AFL-CIO organizer Amnesty, not free trade

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio – Amnesty for anybody in this country, for every worker “no matter how you got here” is the policy of the AFL-CIO, Don Slaiman, organizer for the national labor federation, told a group of students at Bowling Green State University Nov. 14.

Slaiman gave a lively presentation on the issues of immigration and globalization and the priorities of the labor movement. He argued that restrictive legislation “turns employers into police” and they use that power to scare workers and break union organizing efforts.

The only real hope to raise wages that have been demolished by current immigration policies, he said, is for both immigrant and non-immigrant workers to get along and organize together.

“They have to find a way to work together,” Slaiman said. “Unions get people the power and power changes what happens in the workplace.”

Aside from the amnesty issue, Slaiman informed the young crowd about labor’s successful effort to pass living wage ordinances in Toledo, Ohio. He pointed out that minimum wage is 61 percent of the poverty rate and 48 percent of children living in poverty have at least one parent who works full time.

“A full-time job should provide a living wage,” Slaiman said.

Slaiman also blasted NAFTA and “fast-track,” now being called Trade Promotion Authority. This policy, in addition to giving the President too much power over the trade issue, investment, and labor’s rights, is “not democratic, but that’s what globalization is all about,” Slaiman said.

He also described how, by lowering wages in places like Mexico and Nicaragua, “free trade” policies hurt Latin Americans, destroy their social and cultural life and promote continued migration north.

For example, General Motors, which has increased its work force in Northern Mexico to over 17,000 workers in recent years, pays lower than the average wage in Mexico, has helped to spark overcrowded conditions along the border, triggered massive environmental problems, and divided men and women workers through sexist hiring policies.

To fight back against this trend, U.S. workers should not turn to restrictive policies, but support a general amnesty policy, Slaiman said.