Thread: Nevada businesses, unions team up for immigration reform

Folks, what do you think? I'll bet boycotting Las Vegas would also take care of their problem and be much cheaper for taxpayers to boot

http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ar...0339/1002/NEWS

Doug Abrahms
GANNETT NEWS SERVICE
Posted: 10/29/2005

Nevada businesses, unions team up for immigration reform


WASHINGTON -- Nevada businesses and some labor unions have forged an unlikely alliance to push immigration reform that would legalize most of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants living in the United States and expand a guest worker program.

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid recently brought together the state's largest union and the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce to support legislation by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., that calls for providing legal status and tightening border control.

Businesses, especially in Las Vegas, are backing the measure because they see a vast need for workers in the construction, casino and restaurant industries.

MGM Mirage has 2,500 job openings in its hotels and casinos nationwide, although most are in Las Vegas, said Jovita Thomas-Williams, vice president of labor relations.

"We're trying to fill jobs," she said. "It's tough all over the country, but particularly in Las Vegas."

In Northern Nevada, where the labor market isn't as tight as it is in Las Vegas, immigration reform is not as big an issue.

But Luther Mack, who owns 10 McDonald's restaurants in the Reno area, said he would have a harder time recruiting workers if a law was passed to curtail the number of illegal immigrants in the area.

"Without the foreign workers in the food service industry, you probably wouldn't have any workers," Mack said.

Michael Lynch, who heads the Builders Association of Northern Nevada, said the area's construction companies have been able to find enough workers. The industry continues to fill its ranks by promoting jobs in the trades through schools as a way to make a good living, he said.

In Las Vegas, the issue is more pressing because of the area's stunning growth. About 80,000 jobs were created in the region between August 2004 and August this year, said Christina Dugan, a Las Vegas chamber spokeswoman.

The Culinary Workers Union, the big union that represents most of the workers in Las Vegas casinos, also supports McCain's legislation, co-sponsored by Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., because it would provide legal status for some of its members and make family reunification easier, said D. Taylor, secretary treasurer of Local 226 in Las Vegas.

The McCain-Kennedy bill would require illegal immigrants to pay a fine, go through background checks and wait six years before being able to get permanent legal status.

"This is a very big issue for our union," Taylor said. "It's pretty strange to have the culinary union having a news conference with the chamber."

This alliance in Nevada mirrors the national scene, where the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is working with the Service Employees International Union to push through comprehensive immigration reform that includes legal status for people working in the U.S. illegally and expanding guest worker programs.

Business and labor leaders say the alliance reflects the growing numbers of illegal immigrants in the U.S. work force and their value to certain industries.

The McCain-Kennedy bill is among several immigration reform proposals circulating on Capitol Hill. President Bush has endorsed the concept of a guest worker program that allows illegal immigrants to remain in the U.S. for up to six years before returning home, although details remain sketchy.

But conservative GOP lawmakers are cool to the idea. Several GOP House members have endorsed a bill by U.S. Rep. J.D. Hayworth, R-Ariz., to increase fines on illegal immigrants and U.S. companies that hire them. It also calls for hiring 10,000 Homeland Security Department agents to oversee workplace enforcement. A bill by U.S. Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., would require illegal immigrants to return home within five years and then apply for legal status.

Many immigrants simply want to work in the U.S. and then go home with money they've earned and skills they've learned, Cornyn said last week. His bill was "based on a work-and-return program, not a work-and-stay program," he said.

Reid said enforcement-only immigration bills won't work. He said a more comprehensive plan like the McCain bill is needed.

"We do need to stop illegal immigration," he said. "But stopping illegal immigration doesn't take care of our problems."

Reid supports allowing illegal immigrants who pay a fine and pass a background check to stay in the U.S. But he says they deserve no preference when applying for permanent legal status. He also supports beefing up border security for economic and national security reasons.

Folks, what do you think?

Businesses, especially in Las Vegas, are backing the measure because they see a vast need for workers in the construction, casino and restaurant industries.

The Key word in all of this is BUSINESSES wanting cheap labor, and to bring the American Ciitzens pay down.

Can we all say boycott Vegas?