avoid creating a second class of workers through a new guestworker program. That is why we support the Dorgan/Stabenow amendment.   Guestworker programs have turned permanent, full-time, year-round jobs into temporary jobs with little to no benefits.  These programs have a permanent and substantial detrimental effect on these jobs, the workers, and the communities they serve.  The programs exploit immigrant workers and lower wages and reduce benefits for all workers.  

Workers who come to the U.S. on these guestworker programs should not be considered “guests” but future legal residents.  The proposals to create a new H‑2C guestworker category, which would quadruple the number of foreign workers who would be admitted to the U.S. annually, would have a demonstrable impact on our econo­my and would force those workers into indentured servitude.

America deserves an immigration system that inspires confidence from our citizens, provides for legal immigration, and ensures that immigration policy protects the life, liberty, and employment prospects of everyone within our borders.  This is why UFCW strongly supports a path to legalization and protections for the 12 million immigrants working in this country as well as family reunification.  It is also why we oppose new and expanded guestworker programs.  Whether they resemble the indentured servants of the 18th century or the braceros of the 1950s, we believe that guestworker programs have been proven to be unfair to both guestworkers and the general workforce.

I urge you to support the Dorgan/Stabenow amendment. 

 

                                                                         Sincerely,

                 /s/ Joseph T. Hansen

                                                                         International President

 

 

 

 

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