Posted on 03/28/2013 4:53:43 PM PDT by haffast
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. labor unions said on Thursday they were closer to resolving problems with wages for future unskilled immigrant workers like janitors and housekeepers - an issue that has stalled progress on a U.S. Senate proposal to overhaul the immigration system.
"We have moved off poverty level wages and are moving forward and are working on a standard that will protect U.S. workers," said Andrea Zuniga DiBitetto, legislative representative for the biggest union the AFL-CIO.
Late last week, disputes over a new visa program for foreign workers between the AFL-CIO, the labor federation, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce threatened to derail immigration reform talks between a group of four Republican and four Democratic Senators.
The AFL-CIO had accused Republicans and businesses of trying to undercut wages. And the Chamber, the biggest business lobby, said unions were jeopardizing the immigration reform effort.
Now the AFL-CIO is saying that the unions, the Chamber and lawmakers are coalescing around the idea of using a wage standard that already exists in current law rather than specific wage levels.
Both high-skilled and low-skilled visa programs specify that visas will only be issued if they do not drive down the wages of those doing the same job in the United States.
"I think there is an agreement that it should be a standard and we are finalizing what that standard should say," said DiBitetto. "We are working with them to find the language that the senators and labor and the Chamber can agree to," she said.
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(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Union leadership selling their members down the river.
Oh, well. They want those new members for dues.
First thing this morning a saw a pro amnesty ad paid for by the SEIU.
Yep!
When do the taxpayers get their turn to get closer to a “deal”?
Organized labor should not even be at the table. It is the Congress that should be deciding what goes in an immigration bill.....elected officials, not biased, greedy,
socialistic union leaders.
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