And who could have seen this coming? With that big mouth and his cutting words, The Donald is doing more for the real prospects of genuine Immigrant Reform than all the frauds on the Belt Way!
The type of reform is as yet uncertain, however rest assured that most Republicans and many Democrats can’t hide behind BS rhetoric any longer. Every generation of Americans have faced the waves of immigrants – just ask the Native American Indians!
The days of having citizen and immigrant played against each other, so business can maintain a low wage environment, has to come to a conclusion. Then it will be back to the drawing board for business on how best to divide workers. The whole non-union/union thing is working; however, it’s the divisiveness between citizens and immigrate that greases the wheels.
The Right Wing of the Republican Party has zero tolerance for anything less than mass deportation. But any chance of R’s holding national office is unlikely, unless there is a more moderate policy which includes a real path to citizenship.
Either way, the civil war inside the R party is going to move Immigration Reform. If the Right Wing hears anything less than a hard line, good luck winning the primary. On the other hand, should a Jeb, et al get through the process, then most right wingers will sit out the election.
If the hardliners win the day, then all the work the RNC has done to court the Hispanic vote goes right out the window. Not only will they forfeit the President’s Office, but many State and Local Offices as well in the upcoming cycles.
Some of the Democrats are going to be pushed on this issue too, especially those beholding to big donors and corporations – so a day of reckoning, which will break the grip of big business, is in sight – all thanks to The Donald.
Even immigrants who I have had association with as an organizer, which would be well over 200 families, want a resolution to this non-policy which has permeated our culture and to them needs a resolution.
The issue of labor brokering with illegal workers that exists in construction has spawned the temp agencies that have sprung up throughout North America. I’ve met several brokers through the years and personally know this to be the case.
Brokering is now giving way to trafficking, which frankly is modern day slavery, and can only exist if there is a market for it – and construction is a big market. This isn’t chump change to work at this level and yet the Building Trades will not defend these workers. They would rather cooperate with big construction and not confront it. I can take you to a half dozen jobs right now that are trafficking, and yet the trades will not take these entities on. It appears they would rather have cocktails with the developers and construction managers, then confront this cancer.
By revealing these practices via opposition research using perhaps social media and driving wedges between bad faith construction end-users and construction managers, we can eliminate these practices. This is where Value on Display is at its worse, trying to talk to these complicit criminals, and in doing so establishing Recognition by promoting Value on Display; which then limits any of the above activities because of Secondary laws under the NLRA. Google it!
So Brothers & Sisters, that is why President Obama signed the Executive Order in November of 2014. In the environment that now exists, that order would have brought those immigrants out of the shadows. Illegal immigrants could not be effectively trafficked without those who are trafficking truly being held accountable and that would result in brokering decreasing significantly. The union could effectively organize these worker, and they would pay taxes – a win/win for all, well maybe not business, my bad!
So big business jammed it up in court and their PR machine is working overtime to pit citizen and immigrant against each other with their favorite piñata – the President.
This would have been sufficient enough to get through the national elections and the status quo returned – till this big mouth came along!
These workers, along with the non-union, are the future backbone of the trades. Winning their hearts and minds would go a long way in restoring the trades to true “Movement” status again.
These men and women are working on the 88% of the construction market that could be organized if the trades finally think like a Movement again and quit operating as a business Brand!
They didn’t take our jobs as much as we lost them during 50 last years of in-action!
“if you see a fight – get in it”
In Solidarity,
Danny L Caliendo
Organizer
Labor Rising Group
BTW – not having the Border patrol talk to Trump is a sign of weakness, not solidarity, and makes it appear that the union is hiding something. These are the frontline troops, their opinion matters.
