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    Business, labor leaders reach compromise on immigration reform

    Los Angeles Times

    Business, labor leaders reach compromise on immigration reform


    By Brian Bennett
    3:15 PM PST, February 21, 2013

    WASHINGTON – Business and labor leaders have hammered out the outline of a compromise on one of the hardest issues in reforming the nation’s immigration system – how to handle future needs for foreign workers in the U.S.

    Although both sides say key details remain to be negotiated, the deal clears away a significant roadblock to further action in Congress. The bipartisan group of eight senators who have been crafting an immigration bill plans to meet next week to discuss the issue and has been waiting to see the results of the talks between the business and labor groups.

    President Obama and congressional Democrats have said that any immigration deal must provide a path to citizenship for the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. Republicans have argued that Congress should not consider legalization without policies to prevent a future wave of unauthorized entries.

    Labor and business representatives have met for the last several months to find a way to create a legal system for bringing foreign workers into the country for low-wage jobs such as restaurant and home-care work. That would greatly reduce the incentive for illegal immigration, supporters argue.

    Under the new proposal, companies that could not find U.S. workers would be allowed to hire foreign workers. Those workers would enter the country under a newly created program of immigrant worker visas. Companies would have to advertise jobs to Americans first.

    The agreement calls for creating a federal expert bureau that would make recommendations on the number of foreign workers allowed into the country each year. The recommendations would be based on unemployment data and other information about labor market conditions in particular industries.

    The agreement involves a trade-off. For the first time, the AFL-CIO agreed to support establishing a temporary guest-worker program for low-skilled labor.

    The Chamber of Commerce agreed that the number of workers admitted under the new visa would expand and contract with the economy. In addition, the visa would not tie a worker to a particular employer, a step designed to protect workers from the threat that they could be deported if they had a dispute with their boss. Workers would also receive protections on wages and working conditions. At least some of the temporary workers would be allowed to eventually apply for green cards, which would give them lawful permanent residence.

    The chamber also signed on to a long-standing labor demand that an independent entity – the new expert bureau – have the authority to study labor data and recommend curtailing work visas when unemployment is high. The bureau would have “political independence analogous to the Bureau of Labor Statistics,” said to a joint statement released Thursday by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and U.S. Chamber of Commerce head Thomas J. Donohue.

    The bureau would make recommendations, but it would then be up to Congress to set visa numbers, as it does now.
    Disagreement on that issue was a key factor in scuttling the last effort to reform the nation’s immigration laws, under President George W. Bush in 2007.

    Both sides hailed the new agreement as a major step.

    “For the first time, labor and business have agreed publicly to commit to immigration reform,” said Eliseo Medina, secretary-treasurer of the Service Employees International Union, one of the labor groups involved along with the AFL-CIO in the negotiations with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

    House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) applauded the deal, calling it “a positive step on immigration reform.”“While we may not agree on every aspect, it is encouraging that two groups often on opposite sides of the aisle are serious about putting politics aside and finding solutions,” Cantor said. “Let’s hope we can follow that lead in the months ahead.”

    A spokesman for Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), one of the eight senators negotiating immigration legislation, also praised the move, while criticizing Obama for not putting forward his own version of a guest-worker program.

    Some Republicans dissented, however – an indication that any deal is likely to face stiff resistance from members of Congress who fear that new immigrants take jobs from Americans.

    “The chamber’s primary goal has never been to establish a lawful immigration system and secure our borders, but to get as much cheap labor as possible, regardless of how it impacts American workers, legal immigrants and taxpayers in general,” said Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama), a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.


    Top negotiators for the chamber and the AFL-CIO began meeting shortly after the November elections at the request of Sens. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who brought together of group of eight senators from both parties to draft an immigration bill.

    The details of exactly how the visa system would work and how the labor bureau would be set up will likely be negotiated between labor and business with input from the senators in the group, said Ana Avendano, the chief negotiator for the AFL-CIO, who described long hours over the past several weeks negotiating the terms of the agreement with her counterparts at the chamber.

    “If labor and business can agree to work on a set of principles and move forward,” she said, “we expect the Senate to do to the same and to look past the partisan issues and get things done.”

    Business, labor leaders reach compromise on immigration reform - latimes.com

    Last edited by HAPPY2BME; 02-22-2013 at 04:38 PM. Reason: font size

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    Please call Eric Cantor and tell him you're very disappointed he has flip flopped and is now embracing amnesty, which will NOT help but would rather hurt the GOP and also would hurt American workers.

    His number is 202 - 225 - 2815.

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    I'm calling !

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    Big business, labor find common ground on immigration

    Big business, labor find common ground on immigration

    Alan Gomez, USA TODAY4:20p.m. EST February 21, 2013

    Breakthrough agreement would create a new federal bureau to track visas granted to foreign, and often low-skilled, workers.

    The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO announced Thursday they have agreed on a set of recommendations to deliver to Congress on how to revamp the nation's visa programs that bring in low-skilled workers.

    The pro-business group and labor union have often been at odds on the issue of expanding the numbers of foreigners permitted to work temporarily in industries such as farming, landscaping and restaurants. So a proposal that both agree on could carry significant weight as President Obama and members of Congress push for an overhaul to the nation's immigration laws.

    The failure of some business and labor groups to reach a consensus was one of several factors that contributed to the downfall of the 2007 attempt by Congress to fix the nation's immigration laws. The heads of the chamber and AFL-CIO said in a joint statement that this time should be different.

    "We are now in the middle — not the end — of this process, and we pledge to continue to work together and with our allies and our representatives on Capitol Hill to finalize a solution that is in the interest of this country we all love," read a joint statement by chamber President and CEO Thomas Donohue and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.

    Frank Sharry, executive director of America's Voice, a group pushing for an immigration overhaul that includes a pathway to citizenship for the nation's 11 million illegal immigrants, was closely involved in the 2007 immigration negotiations. He said the business and labor communities were generally supportive of the 2007 immigration efforts, but never agreed on a new guest worker program until Thursday.

    "This is a real breakthrough," Sharry said. "A lot of people have been predicting that this issue of how to craft a new worker program would be an insurmountable obstacle and could even sink this year's reform effort. This joint statement of principles indicates that they're determined to come to an agreement that will make reform more likely to pass."

    House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said it's encouraging that "two groups often on opposite sides of the aisle are serious about putting politics aside and finding solutions."

    But Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Services, which opposes expanding guest worker programs, saw the announcement as a sign that negotiations are actually falling apart. The joint statement included no details on the number of guest worker visas that would be granted each year and how long foreign workers would be required to stay with their employer - two critical components to any agreement.

    "It doesn't really mean anything until there's actual meat on the bone," Krikorian said. "There's no indication that they resolved those issues."

    Separate proposals being drafted by the White House, the Senate and House will address guest worker programs as a way to eliminate the reliance some employers place on illegal immigrants. At least half of the workers that farmers used for field work from 2007 to 2009 were illegal immigrants, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Many can also be found in the construction and hospitality industries.

    The agreement would create a "professional bureau in a federal executive agency" that would monitor the nation's labor market to adjust the number of visas granted to foreign workers.

    U.S. businesses would still be required to hire American job applicants first. But when the newly created bureau identifies labor shortages, it could then adjust the flow of immigrant visas to quickly respond.

    "Our challenge is to create a mechanism that responds to the needs of business in a market-driven way, while also fully protecting the wages and working conditions of U.S. and immigrant workers," the joint statement said.

    Big business, labor find common ground on immigration
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