Day laborers present challenges for unions

Full story: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/281097_daylaborunion14.html



Monday, August 14, 2006

Day laborers present challenges for unions
The rank and file might balk at organizing immigrants

By PETER PRENGAMAN
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Unions are increasingly courting immigrant day laborers in hopes of reversing a longtime decline in membership and clout.

But labor experts say organizing a work force that is mobile and largely undocumented presents enormous logistical challenges and risks of alienating rank-and-file members.

"Every day there are day laborers who walk in and say, 'I want a union,' " said Janice Fine, a labor professor at Rutgers University. "But the road to getting one is almost an impossible journey."

The Laborers' International Union announced last week that early next year it will begin recruiting day laborers in the construction industry to become full-fledged union members.

agreement with contractors on a union approved minimum wage scale would be a start. That seems a broad enough issue for some kind of real discussion between the unions and employers.

and the Laborers are the union that I've thought all along needs to organize the day labor. The hiring hall set up fits the needs of any contractor. Problem is the contractors don't want to pay anything close to union scale. They figure $20 and a meal is all they need to pay.

It would seem they're determined to work this out though:


The AFL-CIO and the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) have reached a historic partnership agreement that will pave the way for AFL-CIO central labor councils and state federations and NDLON’s day laborer worker centers to work together on issues ranging from workplace rights to immigration reform to health and safety and other job-related concerns.

http://blog.aflcio.org/2006/08/09/afl-cio-partners-with-national-day-laborer-organizing-network