Importing workers in the National Parks and Michael Parenti's concept of third-worldization of U.S.

[Kitty Herder]

I worked in the lodge in Zion National Park for several seasons. The last season I worked there, there were more people working there from Poland, Czechoslavakia, and Thailand than from the U.S. The H.R. people go on tours recruiting foreign nationals who barely speak any english.

This has become the norm for the concessionaires in the National Parks (who are federal contractors). This has the lovely (for the employers) effect of flooding the labor market, depressing wages, and letting them off the hook for providing benefits.(These foreign workers' contracts are seldom for more than three months, the amount of time required before an employee becomes eligible for health care.) In saving money for the concessionaires, this also decreases the cost of the contract for the federal govt.

This also decreases the number of summer jobs available for American students. Why should we give priority to providing summer jobs for foreigners? (I have nothing against the Thais, the Czechs, Poles or any other group being hired to work in our parks. It's not their fault and they're fine people.) Also, Zion Lodge used to work with a homeless shelter in Las Vegas, offering jobs to homeless folks. That didn't always work out, but I know several people who got back on their feet and were essentially rehabilitated through this practice. Now, instead of giving a hand-up to the needy, they give summer jobs to middle and upper-middle class foreign students and don't have job openings for those who really need a job.

I recently spoke to a friend who works in the Human Resources department for Zion and he told me he has a master plan, whereby they would never have to hire anyone but Asians. That bothered me. At least he's a low level employee in H.R. and won't be able to enact his plan. But it bugged me.

I don't want you all to think I'm bigoted. I'm not.I just don't like this practice of intentionally flooding labor markets to depress wages.

From my point of view, it was interesting to get to know people from other cultures, but it also completely destroyed the mini-culture of the lodge. Each nationality stuck to themselves which cleaved apart the formerly close, family-like social relations of a workplace which was also a home.

I know the travel and tourism industry isn't the only industry going through this. The software industry has been hit particularly hard by similar practices.

I see this as part of the third-worldization of America that Michael Parenti talks about. Lowering the wages of American workers, providing fewer jobs for Americans, and taking away much of what little power labor has in negotiating with management and owners, making the U.S. into a banana republic.

What do you all think?