Thread: ALABAMA EMPLOYERS FOR IMMIGRATION REFORM

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ALABAMA EMPLOYERS FOR IMMIGRATION REFORM

Union leaders oppose immigration bill
Thursday, May 24, 2007

ROY L. WILLIAMS
News staff writer
Groups representing Alabama construction companies and the poultry industry are backing a coalition to promote legislation that will enable them to continue hiring Hispanics to fill jobs.

Alabama Employers for Immigration Reform, formed in March under the leadership of Associated Builders and Contractors and Alabama Poultry & Egg Association, has hired Birmingham law firm Bradley Arant Rose & White to help it analyze legislation such as an immigration bill being debated in Congress this week.

The group's co-chairman, Jay Reed of ABC in Birmingham, wants "responsible legislation" to address the immigration issue at a time when Alabama's jobless rate is at an all-time low.

"With 3.3 percent unemployment, it is increasingly difficult to find individuals able to pass drug and background checks or willing to take jobs in many of the industries in Alabama," Reed said. "Immigration labor has become an important part of Alabama's thriving economy."

A Birmingham union organizer said the use of illegal laborers has cost Americans jobs. Sean O'Donnell of Local 78 Heat & Frost Insulators in Birmingham, which represents workers that install insulation at building sites, said the construction industry's use of immigrant workers at below-market wages has depressed earnings for other workers.

O'Donnell said the immigration reform bill being debated in Congress would unfairly allow an estimated 12 million immigrants working in the United States illegally to apply to stay under a guest worker program.

"There is a big difference between opportunities for immigrants such as when my Irish great-grandparents came to New York years ago and what President Bush has in mind for the immigrants of today," O'Donnell said. Illegal immigrants, he added, "bleed the economy for substandard wages and send all that money back home where they can retire."

Reed and Bill Caton, a spokesman for Associated General Contractors of Alabama in Birmingham, said the construction industry has depended on Hispanic immigrants to fill shortages at job sites across Alabama.

"Employers want a clear system that is vigorously enforced in which legal and illegal employees are clearly identified by the government so that employers do not have to act as police and those who comply with the law will not suffer penalties," Reed said.

O'Donnell, the union organizer, said Congress needs to put stiffer penalties in immigration reform legislation to crack down on companies that knowingly employ illegal workers.

AGC's Caton said that it is unreasonable to expect an employer "to act like an INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) enforcement agent."

"If an employer presents what appears to be proper documentation, begins working in good faith and keeps proper files, then the employer has done all he should have to do," he said. "However, those who knowingly employ someone illegally, does not withhold taxes and does not follow the law should be punished."

Coalition members include Alabama Restaurant Association, Alabama Hospitality Association, Alabama Farmers Federation and Alabama Road Builders Association.

E-mail: rwilliams@bhamnews.com COALITIONXX -- COALITION:

Difficulty finding workers cited






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Difficulty finding workers cited

Yeah, Really...those pesky Americans always want a LIVING WAGE...you you....freakin...(edit self)