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Workers making voices heard
Centers sprout, help immigrants speak up, while many employers push to increase the number of green cards and work visas issued

By Stephen Franklin
Tribune staff reporter

January 6, 2007

All the years Graciela Flores has worked in grungy, low-wage factory jobs, she felt she didn't have the right to speak up, until recently.

"We thought that because we are immigrants we can't speak up, and we didn't know anyone that would help us," she said.

Her reluctance changed when a center that assists mostly Latino immigrants like Flores stepped in last year to help her and about 35 other workers iron out their pay issues with a Chicago distribution center.

"For the first time I've seen people feel some hope. They see the possibility of immigration reform and that translates into more rights on the job," said Ari Glazer, director of the San Lucas Workers Center, one of four of its kind in Chicago.

Much has changed in terms of immigrants' presence in the workplace. They are no longer invisible, and dozens of groups have sprung up nationally with workplace issues like the Humboldt Park-based San Lucas Center, which didn't exist until six years ago.

But the willingness of workers like Flores to speak out, as witnessed by the marches that swept the country last year, is only a small slice of the evolving national debate and drama over immigrants in the workplace. It is a vast and complex issue that will matter as much in 2007 as it has before because so many have so much at stake in the outcome.

Corporate America remains committed to some form of immigration reform and will renew its pressure on Congress. Companies want to keep their workers, who are included in the estimated 7 million illegal immigrants on the job, most of them earning low wages.

A less-noticed drive waged by corporations, universities and research organizations calls for opening the doors to immigrant scientists, doctors, teachers and other well-educated professionals. They would fill the middle-class jobs that companies and others say they cannot fill with Americans.

Related to these efforts is a push to boost the number of green cards issued annually to 290,000 from 140,000. Proponents also would like to see the number of H-1B visas given annually to foreign workers rise to more than 100,000 from 65,000.

Unions representing professional workers are likely to fight any such efforts. They point to growing unemployment among their white-collar members.

But organized labor overall is committed to making room for undocumented immigrant workers already in the U.S. Though most are low-paid, they account for large numbers of unions' newly organized rank and file. And this is no small issue as organized labor's numbers plummet.

However, it is not just labor reaching out to immigrants. Many undocumented workers welcome labor's "helping hand," says UCLA labor expert Ruth Milkman, because they feel that attaching themselves to unions can ease the hostility directed at them.

Still, a key provision in most immigration reform packages is not accepted by much of organized labor. They oppose a system that would allow employers to temporarily bring in guest workers to meet seasonal needs. The AFL-CIO says this could lead to abuses of employees, and would gut others' wage and working conditions.

But John Wilhelm, head of the hospitality division for Unite Here, disagrees. The solution, he says, is to set up guest worker programs "where abuses are not possible."

Even if labor and its allies resolve their differences, will immigration reform pass Congress this year?

That is not so clear.

Last year a proposal focused mostly on border security passed the U.S. House. A broader plan amenable to much of the business community passed the U.S. Senate, but then died.

At the minimum, Angelo Amador, an official with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, thinks Congress will set up a new system for employers to verify workers' immigration status. The current one is widely criticized by business. He also is optimistic about a broader package emerging from Congress,

However, Bill Samuels, the AFL-CIO's chief lobbyist, has his doubts.

"I'm not sure how you are going to be able to put something together that is acceptable to labor, to business, to the House and the Senate, and the president," he said.

Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which supports stricter immigration controls, said he doesn't expect major changes. "You'll see the kind of reaction from the public that stopped the Senate bill in its tracks last year. The public didn't support the Democrats to enact a massive amnesty."

The expectation that change may be coming for immigrants is something that Glazer has watched grow among workers seeking help at the San Lucas Worker Center.

"Before, they were saying we have no rights," recalled Glazer, who met Flores, 32, about 18 months ago.

Flores and her colleagues were complaining that they had not received pay increases from the temporary help agency that had placed them at the downtown distribution center for Paper Source Inc., a stationery supply firm.

Talks with Paper Source officials led the way, said Glazer, for the workers to be able to move to another temporary help agency and to keep their jobs.

The new agency boosted the workers' pay from $6.50 an hour to $8 an hour, and provided holiday pay, according Flores.

Paper Source officials could not be reached.

While other workers were fearful of losing their jobs at the distribution center if they moved to another temporary help agency, Flores was not. She was the first to make the move and has not regretted it.

"The biggest difference is the salary," she said. "That has made us much happier."

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sfranklin@tribune.com

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Key issues in immigration reform

HIGH-SKILLED WORKERS: Companies, universities and research institutions want to boost the numbers of foreign workers in the health-care and technology sectors. Unions and others fear the loss of middle-class jobs.

UNDOCUMENTED WORKERS: With an estimated 7 million undocumented immigrants on the job, companies, unions and others are searching for ways to keep them at work.

GUEST WORKERS: The AFL-CIO opposes a guest worker program, saying it is open to abuse. But some unions and immigrant advocates say abuses can be avoided.

IMMIGRATION LAWS: Advocates of reform are hopeful but not certain Congress will pass legislation. They expect the Democrats to renew last year's efforts to change immigration laws. Opponents say the public won't back any moves to legalize or let in large groups of immigrants.
Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune