Guest Workers Mean More Unemployed Americans

"Charlie Bearse, the president of Sidney Coal, was expressing an opinion that many in these mountains secretly share. The problem was, he put that opinion in writing. 'It is common knowledge that the work ethic of the Eastern Kentucky worker has declined from where it once was,' Mr. Bearse wrote to the state mining board. Bad attitudes and drug abuse, he argued, were affecting attendance 'and, ultimately, productivity.' Mr. Bearse's appeal to the board: Relax an English-only policy in the mines so he could bring in Hispanic workers," the New York Times reports.

In an excellent write-up, John Hawkins of RightWingNews.com explains why this story is indicative of how businesses routinely lie to fire American workers and hire cheap foreign labor. "Isn't it interesting that a job paying $18 an hour with benefits is now supposedly one of the jobs that 'Americans won't do?' And the solution to the problem is to hire non-English speaking workers (translation: illegal immigrants) who'd undoubtedly be paid cut-rate wages to do the same work . . . For example, let's say we get a guest worker program and Charlie Bearse gets permission to start bringing in guest workers. Then those guest workers, quite naturally, drive wages into the toilet and start putting tens of thousands of American workers in a position where they have to choose between big pay cuts or losing their jobs."

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