A new report raises concerns of exploitation of Latino workers by egregious employers taking advantage of our broken immigration system.
The report was conducted by the immigrant rights advocacy group National Council of La Raza and cites data from academic studies, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Census and others. It finds, among other things, that the Latino occupation fatality rate was 21.1 percent higher than white workers and 17.9 percent higher than black workers in 2007.
You can read the NCLR study here.
We touched on some of these same findings in our series, Cruelest Cuts, and how the poultry industry ignored injured workers at its plants to help boost profits. Many of the victims were illegal immigrants too afraid to complain.
Anyone familiar with this blog knows that the NCLR is a staunch advocate for comprehensive immigration reform. So it should come as no surprise that the group maintains that many of these problems would not be as great if many of these workers could be legalized and therefore unfraid to join unions built to protect them, and feel safe to speak out against exploitation.
It’s an argument many advocates are making.
But there is also an argument that increased enforcement of our nation’s immigration laws would produce similar results.
In January 2007, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents raided the Smithfield Pork plant in Tarheel. Months later ICE followed up with additional arrests of workers and many others fled.
According to a report by the pro-enforcement Center for Immigration Studies, written by former Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jerry Kammer, the raid turned out to be a key factor in the December 2008 vote to unionize the plant.
You can read the CIS study here.
Similar working conditions criticized by the NCLR study had been being reported for years at the Tarheel plant, the world’s largest pork plant. Yet, for 16 years, organizers were unsuccessful in starting a union.
Unions are not the savior, however. Some of the plants we reported on in Cruelest Cuts are also unionized. In plants with many illegal immigrant workers, union membership is down and therefore so is the union's influence and ability to demand better working conditions.
Advocates like NCLR, as well as many economists, say America needs more additional immigrant workers. But that argument is going to be difficult to make in today's economy with so many Americans out of work.
Photo: JOHN D. SIMMONS - jsimmons@charlotteobserver.com
Posts
27 comments:
deport them = no problem
I personally hope ALL the illegal workers lose a hand or two. That might increase the likelyhood of their returning to their OWN country. I only wish franco sould be deported along witht he illegal invader CRIMINALS he so loves to coddle. I want to see a few employers fined a million or two dollars for EMPLOYING illegal invaders, see how fast they show the REST of the illegals the door. franco you are pimple on the ass of America.
Well, that's the whole problem.
It's pretty funny hearing La Raza complain about "illegal" working conditions for ILLEGALS.
Well, duh!
Once you start down the slippery slope of "illegal", you really
can't stop...
You know you can't have a "legal" contract to do anything illegal,
so all bets are off from the beginning.
And that's exactly WHY working conditions have gotten worse where "illegal" immigrants are employed.
So what's next from our friends at La Raza?
Special rights for drug smugglers and other lawbreakers who get the raw end of a "deal"?
Honor among thieves cannot be legislated.
Got God Gang
please call president kim jong and hire him as a consultant
he'll straightened the border all out
fast forward
need to tighten' the immagration bible belt
everybody's invited back
think like joe the plumber
stop the leak first and formost
then upgrade plumbing system
more later....
LaRaza needs to be shut down in Amerikkka. IF you know of LaRaza office landlords in your town, expose their identities for public SHAME!
your newest Supreme Court Judge is a LaRaza member.
Illegals should not be here at all? They are stealing jobs from hard working American's. Go to crisis assistance (my neighbor volunteers) she told me there are more down there begging to get their bills paid than over at DSS(social services) which they pack the house over there too!! They are abusing our system and stealing from legally born citizens. Please go home, need a caravan?
Franco has a problem they have brainwashed him into thinking, it's okay to be here illegally and the American's owe us everything free! Use your brain instead of an excuse!
IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT SENDS CRIMINALS HOME!
You bring ten million Mexicans up here and what do you get?
Mexico.
Enough said.
"Advocates like NCLR, as well as many economists, say America needs more additional immigrant workers." WTF... only a racist organization like "The Race" would dare say such a lie! If we truly need additional works we should set up legal limits and have them come here correctly. I'm sick of them feeding off of us. How much more do we pay for schools, medical care, etc. because of the illegal free loaders? How can the Charlotte Observer allow someone to blog and advocate illegal activities? This is truly sad!!!
Simply enforce our current laws and the problem would be solved. Why will our government not do this? I'm pointing fingers at both major parties!
LA RAZA? TALK ABOUT TRASH. THE NAME ITSELF IS RACIST. WE HAVE HIGH UNEMPLOYMENT ALL OVER THE NATION BUT THESE LA RAZA SCUMBAGS WANT AMNESTY , A UNION JOB, AND PROTECTION FOR THE ILLEGAL TRASH FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD. WHAT ABOUT AMERICAN CITIZENS? WE WANT THE SAME THING. HOW ABOUT "AMERICA FOR AMERICANS" AND ILLEGALS GO THE HELL BACK TO THE SHITHOLE YOU CRAWLED OUT OFF.P.S. TAKE THAT MORON IN THE WHITE HOUSE WITH YOU!
WELL, PAT AIN'T ALL BAD! DEPORTING ILLEGAL ALIENS IS SIMPLY ENFORCING IMMIGRATION LAWS, LIKE NORTH KOREA, CHIMA, MEXICO,ETC. AS FOR THE ILLEGALS THAT CAN'T SPEAK ENGLISH, LET LA RAZA PAY THE TAB FOR TEACHING "SPANISH LANGUAGE" CLASS FOR CHILDREN THAT CAN'T SPEAK IN THEIR NATIVE TONGUE.
I defy these Anonymous posters with sound-bite mentalities to find a SINGLE racist article at the National Council of La Raza. It might take an open mind and slightly more reading than they are used to, but they can read about the NCLR's use of the phrase "la raza" at http://www.nclr.org/content/viewpoints/detail/42500/. After reading the article, they still might not agree with the idea of a civil rights group, but at least they won't embarrass themselves by spouting off ignorantly about idioms in languages they do not speak.
I am disturbed that Franco cites the regularly discredited Center for Immigration Studies as the counterweight to the NCLR call for immigration reform. Since the CIS was established by the racist, eugenicist, and nativist John Tanton to supply his other organizations with "academic findings" to support their anti-immigrant positions, it is not surprising that they would blame the national origin of the workers for the actions of the corporation.
The cited article is classic CIS: all conclusions and no data. I will grant that corporate thugs are most likely to take advantage of those workers least able to protect themselves, but I can't see how attacking the workers is the answer.
Hey Pelegrino! I've read La Raza's agenda. First off no one is against "legal " immigration, but La Raza smooths right over the fact that millions of illegal aliens from all over the world are invading the U.S.! I see the flag of Mexico, I hear our national anthem with the words changed to Mexican. I hear about Aztlan and Mecha and you want Americans to beleive La Raza is just a harmless civil rights organization! Thats bullshit. They have an agenda, and they are RACIST!
Anonymous,
Wow, you saw MEChA (correct capitalization of the acronym) material at the NCLR? Please include the link. There is, however, an excellent discussion of the one grant that the NCLR gave to the Georgetown University chapter of the student organization, MEChA. On the other hand, on that website I have seen several disavowals of MEChA's separatist rhetoric.
Of course, I actually went to the site, and did not merely look at the pictures provided by some deluded paranoid like Tancredo or Beck.
I am curious, are you as willing as the NCLR to disavow extremist language? Do you deplore the white supremacist beliefs of people like John Tanton and the secessionist language of Rick Perry?
As far as language and flags are concerned, I hope you will cut some slack to those poor benighted descendants of the Irish (and Irish wannabes) who fly the Irish flag and slur "Erin Go Braugh" every March. I am sure they don't mean treason by saying "Ireland Forever" any more than the
descendants of Scots who go to Grandfather Mountain every summer for the Highland Games.
I think honoring one's family traditions is typically included in the phrase, "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
And so welcome to the United States. One of the things that makes us special is that we contiue to make one people of many people. Some societies have attempted unity through unanimity. Others have tried to force some sort of purity. Our special gift to the world was to prove we could, and continue to, create Unum from Pluribus.
Hey Pelegrino! Unim my ass! I'll trust the word of Beck, Limbaugh, and Tancredo before I listen to any open border advocates. We have legal ways of entering the country and people have to wait there turn or wait for reform. No other country in the world would tolerate whats happened here in the states, and the moron in the white house doesn't help.
lIFE, LIBERTY, AND THEPURSUIT OF HAPPINESS DOESN'T MEAN FLAUNT OUR IMMIGRATION LAWS. wE GAVE AMNESTY TO OVER 3 MILLION ILLEGALS IN 1976 AND WHAT GOOD DID IT DO? wE NOW HAVE OVER TWENTY MILION MORE DEMANDING THE SAME. I DON'T THINK I HAVE TO SAY WHAT THIS NEXT AMNESTY WILL BRING WHEN IT HAPPENS. 40 MILLION MORE? 80 , MAYBE 100 MILLION! AND THEY WILL WANT THE SAME GOD DAMN THING, A FREE PASS, AND THAT GIVES CHEAP LABOR FOR THE REPUBLICANS AND CHEAP VOTES FOR THE DEMOCRATS. WE THE PEOPLE GET IT STUCK IN THE BUTT!
The laws of this land should be enforced. Period. Deport ALL illegal immigrants and their anchor babies. I am very disappointed in our government for allowing such an influx of illegals. If companies did not hire them, they would not come. Companies that hire illegals should be fined heavily and should be put on a watch list so they don't hire illegals again.
Explain to me how people in my country illegally have rights? Only legal citizen can claim my country needs to protect them. If you want protection -- go back to your own country and come back to mine when you can do it LEGALLY!
LaRaza complains about illegal conditions for illegal FELONs working illegally in our country. Well, LaRaza, tell them to vamoose, go home. Even the worst conditions here are probably 400% better than great conditions in their countries. We need to enforce the immigration laws, pronto (quickly), any illegal gets a oneway bus ticket back. That will stop it. And, no more free dinero for housing, food, medical, etc. They are stopped in a car, the car is seized just like illegal drugs. Hey LaRaza, are YOU legal?
Peregrino, they are a racist group because that advocate rights for one ethnic kind of person and no one else.
They are racist when they demand that immigration laws of this country not be enforced because most of the illegal immigrants are latino.
They dont even want ICE roundup of criminals convicted of serious crims in the US by anyone who is of latino background.
They can claim all they want that they are not a racist group but americans know better. LaRaza means the race. at least that is what my hispanic friends tell me. They say its not the neighborhood as NCLR wants to say it is.
As for your Irish comment, how lame, thats only done a couple of days a year in March. its not forced onto america every day like seeing flags of mexico, central and south america.
Vicente Duque, if you really trust the SPLC information, i have a bridge in Brooklyn I would like to sell you, some ocean front property in Arizona and some land in south Florida, CHEAP!
The SPLC information has been disproved for the past few years since they have come out and decided that border watch groups are hate groups because they are heling the border patrol stop illegals from entering the US.
AS for the minuteman group, the three who stand ACCUSED of murder in Arizona are just that, accused. there has been no trial to deterimine ones innocent or guilt in this case. so the SPLC and others need to stop judging people before a trial takes place.
And for the record, the two original founders of the minuteman groups in the american Southwest have both said she was not part of their group and had not been in at least 2-3 years. they both decided it best because of her actions.
the only way suffolk county can arrest anyone illegal is to be registered and trained in the ICE 287G program, like Maricopa County, AZ. You might know that county cuz its the home of Sheriff Joe Arpaio. And its home to Phoenix, Arizona, the second ranked city in the WORLD for kidnappings. mostly hispanic on hispanic. smugglers holding illegals for more money.
States with at least a half-million Hispanic residents - States where Latinos grow faster - Mr Weeks finds a Gold Mine of Information
Mr Weeks, Professor of Political Science at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte finds a Gold Mine of Latino Information
As you can see the Sun Belt is very crucial for studying this phenomenon of Latino Population and Growth ( California, Arizona, Texas, Georgia, Florida ) , the South West also merits attention ( Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico ). Let's see what happens in the 2010 elections ....
The Other States : Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia are Atlantics.
The Carolinas have the biggest percentual increase and they are in the Middle of the Sandwich of the Atlantics and the Sun Belt Florida and Georgia.
This is his blog :
Two Weeks Notice: A Latin American Politics Blog
Hispanic Heritage Month
http://weeksnotice.blogspot.com/2009/09/hispanic-heritage-month.html
Some excerpts :
The number of states with at least a half-million Hispanic residents --Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Washington.
Source : Population Etimates
http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/population/013734.html
The Carolinas : The states with the highest percentage increases in Hispanic population between July 1, 2007, and July 1, 2008. South Carolina's increase was 7.7 percent and North Carolina's was 7.4 percent.
Source : Population Estimates
http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/population/013734.html
More Statistics, Demographies, and Political Calculations here :
Milenials.com
Vicente Duque
So you think immigration reform is only affects the undocumented then think again. Today my husband a US citizen, Army Veteran was discriminated against and singled out by an ignorant individual at Fort Bragg, NC. My husband was to perform on base with a local band, as they presented their documents to access the base, he and few other members are singled out because of their accents. My husband had a valid NC ID in his possession and was evening carrying his original social security card. Yet he was held for about 30 - 45 minutes while this ahole consulted with immigration on the phone. He was embarrassed and humilitated by an ignorant fool that thinks that all "Americans" are anglos and speak perfect English.
I read all these comments and they make me sick to my stomach, and to think that I served this country for 8 years and put my life on the line for a bunch of ignorant bigots in the name of freedom. The saddest thing is that I probably work with and live next door to any of these fools.
Bigotry's birthplace is the sinister back room of the mind where plots and schemes are hatched for the persecution and oppression of other human beings.
The mind of the bigot is like the pupil of the eye; the more light you pour upon it, the more it will contract.
Post a Comment