Reply #31: Hey, I only said they were part of the blame..

[MellowDem]

It's hard to have labor and worker solidarity when some of those workers will work for dirt wages and are illegal and don't want to join your union or else they won't be able to work, period.

Illegal labor is all about being union busters and scabs. The whole reason they are hired is to lower costs and increase profits for the businesses they work for.

How do you think that employers cut wages, lay-off workers, reduce benefits, break strikes, bash unions etc.? Well, among some of their tactics is hiring illegal labor. Illegal labor is a tool of the corporations. If some of those illegal workers somehow make it into unions, that's great, but it doesn't change their compromised status and the leverage an employer that knows about it can impose on them.

Why don't you see what happens if you flood a country with cheap illegal labor. I can't imagine that it will lead to lots of progressive labor policies. And now that the economy is so bad that the government is starting to finally crack down a little more on employers that hire illegal labor and more Americans are willing to work for even less, the environment isn't the best for illegal labor. Illegal labor is a race to the bottom, period.