{"id":23137,"date":"2020-06-26T13:00:56","date_gmt":"2020-06-26T17:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/?p=23137"},"modified":"2020-06-26T13:02:29","modified_gmt":"2020-06-26T17:02:29","slug":"afl-cios-convoluted-response-to-trump-guestworker-eo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2020\/06\/26\/afl-cios-convoluted-response-to-trump-guestworker-eo\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL-CIO\u2019s Convoluted Response to Trump Guestworker EO"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

During a\nrecent interview<\/a> on Fox\u2019s \u201cMornings with Maria,\u201d\nhost Maria Bartiromo spoke with Richard Trumka \u2013 the president of the largest\nfederation of labor unions in the U.S., the AFL-CIO (American Federation of\nLabor-Congress of Industrial Organizations) \u2013 on a wide range of issues. Among\nthe issues discussed was President Trump\u2019s new proclamation temporarily\nsuspending foreign guestworker entries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The June 22 executive action<\/a> affects the H-1B<\/a> program, and several other\nnonimmigrant guestworker programs<\/a>, H-2B, J, and L, in addition to\nforeign citizens accompanying or following to join such guestworkers. The\nproclamation \u2013 which is in effect until December 31, 2020, but may be extended\n\u2013 is expected to free up approximately 600,000 jobs for American workers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To this, the\nAFL-CIO president responded: \u201cLook, why did he do that temporarily? We\u2019ve been\nsaying this for 10 years. If the visa system was structured properly, you would\nonly be able to bring people in when there was a real need, and only when they\npay them an adequate wage and an adequate benefit [sic]. (\u2026) It\u2019s time for us\nnow to say \u2013 these visa laws don\u2019t work. Don\u2019t just do this temporarily, let\u2019s\ndo this and make it a sane system, so that when there is a real need we can get\npeople, but when there isn\u2019t a real need we shouldn\u2019t be able to bring people\nin to lower the wages of American workers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course,\nMr. Trumka has a point. The guestworker halt should be made permanent, and the\nsystem needs to be reformed to only bring in those highly-skilled workers we\ndon\u2019t have to fill legitimate and temporary labor shortages \u2013 not to serve as a\npermanent cheap foreign labor subsidy for large corporations in Big Tech and\nother sectors. Nevertheless, the EO is a step in the right direction and\ndeserves credit as such. And comprehensive guestworker program reform in the\nspirit envisaged by Mr. Trumka would require action by Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The irony is\nthat the presidential candidate endorsed<\/a> by Trumka and his AFL-CIO is Joe Biden<\/a>, who blasted Trump\u2019s pro-worker\nproclamation as an \u201cattempt to distract\u201d from COVID-19 and to \u201cscapegoat his\nway out of this crisis.\u201d Biden also added the usual obligatory pro-mass\nmigration talking point that \u201cimmigrants help grow our economy and create jobs\u201d\n(never mind that the guestworker programs in question serve primarily to\ndisplace Americans and keep down their wages while primarily growing the bank\naccounts of corporate CEOs). Other top Democrats have attacked<\/a> the presidential proclamation with\nsimilar slogans, which is not to deny that some Republican politicians have voiced<\/a> similarly misguided criticism of\nthe president\u2019s attempt to put American workers first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On June 25,\nthe AFL-CIO finally got around to publishing an official statement<\/a> on the proclamation. Predictably,\nthe communiqu\u00e9 (which did not mention Mr. Trumka) echoed the talking points of\nJoe Biden and other Democratic leaders, claiming that President Trump is\nattempting, \u201cunder the guise of protecting workers,\u201d to \u201cdistract from his\nfailure to lead us through this pandemic by returning to one of his favorite\nthemes\u2060\u2014scapegoating immigrants.\u201d It neglected to mention that guestworkers\nare, by definition, nonimmigrants. <\/em>At\nthe same time, the press release called for \u201crestructur[ing]work visa programs\nso they can only ever be used in cases of real need\u201d \u2013 which is something FAIR\nhas been advocating for a very long time, and towards which the presidential EO\nis a step. In other words, the AFL-CIO seems to be saying \u201cthis is a bad thing\n\u2026 but it also doesn\u2019t go far enough.\u201d This leaves many union members to scratch\ntheir heads wondering which is it. What they can (and should do) is press their\nleadership to push President Trump, Congress, and even Joe Biden to implement the comprehensive overhaul\nthat Trumka called for on Maria Bartiromo\u2019s program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During a recent interview on Fox\u2019s \u201cMornings with Maria,\u201d host Maria Bartiromo spoke with Richard Trumka \u2013 the president of the largest federation of labor unions in the U.S., the AFL-CIO (American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations) \u2013 on a wide range of issues. Among the issues discussed was President Trump\u2019s new proclamation temporarily<\/p>\n

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