MIAMI, Feb. 23 — The graying union organizer strode to the microphone on a stage here on Thursday night, and hundreds of immigrants, students and workers cheered.þþAs a teenager, he followed his father into the fields in California, picking grapes alongside fellow immigrants from Mexico who labored without toilets or drinking water for little pay and even less respect.þþToday, the former farm worker, Eliseo Medina, is vice president of the Service Employees International Union, the nation's second-largest union. He is also an advocate of one of President Bush's most contentious proposals: the effort to legalize 11 million illegal immigrants and create what could be the largest temporary guest worker program for foreigners in more than 40 years.þþÿWe are all united in the belief that our broken immigration system is not serving anyone well,ÿ said Mr. Medina, who spoke at a rally at Miami-Dade Community College in favor of a bipartisan immigration plan expected to be debated next week in the Senate Judiciary Committee. þþMr. Medina's stance has helped solidify his role as a prominent national labor leader, but it is also roiling the nation's unions. If such a plan is passed by Congress, it could result in the largest reshaping of immigration policy and the workplace in decades. The A.F.L.-C.I.O., which fiercely opposes the guest worker proposal, says it would result in the disappearance of thousands of permanent jobs and create an underclass of poorly paid foreign workers. þþThe disagreement among labor leaders over the guest worker plan, which has simmered mostly behind closed doors, has been overshadowed in recent months by the fractious debate among Republicans about how to handle the swelling population of illegal workers in the United States. þþBut the guest worker plan is also generating tensions among those on the left, particularly in the nation's labor movement.þþÿI don't think there's a tolerance in the country for an unlimited, unregulated future flow of foreign workers,ÿ said Donald Kaniewski, political director for the Laborers International Union of North America, which opposes the guest worker plan endorsed by Mr. Medina. þþThe laborers union is one of several unions that have joined the service employees in a rival labor federation to the A.F.L.-C.I.O. The laborers currently belong to both federations. þþÿLet's face it,ÿ Mr. Kaniewski said. ÿThere is a reality that immigrants, particularly those out of status, put downward pressure on wages.ÿþþMr. Medina, who supports the immigration legislation proposed by Senators John McCain, Republican of Arizona, and Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, has received support for his guest worker position from Unite Here, a union that, like the service employees, counts many immigrants among its members. And Mr. Kaniewski and others emphasize that unions are united in supporting the legalization of the nation's illegal workers. þþBut the decision of the service employees union to champion a guest worker plan alongside the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, often viewed as adversary of organized labor, has left some of its allies uneasy.þþMr. Medina said he would work to ensure that additional labor protections were included. He says he firmly believes that the McCain-Kennedy plan offers the best opportunity to bring undocumented workers out of the shadows. þþHe points out that this proposal, unlike others that have tied foreign guest workers to one company, would allow workers to leave the company that applied for visas on their behalf to find better jobs and better salaries.þþBut some of his passion for this issue is also personal. þþMr. Medina was 10 when he and his family left Mexico for the United States. His father had worked in the bracero program, which brought in 4.6 million Mexican farm workers from 1942 to 1960, and he grew up hearing stories about how those workers were exploited.þþAnd so on this debate, he said, he could not afford to sit on the sidelines. þþÿClearly, this is something very personal to me because of the experiences I had, working as a farm worker and with my father as a bracero,ÿ Mr. Medina, 60, said in an interview earlier this week.þþ
Source: NY Times
