By Fred Gaboury

People's Weekly World

CHICAGO - Immigration reform was high on the agenda as the AFL-CIO Executive Council concluded its summer meeting here August 1.

In a brief meeting with reporters, John Wilhelm, president of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees (HERE), said the executive council wanted to "remind all politicians" of the AFL-CIO's position on immigration and to express the federation's "grave concern" over proposals to expand the "guest worker" program.

Wilhelm, chair of the AFL-CIO Committee on Immigration, told reporters there was "nothing new" in the resolution.

"We wanted to weigh in on the current debate and add our voice to that of immigrants and their allies in labor, religious, civil rights and community groups who are demanding an opportunity for immigrant workers to take their rightful place in society without fear and with the rights and protections of any other U.S. worker."

In a statement released July 31, the council reiterated a position adopted at its February 2000 meeting in which it said the nation's immigration policy should be built around five principles: amnesty for undocumented workers and their families; an end to sanctions that punish workers rather than employers who violate immigration law; protection of the right of immigrant workers to form and join unions, "design of new mechanisms" to meet the legitimate need for new workers and reform of existing guest worker programs.

Wilhelm said it "doesn't make sense" to expand a flawed guest worker program. "The current system does not work," he said.

"Guest worker programs should be improved before they are expanded. Programs that place limits on the time a worker can stay here, combined with the lack of fundamental rights and that guest workers are bound to a single employer is little more than the involuntary servitude that is outlawed in the Constitution."

Although the council did not endorse specific legislation, its statement lauded the Congressional Hispanic Caucus for "blazing the trail that the country must follow to address the inequities in our current immigration system."

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), who chairs the Caucus' Task Force on Immigration Reform, has authored HR-500, which grants amnesty to several million undocumented workers and their family members, among its other provisions.

Wilhelm said the AFL-CIO changed its policy from support of sanctions against employers who illegally hired immigrant workers to a call for amnesty because every union has immigrant workers.

"In the first place, the sanctions were used against the workers and against the union. If 10 percent of the workers at a given workplace are undocumented workers who can be intimidated by fear of deportation, then you're going to see the fighting spirit of the workers in that workplace weakened. This is especially true when it comes to organizing drives."

Pointing to the fact that the 2000 census shows there are more foreign-born people in the United States today than at any time in its history, the AFL-CIO statement said: "As a workers' movement built by immigrants, we believe the nation should embrace immigrants for the diversity and values they bring rather than fear them as threats to values or jobs. Hopefully, the debates in town halls, Congress and the media will culminate in prompt and fair changes that benefit us all and reflect our values as a people."

The statement pledged the AFL-CIO to work vigilantly with its coalition partners to ensure that comprehensive legislation, providing for legalization and enforcement for all workers, is passed by Congress and signed into law.

The executive council statement concluded by saying, "Like our nation, our workplaces are becoming more diverse. Our nation, our workplaces and our movement will be better and stronger by including those previously excluded. Together, as union brothers and sisters, we will embrace, celebrate and respect our diversity and will aggressively pursue policies and laws that ensure fair treatment to all workers and their families."