Left wing trade unions- why do they support mass immigration?, I just don't get it!

[dismal]

Ok, I'll try and make a sensible post - Trade Unions that love mass immigration - I don't get it.

Surely more workers just empowers the bosses, so how does that help the working man?

I believe unions have historically been very much against mass immigration.

 

[Bomb#20]

Ok, I'll try and make a sensible post - Trade Unions that love mass immigration - I don't get it.

Surely more workers just empowers the bosses, so how does that help the working man?

I believe unions have historically been very much against mass immigration.

I suspect BJ is simply confusing what's supported by the unions with what's supported by the politicians supported by the unions. From a union's point of view, a poor immigrant is likely to become a competitor for its members' jobs. From a leftist politician's point of view, a poor immigrant is likely to become a voter for his party.

Here's a slightly out-of-date page, still up on the Labour website.

... We also understand that people have legitimate concerns about immigration policy – that's why we believe reforms are needed.

Labour got things wrong on immigration in the past. But Ed Miliband has set out a new approach: controlling immigration and controlling its impacts on local communities. Britain needs immigration rules that are tough and fair.

The Tories have let people down on immigration. David Cameron promised to get immigration down to the tens of thousands, “no ifs, no buts”, but net migration is rising, not falling. It’s now at 260,000, higher than it was when David Cameron walked into Number Ten...​

That was then, this is now.

Immigration is not a problem in the UK, Jeremy Corbyn has said as he faced questions over why he decided not to mention the issue in his keynote speech to the Labour party conference yesterday.

The Labour leader insisted Britain must instead celebrate the “enormous contribution to our society” that migrants have brought over the years and suggested the UK should look at immigration as “a very great opportunity”.

Migrants had “helped our economic growth and had boosted the NHS, the social services and education in the UK, Mr Corbyn said as he told his critics: “Don’t look upon immigration as necessarily a problem”.

Rather than looking to restrict immigration to the UK, the Government must be “far more focussed” on ensuring they deliver more doctors, school places and housing to meet demand in highly-populated areas.​

Looks like it's back to business as usual for politicians to whom pretending to pursue the best interests of the workers while selling them out is a way of life. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Trade unionists are insane to think socialists are their friends.

 

[maxparrish]

http://www.npr.org/2013/02/05/171175054/how-the-labor-movement-did-a-180-on-immigration

For decades, labor saw illegal workers as the enemy. The AFL-CIO wanted them kept out, believing that an expansion of the available pool of workers was bad for unions. The low wages that undocumented immigrants earned made it even worse. This was the labor federation's official position for decades and through the 1990s, says labor analyst Harley Shaiken.

"This was a time where labor had gone through decades of being buffeted, sometimes slammed by forces of globalization. So the fear was, 'How do we preserve what we fought so hard with such sacrifice to get in the first place?' " says Shaiken.

Shaiken says labor's response was predictable: to circle the wagons. "But that's not a tenable position," says Shaiken. "That just results in further shrinkage."

That position changed abruptly in 2000 when the executive council of the AFL-CIO voted to reverse itself, calling for undocumented immigrants to be granted citizenship. It was the result of years of internal pressure from unions representing service workers, a large number of whom were Latino.

Avendano is now with the AFL-CIO. She says that day in 2000 was historic because the organization recognized the struggles of illegal workers, making their cause the AFL-CIO's cause.

Louis DeSipio, a professor of Chicano/Latino studies at the University of California, Irvine, says the AFL-CIO had its eye on potential new members, and that the move was a recognition of changing national and union demographics.

"The fastest growing unions have been the service sector unions, and those are overwhelmingly made up of immigrants and then family members of immigrants," says DeSipio. "So, you know, for the unions to represent their membership at some level, they have to be sensitive to the family concerns that drive support for legalization."

And...

 

[maxparrish]

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2014/12/25/unions-launch-campaign-to-woo-illegal-immigrants/

Big Labor says it has big plans for recruiting into its ranks the millions of illegal immigrants affected by President Barack Obama’s executive amnesty action.

“I think we’ll see very positive changes” because of the action, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1 President Tom Balanoff told the Associated Press. “One of them, I hope, is that more workers will come forward and want to organize.”

SEIU recently launched a website where illegal immigrants can learn how to take advantage of the Obama amnesty order. The website, iAmerica.org, also includes a voter registration widget, powered by Rock the Vote on its “Citizens” page, but stipulates,”If you are a U.S. citizen and over the age of 18 you have the right to have a say in how our country is governed. Register to vote and make your voice heard.”

According to the Associated Press, “Even if the immigrants aren’t citizens and cannot vote, they can help unions by paying dues and doing the heavy lifting needed around election time–knocking on doors, driving voters to the polls and making phone calls for pro-labor candidates.”

Other labor groups like the AFL-CIO are training organizers to recruit illegal immigrants; the United Food and Commercial Workers is planning workshops and enlisting churches and community groups to locate illegal workers.

Labor leaders hope enlisting illegal immigrants into their ranks will help boost lagging memberships. Between 2003 and 2013, union memberships plunged by over 1.2 million. As of 2013, just 11.3% of workers belonged to a union, reports the AP.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Ok, I'll try and make a sensible post - Trade Unions that love mass immigration - I don't get it.

Surely more workers just empowers the bosses, so how does that help the working man?

I believe unions have historically been very much against mass immigration.

Agreed. They pretend to be for the third-world workers but that's really about making their goods not competitive in the US market. Unions are all about restricting the number of workers in their field to drive up wages.

 

[DrZoidberg]

It's a mistake to think that immigrants are themselves pro-immigration. Confusingly enough it's the opposite. Immigrants tend to be more against new immigrants than the general population. Odd but true

 

[angelo]

Ok, but how is mass immigration going to bring the downfall of capitalism? Surely, it will just do the opposite, in fact we can see it now with the rise of the right in Europe, largely as a response to mass immigration. And you guys just go along with it, wtf

I give up. How is mass immigration going to bring down capitalism?

Is capitalism even a thing?

They'll sure as hell try to bring it down. Unionists are in the main left leaning with socialist ideology, especially the union officials. The left supports mass immigration, especially from the Middle East, people who vote mostly for the pc left.

 

[Bar-Jesus]

I give up. How is mass immigration going to bring down capitalism?

Is capitalism even a thing?

lol, this was directed at poster Iolo, who seemed to be on this track, and it's actually the standard Trotskyite reasoning

 

[Bar-Jesus]

Who wants a down-fall of capitalism? You are very confusing today.

The Trots do - and they absolutely LOVE mass-immigration, for example Socialist Workers Party, can't get enough!

But ok, I'm a gonna come up with some evidence now..........

 

[Bar-Jesus]

Then it shouldn't be hard for you produce some. However, the evidence of your content free response suggests otherwise.

http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/observatories/eurwork/articles/law-and-regulation/trade-unions-support-social-inclusion-of-immigrants

Trade union initiatives

The Portuguese trade union movement has taken an active role in the promoting the integration of immigrants in work and employment, in the following main ways:

the AFL-CIO began to support policies favoring the legalization of illegal immigrants. One such policy was the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which granted amnesty to an estimated 3 million illegal aliens.[21]

 

[Bar-Jesus]

It's a mistake to think that immigrants are themselves pro-immigration. Confusingly enough it's the opposite. Immigrants tend to be more against new immigrants than the general population. Odd but true

yep, for sure - the Poles aren't too keen on the Buglars stealing their cleaning jobs in UK , that's right

 

[DrZoidberg]

Who wants a down-fall of capitalism? You are very confusing today.

The Trots do - and they absolutely LOVE mass-immigration, for example Socialist Workers Party, can't get enough!

But ok, I'm a gonna come up with some evidence now..........

The Swedish Trots is like one person. It's not so much a movement as one person running around waving his arms to seem bigger.

If that's your big bogieman I'd say you were out of bogiemen

 

[Jokodo]

http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/observatories/eurwork/articles/law-and-regulation/trade-unions-support-social-inclusion-of-immigrants

Trade union initiatives

The Portuguese trade union movement has taken an active role in the promoting the integration of immigrants in work and employment, in the following main ways:

the AFL-CIO began to support policies favoring the legalization of illegal immigrants. One such policy was the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which granted amnesty to an estimated 3 million illegal aliens.[21]

That doesn't say they want more people to immigrate. It says they want immigrants already here to be put in a position where they're less likely to be exploited by bosses to work for less than minimum wage - and thus reduce the pressure their presence exerts on wages in general.

A very sensible position directly benefitting their member base, if you ask me.

 

[Bar-Jesus]

Ok, then - Labour Party UK , mad for it! (funded by the Unions), Green Party, SNP, SPEW - all mad for immigs

and they are supposed to support the working man, but in reality this just supports the bosses. What do you say to that?

 

[Bar-Jesus]

the AFL-CIO began to support policies favoring the legalization of illegal immigrants. One such policy was the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which granted amnesty to an estimated 3 million illegal aliens.

And how about this one?

But anyway, the Left should advocate for banning more immigrants in order to help the already unemployed in host nation,

 

[DrZoidberg]

Ok, then - Labour Party UK , mad for it! (funded by the Unions), Green Party, SNP, SPEW - all mad for immigs

and they are supposed to support the working man, but in reality this just supports the bosses. What do you say to that?

You've got to look at it relatively. Most people are for immigration. So any political party that goes for a wide appeal will be pro-immigration. It could very well be that the support for immigration is weaker on labour than for the Tories. Hard to measure.

 

[Nice Squirrel]

the AFL-CIO began to support policies favoring the legalization of illegal immigrants. One such policy was the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which granted amnesty to an estimated 3 million illegal aliens.

And how about this one?

But anyway, the Left should advocate for banning more immigrants in order to help the already unemployed in host nation,

What about it? It was 30 years ago.

 

[laughing dog]

http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/observatories/eurwork/articles/law-and-regulation/trade-unions-support-social-inclusion-of-immigrants

Trade union initiatives

The Portuguese trade union movement has taken an active role in the promoting the integration of immigrants in work and employment, in the following main ways:

the AFL-CIO began to support policies favoring the legalization of illegal immigrants. One such policy was the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which granted amnesty to an estimated 3 million illegal aliens.[21]

It is possible that you are unable to parse the clear difference between the position of "loving" mass immigration and the position of legalizing immigrants already in a country. Nothing you have posted supports your OP claim. Please either try again or clarify your claim. Otherwise, it seems you are simply spouting ignorance.

 

[angelo]

Ok, I'll try and make a sensible post - Trade Unions that love mass immigration - I don't get it.

Surely more workers just empowers the bosses, so how does that help the working man?

I believe unions have historically been very much against mass immigration.

Not in the modern era. Remember most are left of centre, which includes the pc brigades.

 

[Canard DuJour]

I believe unions have historically been very much against mass immigration.

Not in the modern era. Remember most are left of centre, which includes the pc brigades.

Well there ya go then. Unions aren't just workers' corporations but part of the left wing push for social justice, to which exclusion by accident of birth is obviously antithetical. Unions were never just that, even in the US. The Wobblies were explicitly internationalist. The British Trades Union Congress has always been explicitly internationalist.

And while it's true that more workers competing for the same jobs tends to drive down wages and conditions, more people doesn't necessarily, since more people means more demand. True, poor immigrants tend to accept worse wages and conditions, but the left wing solution is to get them better wages and conditions, not to exclude them. It's win-win unless you're of the employer/investor class.

* * * *

(ETA: none of which is to say that they actually want more immigration, and not one shred of evidence that they do has been shown)