Thread: Construction workers picket federal immigration offices

August 26, 2006

Construction workers picket federal immigration offices

By Paul J. Nyden
Staff writer



Nearly 60 union members and supporters showed up to picket federal immigration offices on Charleston’s West Side at noon on Friday.

Many carried signs reading: “Local Jobs for Local Workers” and “ICE: Do Your Job.” The Associated Construction Trades Foundation coordinated the protest.

ICE, which stands for U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, has offices inside the building, as does the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Steve White, executive director of the ACT Foundation, said, “There is an epidemic in our state of companies importing workers and not hiring local workers. They are taking jobs local people could have.

“ICE is blind to what is going on,” said White, pointing to the 15-foot tall blindfolded mouse sitting on the sidewalk.

“The problem is not the workers inside this building,” White said. “It is the policy from D.C. of not hiring enough people.”

Immigrant workers in West Virginia — most of whom come from Mexico, Central American and Russia — tend to be concentrated in a few industries including: logging, sawmills, wood finishing and building construction.

“These are jobs that cannot be exported, so workers are imported to do them,” White said. “We are not against immigration. But immigrant workers take local jobs at $6 an hour with no benefits, undercutting the wages we have worked for years to increase.”

Some businesses employing immigrant workers also have received state tax credits to create jobs, such as the Columbia Forest Products plant near Holden, on a strip-mined mountaintop on the border between Logan and Mingo counties.

Immigrant workers do not come to Charleston and other West Virginia areas on their own, but are recruited by brokers such as Spanforce Labor LLC, with offices in Terra Alta and Lewisburg, White said.

To contact staff writer Paul J. Nyden, use e-mail or call 348-5164.

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Home > News

Are Illegal Immigrants Taking West Virginia Jobs?
Posted Friday, August 25, 2006 ; 05:16 PM

Union members stage protest.
Story by Ben Thompson Email | Bio

Protestors paraded down a popular street in Charleston Friday. Members of local labors union were protesting the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, otherwise known as "ICE". They held signs reading "slow as ICE", "ICE, protect our state", and "ICE do you job."

They gathered outside the Charleston Immigration and Citizenship office on Kanawha Boulevard. The protestors say that some West Virginia companies are hiring illegal workers, and that the immigration officers aren't doing anything about it.
The result they say is fewer jobs at lower wages.

"We've seen an increase in illegal or suspected illegal workers in the state, and nothing's being done about it," said Steve White with the Affiliated Construction Trades Foundation.