Disposable worker dies and 13 year old injured working on Value Palace hotel in IN.

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“It’s also possible no one will be held accountable.”

Who? A couple of misclassified workers for a company named Carpetbaggers, working under the General Contractor Millstone. Jose Delgado, Sr., 31, of the 2000 block of Breaburn East Drive, Indianapolis, and his son, Jose Delgado, Jr., 13, who lives at the same address
What? One dies and his son, a 13 year old severely injured while working with him while improperly using a fork lift as an elevator
Where? A new hotel in Indiana, the Value Palace, which unfortunately has no standard on who they work with, some value, people die cutting corners. The Value Place hotel is located at the southwest corner of I-65 and County Line Road in Johnson County.
When? Last week, Oct 16th.
Why? Because they can get away with it.

From wthr.com 13 in Indiana:

Greenwood – A forklift accident two weeks ago claimed the life of a Greenwood construction worker. His teenage son was also on the site, and was also injured. Now OSHA officials may be looking into more violations.

As the new Value Place hotel takes shape in Greenwood, so too are state officials making progress on their investigation into an accident on the site two weeks ago.

Three tile workers were coming off the fourth floor into an aerial basket when, according to police reports, two of the workers, 31-year-old Jose Delgado, Sr. and his son, slid off the forks and the forklift fell to the ground. Delgado later died from his injuries. His son, at first reported to be only 15 years old, was also hurt.

“A construction site like this is not a place for a child like that to be working,” said OSHA deputy commissioner Jeff Carter.

Carter says this week investigators learned the boy wasn’t 15 after all. “We believe he’s younger than that now. We believe he could be as young as 13,” he said.

By law, that’s too young to be on the job site. Investigators are also looking at the forklift used by the workers.

One thing OSHA investigators will have to determine is whether the workers were using the forklift incorrectly, or if that machinery is used in a similar fashion on this or other job sites.

The basket on the forklift is what OSHA investigators consider “homemade.” Officials want to know if the workers were trained to use it.

“That basket we have questions about. It does not meet the standards,” said Carter.

The contractor supervisor on site told police the day of the accident, “Any subcontractor may use the on-site forklift, but must sign a contract stating they must get the necessary training.” He went on to say, “Millstone [the general contractor] does not allow people in the basket.”

But two weeks after the fatal accident, Eyewitness News saw two workers in what appears the be the same forklift.

“The company will probably be cited,” Carter said.

Citations are likely. But who the state holds accountable for one worker’s death is still unclear.

The driver of the forklift, Antonio Torres, told police he didn’t have a key to drive it and that he used a pocket knife to start the engine.

OSHA officials say citations may be directed at Torres, who is an independent contractor, Carpetbaggers, the company who hired him, and Millstone, the general contractor on the construction site. It’s also possible no one will be held accountable.

The investigation is expected to take another two weeks.

So how does this happen?

let’s ask Chris the Carpenter from Indiana, in a story entitled “Joe the Plumber-meet Chris the Carpenter!!“:

Now the quarter of a million mark wouldn’t really be that hard to meet. I can’t speak with any first hand knowledge, but being on the inside looking out, I can say with much certainty that there are people in our line of work that do much better than we do. And I think $250,000.00 is quite obtainable. See, as a union contractor we are obligated to pay the union benefits and wages that our contract states but if we were a non-union contractor we could get by a lot cheaper. Now I know there are some stand up non-union contractors that pay a good wage to their employees, offer health care and a 401k etc. But those guys know, as well as I do, that there are those out there that take advantage of people and don’t do things on the up and up. I know because I see them on a regular basis on jobs throughout central Indiana.

I’m talking about the elephant in the room in the construction industry. It works like this. A guy secures a contract to do a job, say, roofing, masonry, landscaping, drywall, whatever. He then purchases the material and he finds a labor broker. This is usually a legal immigrant that can speak English and knows a lot of other immigrants that need jobs, are usually illegal and have little or no English skills. They will work very hard and they are very reliable. AND, they work very cheap. Now the contractor knows what the labor rate runs and he can charge just a little less than we do or what the legit non-union guy does. He then sub-contracts to the labor broker who then sub-contracts to the illegal immigrants. This is all done on a piece meal basis. In other words, a set amount is paid for the installation of the product, i.e.; 15 cent/square foot of drywall or 45 cents per concrete block. This way, the price is set and the contractor and the labor broker can’t lose. It’s up to the actual worker to bust his butt to make any money because he only gets paid for the set amount of material in the job. And it’s pennies on the dollar compared to the wages my guys get or the good non-union contractor employees get. The contractor then gives the illegals a 1099 form instead of paying the taxes, workman’s comp., insurance, not to mention providing a safe environment and the workers don’t worry about it because they won’t file taxes anyway. They work very, very cheap because the broker knows they won’t say anything if they want to keep their job because there is a whole line of people ready to take their place.

Just recently, a small hotel was being built just West of Indianapolis and the floor covering was contracted this way or something similar. On a Saturday, workers were stocking material using a forklift that was supplied by the General Contractor. The workers tied a box to the forks and was using it as a man lift to get material to the second floor. (Totally against OSHA regulations) The box broke loose and two workers in the box fell to the ground. It was a father and son. Illegal immigrants from Mexico. The boy was 14 years old. Both died. This is not an isolated incident. If these workers were fortunate enough to live and only receive serious injuries, this story would never be told because they would be whisked away and 2 more put in their place. There has been no follow up story to the contractors on this project, and I’m sure that somebody got in trouble. But those lives are lost forever. And the work will be done in this manner over and over again because nothing is being done about it.

I hope you all understand that I’m not putting the blame on the illegal immigrants. I understand their plight. If I had to feed my family and I could make money to do that in Mexico, I would be there in a heartbeat. The blame is to be placed on the employers that take advantage of these people so they can line their own pockets. I’m not trying to solve the immigration problem right now. I’m trying to show Joe the Plumber that it’s not as glamorous as it looks. So go ahead Joe, buy that company. Run a legitimate business. Put in the hours to make it work. Build yourself up to make that $250-300,00.00. Believe me, if I get to $300k, I’ll pay the 4-5% extra taxes and never blink. But how much are you going to be paying the people that got you to that level? You gotta pay them a decent living wage too. You’ll never do any of it without good employees. So you gotta spread the wealth with your employees first or you’ll never make it as an employer.

So, go for it Joe!! See ya on the jobsite, huh?

Chris the carpenter Central Indiana

Picture and some info from:
The Indy Channel, AllVoices.com

Building Bridges Radio: A POW with John McCain, US largest immigration raid in IBEW facility

Radio broadcast above embedded from the Internet Archive -click link to download

From Building Bridges Radio:

Dr. Phillip Butler knew McCain as a fellow POW
by Robert Greenwald and Brave New PAC team

John McCain has been exploiting his prisoner of war experience every chance he gets. He has used this story to justify everything from not knowing how many homes he has to his healthcare plan to his marital infidelities to his taste in music. The McCain campaign is even using his POW story in paid ads. But now a veteran who was a prisoner with McCain in Vietnam is explaining loud and clear that being a POW does not qualify McCain to lead our country.

ICEd in the Biggest Immigration Raid Yet (starts around 6 minutes)
With Bill Chandler, Executive Dir., Mississippi Immigrant
Rights Alliance (MIRA)

In another large-scale workplace immigration crackdown, federal officials raided a factory in Laurel Mississippi detaining almost 600 workers they claimed were in the country illegally. Numerous agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement descended on a factory belonging to Howard Industries Inc., which manufactures electrical transformers, among other products.

Please email Building Bridges if you are broadcasting our National Edition. We’d like to have an accurate list of which stations are airing Building Bridges., so please let us know! Email knash@igc.org
=========================================
For archived Building Bridges National Programs go to
http://www.archive.org/details/building_bridges
For archived Building Bridges program go to our new website:
http://www.buildingbridgesradio.blogspot.com

For more information about IBEW and Howard Industries, check out this Google link

Al Jazeera: The truth about illegal immigration in the USA

“By and large our Congressmen and Senators have no clue”- Tommy Bruguiere, 7th. generation apple farmer, Virginia

When our own media turns a blind eye to the stories that matter to us, sometimes you have to go elsewhere, Al Jazeera, who recently wrote up on the underground economy and the real safety concerns in the New York construction industry, does it again, tell the truth.

If you are blind to the facts of immigration, I beg you to take in more facts around the net.

This video covers a lot of area in a short time, one of the greatest lines is by Congressman Luis Guitierrez, from Illinois, who asks, “What happened to the investigation into Agriprocessors? We had over a dozen children testify to us. Children! 14, 15, 16 year old’s, who worked up to double shifts in that back room, with full knowledge of their supervisors. When are we gonna take action against them true criminals?“

So I ask, what is going to happen? I have heard rumors that they may face a fine of up to $1,000,000, big deal. Child labor was abolished in this country, people like Mother Jones spoke up about it, some of my newest logo’s for the site are from photographer, Lewis Hine, who in the early 1900’s went from sea to shining sea to show the nation the abuses of children who as young as 5 years old worked in such industries as canning, coal mines, the seafood industry and clothing sweatshops. What monster has our corporate controlled government become to throw away what our forefathers had so valiently fought for?

Read the story above to see the pictures of how far we have come in 100 years, and why we should never go back

I found this via AlterNet:

Click below to see more videos by Al Jazeera:

Speaking about illegal immigration, Charlie over at UBCNewsroom, posted on Union Review on the most recent ICE raid, this time they detained over 600 workers at an electrical manufacturing plant in Mississippi.

Stop the senseless deaths on the California farms, 5 more deaths in the fields since the underage pregnant girl

On June 3rd. I wrote Underage and pregnant Mexican teen dies on California vinyard, seems not much has changed.

You can help the California farm workers get to Sacramento by donating for their bus trip to California. This comes from fellow labor communicator TomP over at DailyKos.

Six California farm workers have died since May from what appears to be heat related causes. The latest one was Maria De Jesus Alvarez, 63, mother of nine, who died early this month. The first one to die was 17-year-old Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez, who died in May. Marie was about a month pregnant when she died, and likely did not ever know she was pregnant. The state fined the labor contractor $262,700 for failing to follow heat illness prevention regulations at the time Jimenez was stricken, but that won’t bring her back. And the deaths have continued at an accelerated pace since then.

You can help to end this tragedy. This Monday, August 18, more than 800 farm workers from throughout California want to go to Sacramento to lobby the Legislature on a key bill that will help them help themeselves. They want the chance to tell the Governor and their elected officials to support AB 2386, “Secret Ballot Elections for Farmworkers,” which has moved out of the assembly and which will be voted on that afternoon in the state senate.

I have been writing for months on the deaths of farm workers in California from the heat. Six farm workers deaths are being or have been investigated because of heat-related causes since May.

This brings to 15 the number of farm workers whose death have been investigated as heat-related since Governor Schwarzenegger took office.

You can learn more details of this continuing tragedy in these diaries:

Sixth Farm Worker Dies from the Heat this Summer in California. A Call for Action.

Another Farm Worker dies. Does anyone give a damn? The Netroots Do.

United Farm Workers Calls for Manslaughter Charges Against Company in Death of 17 Year Old

How many Farmworkers must die before someone cares??

Please Tell Fallen Farm Worker’s Family We Care

“How much is the life of a farm worker worth? Is it less than the life of any other human being?”

As UFW President Arturo S. Rodriguez said at the funeral of 17-year-old Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez:

How much is the life of a farm worker worth? Is it less than the life of any other human being?

The state has fined the labor contractor for whom Maria Isabel worked:

Atwater-based Merced Farm Labor, the contractor investigated in the death of Lodi teen Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez last spring, was fined $262,700 by the state [in July] for failure to follow heat illness prevention regulations at the time Jimenez was stricken.

Jimenez, a 17-year-old pregnant farm laborer, collapsed May 14 in a Farmington vineyard operated by West Coast Grape Farming and died two days later. Her death from heatstroke was ruled an occupational death by the San Joaquin County coroner.

State fines labor firm over death

In honor of Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez, the march from Lodi, CA to Sacramento State Capitol, June 4, 2008:

Since then, five more farm workers have died from what appears to be heat-related causes.

August 2, 2008: Maria de Jesus Alvarez.

July 31, 2008: Jorge Herrera.

July 9, 2008: Ramiro Carrillo Rodriguez.

July 9, 2008: Abdon Felix Garcia.

June 20, 2008: Jose Macrena Hernandez.

Farm worker dies in Santa Maria, California. Television news report on the death of Jose Macrena Hernandez:

These deaths make it clear the state does not have the capacity to protect farm workers. With all the budget cuts and other issues in California now, the state, even if well intentioned, simply has not been able to protect these workers. So they must protect themselves.

We can make a difference and it will not take much.

The vital legislation that Speaker Emeritus Nunez has introduced–and the workers want to go to Sacramento and lobby for–protects farm workers’ right to a secret ballot election and will make it easier for farm workers to organize and enforce the laws that the state cannot enforce.

Please TAKE ACTION TODAY and ask California legislatures to support this vital bill..

If you can’t attend please make a donation to help the United Farm Workers rent 14 buses, additional vans, plus pay for food and other supplies which will cost in excess of $31,770 for the day.

There is nothing more powerful than hearing a farm worker story face-to-face, especially to lawmakers.

Doroteo Jimenez, grape worker and uncle of 17-year-old Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez who died in May explains why she must go to Sacremento.

I want to go to Sacramento and speak to the legislators.

My niece Maria Isabel died because growers treat us like tools instead of like people. I spoke up and I was unjustly fired. This needs to change now. I don’t want to see other families suffer like our family has. This bill can change farm workers’ lives for the better.

Please help us.

Margarita Hernandez, grape worker knows that that there must be changes in the workplace:

The reason for me to go to Sacramento is because I want changes in the working conditions at my job and the other companies. In the place where I work, Sun Pacific, we don’t have shade and the drinking water is without ice until 9 am—though they know that by that hour it is already hot.

There have been people have felt sick from the heat and the company people always ask if they feel bad because of something they ate…

I feel there is no respect for the farm worker, even though many farm workers have died. The companies don’t change their treatment towards the farm workers. That is why I am going to Sacramento. I have the hope that one day, we will be treated better.

Just to rent the buses and vans needed, will cost $26,570 and that does not cover the food and other supplies needed.

The UNF hopes that internet supporters would contribute $5,510 towards this expense. This will cover the transportation costs of 140 workers at $39.36 per worker. Let’s show them that Daily Kos can do it and more!

Can you make sure Doroteo, Margarita and others get seats on the bus?

When the union is strong, growers and labor contractors follow the California heat regulations, and lives can be saved. This bill is key to growing the union and, literally, saving lives.

Where farm workers are protected by union contracts, the laws are honored.

And when growers know it is easier for farm workers to organize and bring in the union, employers are much more careful about obeying the law because they don’t want to give the union an advantage.

So the answer, sisters and brothers, is self-help—making it easier for farm workers to organize so the laws on the books are the laws in the fields. Then more important human beings like Maria Isabel won’t have to die.

Remarks by Arturo S. Rodriguez, President, United Farm Workers of America, Honoring Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez, June 4, 2008

Please help.

Please TAKE ACTION TODAY and ask California legislatures to support this vital bill.

If you can’t attend please make a donation to help the United Farm Workers rent 14 buses, additional vans, plus pay for food and other supplies which will cost in excess of $31,770 for the day.

Yesterday we mourned,
Today we act,
Tomorrow we will gain justice.

Si, Se Puede!

Utah creates loophole to encourage use of more illegal alien’s, workers no longer covered under workman’s compensation, employers skate

clip from The Salt Lake Tribune article “Insurance loophole makes it easy for employers to exploit illegal workers” by Paul Rolley (7/26/08):

The law basically allows Workers Comp, or any other insurer that covers injured-worker benefits, to cancel disability payments to someone hurt on the job if it is shown that person has committed a crime, including being in the country illegally.

But, get this, there is no provision in the law to sanction the employer for hiring someone who is in the country illegally, and the injured worker denied the disability benefits cannot pay an attorney to represent him or her against the insurance company’s actions, according to Labor Commission rules.

Call it the employer have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too bill.

Under the new law, and its interpretation by the Labor Commission, a construction company, say, can hire laborers to perform dangerous manual jobs and if a laborer gets hurt the company can escape liability by having the insurance company throw out the benefits if the employee cannot prove he or she is in the country legally. And, the employer isn’t sanctioned for having certified the employee was legally eligible for work when he or she was hired in the first place.

Opponents of the law say it encourages employers to hire illegal immigrants because it guarantees not having its insurance company be liable, affecting its premiums, in case the worker is injured on the job.

In fact, the South Carolina Supreme Court said just that in a recent ruling against a similar law passed in that state.

Maybe I’m in the wrong field, with all the protections that companies have avoiding the use of American and legal labor, I could make a mint.

If they were in any way sincere, the employer would have to be liable directly if they hired the illegal alien, but no, that isn’t good business.

This reminds me of another recent bill that was floating around Kansas, where it was proposed that any organization that help illegal aliens and collected dues would be subjected to fines of up to $2,000 USD, while the employer who hired them went without penalty.

Of course it took the vote of 19 Republicans in Kansas to pass the bill, you can read the entire article here entitled “KS: State passes bill that will encourage more illegal immigration and punishes unions who try to help the workers“(4/20/08):

This is a new low for the Kansas Senate. A majority of them are happy to turn a blind eye to the hiring of illegal aliens and will use immigration reform to bust unions.

So here is the scenario:

• An employer, knowing that he will not be punished for hiring an illegal, puts the illegal alien to work side by side with unionized American workers.
• The union, believing that the employer would not hire illegal aliens (that is illegal, you know), signs the employee up as a member of the union.
• The union is now subject to criminal action and fines even though the union has no ability to verify the legal status of a worker

This is getting worse people, spread the word.Republicans, while pretending to want to close the borders, do everything in their power to allow the use of illegal aliens.

Using untrained immigrant workers that caused 4 deaths in a crane accident gets supervisor 2 years in jail and total fines of $41,000

Finally a good judgment, right to the point: If you use untrained immigrant workers, you go to jail.

You would think that it would be a score one for the ‘good guys’, and you would be right, the only bad part is that this story didn’t take place in the United states and it took 4 deaths and 3 injuries to bring this to light.

From the far away land of Qatar in the Persian Gulf region, “Jail sentence for supervisor” (7/6/08) – Gulf Times

A Doha court has sentenced a construction site supervisor to two years imprisonment for “negligence that led to an accident” which killed four workers and injured three others last year.

The Syrian and the company that employed him were also fined QR20,000 each. The company was made the second accused in the case.

The court ordered the Syrian, the company and the insurance firm to jointly pay QR150,000 as bloodmoney to the families of three of the victims. The family of the fourth victim had not put up any claim for bloodmoney during the trial and the court said that they can file a claim for it at a later stage in a civil court.

A witness told the court how a crane tilted and fell at a worksite near the West Bay on March 19, 2007, burying four workers and injuring three, two of them critically.
He said the workers were involved in a “complicated operation” at around 6pm when the accident occurred. An engineer representing the company,said the crane was imported from China and was being operated for the first time.

The court found the supervisor guilty of assigning the work to a batch of untrained workers, who were not qualified to do the job.

The judge, Mamon Hamour, said that the company committed a fatal mistake when it assigned such complicated work to an inexperienced supervisor, the first accused in the case.

The victims were identified as three Filipinos aged 20, 40 and 48 and an Indian (25).

Now theres one we can learn on, lets get that blood money and jail time here.

Dennis Kucinich stands with Indian slave pipefitters

Continuation from Tuesday’s: Join the Indian slave pipefitters march on the Dept. of Justice (6/11/08)

From the Metro Washington Council, AFL-CIO (6/12/08) :

INDIAN WORKERS SUSPEND HUNGER STRIKE

Indian trafficking survivors suspended their 29-day hunger strike at a rally outside the Department of Justice Wednesday following a wave of support over the past month from US Congress-members, labor and religious leaders, and thousands of labor and civil rights activists across the country.

“We have confidence to suspend our hunger strike today because we have faith in these allies to fight alongside us until the traffickers are brought to justice,” said Indian Workers’ Congress Organizer Sabulal Vijayan. “With our hunger strike, we have won concrete actions that will help protect future workers from the nightmare of forced labor we suffered.”

At the rally, US Congressmember Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) called the treatment the workers faced at the hands of Indian recruiters and their employer, Signal International, (DC Jobs with Justice Corner: Indian Workers to Stage Hunger Strike in DC 5/8/08 UC) “wrong, inhumane, and immoral.” Kucinich and 17 other US Congress-members sent a letter to US Attorney General Michael Mukasey last week demanding he “take the steps necessary to ensure the workers’ continued presence so that DOJ can continue this important investigation of modern-day slavery, human trafficking, and forced labor and bring these traffickers to justice.”

Kucinich has also promised to hold a Congressional hearing on abuses of guest workers by Signal and other companies. “I think we as Americans and working people around the world owe you an enormous debt for standing up,” said Nickeled and Dimed author Barbara Ehrenreich. “You helped bring to light a scandal of slavery in the US.”

Quoting Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s recent statement that a “robust law enforcement response is essential” in stopping “petty tyrants who exploit their laborers,” AFL-CIO General Counsel Jon Hiatt called on the Bush Administration to “apply those principles right here at home” and prosecute Signal. The rally – attended by over one hundred supporters – was part of a National Day of Action for the workers that included congressional visits and rallies outside DOJ offices in 10 other cities.

Click Below to Send An E-Mail to Congress

The AFL-CIO WebBlog has been covering this also (most recent below)

• Indian Workers End Hunger Strike, Rally at Justice Dept. … for Justice

More stories of abuse of Indian workers here at Joe’s

• The NY Times actually mentions Indian Slave pipe-fitters…
• Modern day Slavery hunger strikers going on day 20, Get E-Active!
• Indian Ambassador refuses to visit with “slave” hunger strikers
• Slavery in the news: Indian ‘guest workers’ to hold hunger strike in DC
• More H1B Visa abuse news
• Slavery: Alive and well in USA Pt.2, Indian pipefitters abused in H2B Visa scam, main stream media picks up story full year after facts are released
• Offshoring and H1B Visa abuse, the 1-2 punch to knockout US tech workers

Join the Union City E-Mail list

Join the Indian slave pipefitters march on the Dept. of Justice, 6/11/08

If this is the first you have heard of this story, you don’t visit enough, from Union City e-mail:

Indian Guestworkers to Rally Outside DOJ:

Indian guestworkers and supporters will march on the Department of Justice (DOJ) Wednesday at noon to demand the DOJ allow workers to stay in the US during the ongoing investigation against their employer Signal International. “The workers, who walked off jobs in Gulf Coast shipyards in early March, say they were victims of human trafficking when they were brought to the United States under a temporary guest worker program,” reported Julia Preston in the New York Times on Saturday.

“The Indian workers say they were deceived by Signal International and labor recruiters when they paid as much as $20,000 for visas they believed would allow them to work and live permanently with their families in the United States.” The New York Times article followed the hospitalization of Paul Konar – the only remaining hunger striker from the group that began the strike on May 14 – Thursday that forced him to end his 23-day hunger strike. “Somebody needed to do something for others, so we, the Indian Worker Congress started this fight for justice,” said Konar Thursday. “I took this risk of holding a hunger strike to achieve justice in this country for all people.” 11 workers remain on hunger strike. Click here to sign a petition to support the workers.

Click Below to Send An E-Mail to Congress

More stories of abuse of Indian workers here at Joe’s

• The NY Times actually mentions Indian Slave pipe-fitters…
• Modern day Slavery hunger strikers going on day 20, Get E-Active!
• Indian Ambassador refuses to visit with “slave” hunger strikers
• Slavery in the news: Indian ‘guest workers’ to hold hunger strike in DC
• More H1B Visa abuse news
• Slavery: Alive and well in USA Pt.2, Indian pipefitters abused in H2B Visa scam, main stream media picks up story full year after facts are released
• Offshoring and H1B Visa abuse, the 1-2 punch to knockout US tech workers

Glenn Beck commentary: Slavery alive and well in the U.S.

Illegal aliens mean no workers’ comp claims, no age, race or sex discrimination lawsuits, no healthcare premiums, no unions, and no demands for raises, vacations or bigger offices. In fact, illegal immigrants are the perfect employees because they’re not employees at all; they’re corporate slaves.

I have written 2 articles with the same title, Mr. Beck does justice to getting the message out there

In it’s entirety, From CNN (4/28/08):

Editor’s note: “Glenn Beck” is on CNN Headline News nightly at 7 and 9 ET and hosts a conservative national radio talk show.

Glenn Beck says he doesn’t believe there are jobs Americans “just won’t do.”

NEW YORK (CNN) — “Jobs Americans just won’t do.”

I can’t stand that line, but more importantly, I don’t even understand it.

Americans spend months at a time at sea fishing for crab or drilling for oil; two of the most dangerous jobs in the world. Americans clean bathrooms, subway stations and crime scenes. Americans man toll booths, pave roads, embalm bodies and inspect sewers. Yet people really expect us to believe that they won’t pick strawberries or oranges?

It just doesn’t add up.

Earlier this week The Wall Street Journal published a story about a shortage of H-2B visas, which are issued twice a year to nonagricultural seasonal employees. Because our government can’t get out of its own way, they recently let an important “returning workers” provision expire resulting in thousands of foreign workers being shut out of the country this summer.

That’s inexcusable. I know this will come as a huge shock to those who only like to hurl insults, but I think we should be issuing more work visas, more student visas, and more green cards. And I think we should cut the red tape and bureaucracy that’s constantly blocking the front door.

But until that happens people are left looking for loopholes and excuses, and “jobs Americans won’t do” is the gold standard.

The Journal article offered an example of a couple that sells food at fairs around California each summer. They say that because of the H-2B visa shortage most of their seasonal employees aren’t able to enter the country.

So why don’t they just hire Americans instead? Good question. Her answer? “This is a hard job.”

I find it pretty hard to believe that there aren’t a few college students who wouldn’t want to drive around California and work outdoors all summer, but let’s assume that’s true. Let’s even assume that none of the other 1.1 million Californians who were unemployed as of April are interested in the job either. Isn’t anyone wondering why?

Well I’m not a labor consultant, but I am a thinker. Maybe the problem isn’t that the job they’re offering is “too hard,” maybe it’s that the wages they’re offering are “too low.”

No one paints the undersides of bridges for fun, they do it for the money. That’s how capitalism works.

How capitalism does NOT work is when we collectively look the other way as companies exploit illegal labor for their own benefit.

The unspoken truth is that these businesses don’t hire illegal aliens because they can’t find American workers, they hire illegal aliens because they don’t want American workers. And it has nothing to do with wages.

Illegal aliens mean no workers’ comp claims, no age, race or sex discrimination lawsuits, no healthcare premiums, no unions, and no demands for raises, vacations or bigger offices. In fact, illegal immigrants are the perfect employees because they’re not employees at all; they’re corporate slaves.

Economist Dr. Thomas Sowell once said, “Blacks were not enslaved because they were black, but because they were available.” Can’t the exact same thing be said for illegal aliens? They’re available and we’re allowing them to be exploited in the name of cheap groceries.

Is the price of fruit really the standard we want to live up to as a country? Is that really who we’ve become?

Many Americans believe that cracking down on the businesses that hire illegal aliens (the current maximum federal fine was recently raised to a laughable $16,000) would hurt these hardworking people too much. A bad job is better than no job, we tell ourselves. But that’s catalogue compassion. If you want to understand the real impact of these decisions you’ve got to get off the couch and go see it for yourself.

Back in 2005, Newsday did an investigation of the living conditions of immigrants in the New York area. In the city of Westbury (median income: $83,000/year) officials found twelve immigrants living in a basement flooded with sewage.

In Southampton (median income: $64,000/year) officials found immigrants living in sheds with no plumbing or heat.

In New Cassel (median income: $62,000/year) officials estimated there were dozens of “shift-bed houses” where immigrants literally rent mattresses for a few hours a day to catch some sleep.

Is compassion looking the other way while immigrants who come here for the dream end up living a nightmare smack dab in the middle of some of our wealthiest communities?

Is compassion ignoring stories that reveal the truth, like the recent raid of a squalid “drop house” in Los Angeles where 57 illegal aliens were being held against their will?

Is compassion not wanting to hear that a woman was raped in that drop house, or that many more would have been if not for the screams of their children disrupting the attackers?

If that’s compassion, then I guess I’m happy to be accused of having none.

The problem with the debate over illegal immigration right now is that special interests have been successful in making us think with our hearts instead of our brains. We’ve been persuaded to believe that real compassion can only be achieved by following their agenda. But look where that’s gotten us. And more importantly, look where that’s gotten the people they’re supposedly trying to help.

If you really want to be compassionate, then help immigrants get jobs here the right way. Help put crippling fines on the employers who knowingly hire illegal workers, help expand and simplify the visa process, and, most importantly, help get people to start thinking with their brains again.

After all, compassion without common sense may feel good but it doesn’t achieve anything. If you need proof then go out and give $1,000 to every homeless person who asks you for change. I bet your heart would be full, but your wallet would soon be empty. And all those people would probably still be homeless.

Great article, this is the very point of a lot of my writings here and around the net, jobs Americans wont do, see my article on “Modern day Slavery hunger strikers going on day 20, Get E-Active!” on how my trade has been violated by Signal International, and thats only one very small story that made the news. What about the Verizon subcontractor, the H1B Visa abuses and disqualification of US workers, as i state in the article about the pregnant 17 year old Mexican girl who died of thirst on a farm in California, there is a war on the American worker, spread the word, this affects all of us, liberal, black, Chinese, conservative, Latino,union, Republican, white, Catholic, Democrat, Jewish, Muslim, immigrant, our parents, our kids, etc…

Underage and pregnant Mexican teen dies on California vinyard

“If you take her to a clinic,” the foreman said, “don’t say she was working [for the contractor]. Say she became sick because she was jogging to get exercise. Since she’s underage, it will create big problems for us.”

I got wind of this story from TrueBlueMajority at DailyKos from (5/29/08):

Pregnant farmworker dies due to safety violations
Funeral services were held yesterday in California for Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez. Vasquez Jimenez was a 17 year old woman working for a contracting company called Merced Farm Labor, and she died of overheating because rules about access to water, water breaks, and shade were ignored. Newspaper reports indicate her body temperature exceeded 108 degrees. She may not have known she was two months pregnant; her pregnancy was discovered as part of the investigation into her death.

Republicans and conservatives who claim to be “pro-life” while acting as though undocumented farmworkers are disposable people pushes all my righteous anger buttons. I predict we won’t see any outrage from the “pro-life” community about the unnecessary death of this young woman and her unborn child.

From the Sacramento Bee:

When Vasquez Jimenez collapsed, she had been on the job three days, pruning vines for $8 an hour in a vineyard owned by West Coast Grape Farming.

During eight hours of work beginning at 6 a.m. in heat that topped 95 degrees, Bautista said that workers were given only one water break, at 10:30 a.m. And the water was a 10-minute walk away – too far, he said, to keep up with the crew and avoid being scolded.

Vasquez Jimenez collapsed at 3:30 p.m., Bautista said, and for at least five minutes, the foreman did nothing but stare at the couple while Bautista cradled her.

Bautista said the foreman told him to place the teenager in the back seat of a van, which was hot inside, and put a wet cloth on her.

Later, Bautista said, the foreman told a driver to take the pair to a store to buy rubbing alcohol and apply it to see if it would revive Vasquez Jimenez. When that failed, the driver took the couple to a clinic in Lodi, Bautista said, where her body temperature had reached more than 108 degrees.

“The foreman told me to say that she wasn’t working for a contractor, that she got sick while exercising,” Bautista said in Spanish. “He said she was underage, and it would cause a lot of problems.”

Bautista and family members said that clinic staff rushed the girl to a hospital, where she was revived several times before finally succumbing two days later without ever regaining consciousness. Doctors later discovered she was two months pregnant.

the United Farm Workers website in memorializing her quotes from a speech by Cesar Chavez from 34 years ago when he reflected on whether these deaths are deliberate:

“They are deliberate,” Cesar said, “in the sense that they are the direct result of a farm labor system that treats workers like agricultural implements and not as human beings. These accidents happen because employers and labor contractors treat us as if we were not important human beings.”

But farm workers “are important human beings,” Cesar continued…

They are important because they are from us. We cherish them. We love them. We will miss them.

They are important because of the love they gave to their husbands, their children, their wives, their parents—all those who were close to them and who needed them.

They are important because of the work they do. They are not implements to be used and discarded. They are human beings who sweat and sacrifice to bring food to the tables of millions…of people throughout the world.

They are important because God made them, gave them life, and cares for them in life and death.

Which brings me to what UnionGal brought up in her version of the story:

How many more will it take for OSHA to do the right thing, for the states to enforce the law, for everyone to understand that the grapes on the table or in your juice or wine may be at the price of a human life or two? Isn’t that price too high to pay? It is, it’s too high, way too high.

I figure if you have been reading my stories in succession, you may notice a recent theme, there are less and less jobs for American citizens, and the trade off is slavery. Corporate American and the politicians are allowing everything that American workers, our original immigrants fought so valiantly for. It seems the only ones fighting for justice are unions and social activist. Which brings me to the next article about Glen Beck from CNN, who wrote a fantastic piece entitled “Commentary: Slavery alive and well in U.S.” (5/28/08) which brings up a lot of items discussed on this blog, including “Illegal immigrants aren’t employees, they’re corporate slaves” and that “fines should be much higher on employers that hire illegal workers”

Another tidbit of farmworker abuse that should be viewed is UnionGals “Sesame Street: Injustice Brought to Us By The Letter “U”” (5/20/08), heres a very small snip

Farm labor organizers say they have discovered more than 100 migrant fruit pickers living in a Central Valley cherry orchard where they have been sleeping outdoors and bathing in drainage ditches.

The American worker and all jobs here are being attacked, the writing is on the wall people, it is the fight that must be taken seriously by everyone. It’s not just industrial jobs, its the jobs that are still here, the meat cutting, construction, programming, nursing, everything.