Friday, August 05, 2005

The Hard Realities of Immigrant Labor

Immigration is a hot topic. Everyone seems to have an opinion about it.

A common theme has to do with employment and unemployment. Immigrants, especially undocumented or "illegal" immigrants, are said to be "taking jobs away from U. S. citizens."

That is likely a true statement.

The reason why it is true is more complex.

A recent report by Seven Greenhouse ("Among Janitors, Labor Violations Go With the Job," The New York Times, July 13, 2005, pages A1, A19) reveals how companies take unfair advantage of non-union janitors by contracting for custodial services.

Examples of unlawful labor practices include the hiring of minors, requiring employees to work more than 40 hours per week without overtime pay, assigning individual employees more than one name to cover up the extended hour practice, locking cleaning staff inside buildings overnight, forcing employees to work their first two weeks without pay and compensating janitors at less than the minimum hourly wage (ridiculously low at $5.15).

Janitorial services companies, attempting to come in as low bidders in competition to land cleaning contracts with large corporations, squeeze these non-union, immigrant workers to achieve their goals. Undocumented workers are easily exploited and intimidated. As a result, they put up with labor practices that citizens would not tolerate.

So, I guess they do fill jobs that U. S. citizens don't and won't.

If American companies behaved fairly in regard to this sector of the labor market, our citizens would fill these jobs. The decision to seek out labor that will work at far below livable and even legal wages opens the doors and, thus, the borders for undocumented workers.

Already during 2005, a number of large corporations have entered into multi-million dollar settlements after complaints were brought against their labor practices. Last March, Wal-Mart Stores settled with the U. S. Department of Justice for $11 million after raids on stores in 21 states. Wal-Mart uses janitorial contractors for cleaning services. These contractors employed undocumented workers to keep costs down and to secure the contracts.

Wal-Mart is not alone. Settlements have been reached with Target, Safeway, Albertson's and Ralphs. Testimony in these cases revealed that some janitors servicing these contracts worked seven nights a week for $3.50 an hour. Some reported working 364 days out of the year, with Christmas as their only day off. Others reported being threatened with firing if they took sick days.

Hmmm.

Now let's see. Where's the problem here?

Is it that these are jobs no one else will do? I suppose so given the wages and the conditions.

Is this the fault of the immigrants? Or, is the real problem with the corporations who attempt to maximize their profits by choosing the lowest bidders without regard to social policy or basic humane considerations?

Is the problem with hard-working immigrants who take the jobs they can find? Or, is the real issue unscrupulous janitorial contractors who exploit vulnerable individuals to keep from paying citizens a legal wage with overtime and benefits?

Should our national frustration be directed at the worker who comes from south of our border? Or, would it be better to take aim at the part of corporate America that resists unions and seeks to keep wages as low as possible?

What about our own greed? What about my political will and power? Aren't we all implicated in many ways?

Seems to me we need to completely rethink the issue of immigration. And, while we are at it, we need to pay more attention to the harsh realities facing much of our labor force in this country.

The vigilantes who recently have been heralded for patrolling the Mexican border to intercept immigrants might better spend their time camped out at the Capitol in Washington or in the boardrooms of the nation's major corporations.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

"vigilantes"? There seems to be such a negative association with this title. I hope your intent was to use it literally. Or was there venom in your pen? keyboard? whatever...
Main Entry: vig·i·lan·te
Pronunciation: "vi-j&-'lan-tE
Function: noun
Etymology: Spanish, watchman, guard, from vigilante vigilant, from Latin vigilant-, vigilans
: a member of a volunteer committee organized to suppress and punish crime summarily (as when the processes of law appear inadequate); broadly : a self-appointed doer of justice

Todd Ramsey said...

Do you ever worry that by becoming politically active for the individuals you serve, you may end up neglecting Christ's call to be spiritually active for the individuals you serve?

Larry James said...

Todd, good question! And, believe it or not, it is one I reflect upon myself frequently.

Two things always pull me back to the heart of my work with the community.

First, the amazing spirituality of the poor continues to jar me. People who are not poor assume the poor need a good dose of God, Jesus and/or religion. The fact is the vast majority of the poor will freely and willingly tell you that their faith is solid and deep and that it is in Jesus. As a matter of fact, 9 of 10 persons who are "poor" will tell you Jesus is the only reason they go on, survive and have hope.

So, my political engagement around simple issues like fairness, justice and equal opportunity--all of which make no difference at all unless one is willing to "get political"--doesn't actually take me away from anything spiritual at all. As a matter of fact, this is some of my most spiritual work (read Luke, James, the 8th century Hebrew prophets--very political documents.

When people already consider themselves Christians, but have life issues associated with poverty, then I feel as if the spiritual thing to do is to go to work on poverty.

I have noticed that a person making $4.50 an hour, working in horrid conditions, is fairly impressed with my spirituality when he notices that I am standing up with him against the unfairness and the evil that is back of this. As I type this I am located within three blocks of a corporation that routinely hires undocumented workers and pays them well below the minimum wage. I benefit from this arrangement, as do thousands of others in Dallas, but such oppressive labor practices are not right or moral. The labor issues are much more of a concern to me than the immigration matters and I believe that is a very biblical viewpoint (run a reference on words like "stranger" or "alien" in a concordance).

Second, I also notice that whenever we are working on issues that may affect some change in the economy to the benefit of the bottom and at the expense of those above in the economic order, people start counseling me to stick to religion in my work. Politics is a dangerous thing, don't you see?

Christ's call, at least as I have experienced it, is to address the entire person and the entire life situation of people who are being crushed.

At this point I have to check my anger as I consider the role of the American church in the maintainence of unjust systems all in the name of religion, Christianity and moral values.

Was it Margaret Mead who wrote, "When I fed the hungry, they called me a saint. But when I asked why they were hungry, they called me a communist"?

Kristi said...

I guess I'm a little fuzzy on what it means to "get political". To have a voice that addresses issues of our society, one can: run for office (for only a few), hold a picket sign (to be ignored), vote or engage in conversations that spur action. If building awareness of social justice issues is being political, then it seems that maybe that is exactly our call as Christians.

Anonymous said...

The immigrant labor issue becomes more complicated when one stops to realize that immigrant labor also pays Social Security Tax and Income Tax withholding while employed. A recent study revealed that immigrants consume significantly less health care than non-immigrants and many will likely never recieve any of the social security benefits that they paid for.

Given this reality, there appears to be little financial incentive for the federal government to reduce these types of payments into the overburdened social security system.

Nope, probably won't see many vigilantes in Washington trying to stop the immigrants from illegally paying into the system without an expectation of return.

Larry James said...

Anonymous, you are exactly right. Take a look at my post on April 13, 2005 for a more detailed discussion of what you are suggesting here. The fact is, almost everyone benefits from the presence of undocumented labor in this nation.