Reply #48: I think some have misunderstood me.

[Kitty Herder]

First, this is not so much about this specific case, but about a much larger picture of which this is just one, small part. And I'm not saying that these foreign workers are paid less than their American counterparts, just that the labor glut caused by actively importing laborers from overseas creates downward pressure on wages in the industry in which it occurs. This is about American corporations doing everything they can to screw labor and increase their profits. This is about hiring policies that create a flood of available laborers which in turn depresses wages and benefits and eliminates much of the power that labor has in dealing with management and owners. There are many ways in which this is accomplished. I'm just talking about one with which I am familiar and with which I had a recent reminder in the form of a conversation with a friend in the H.R. department of Zion N.P.

"The conservative goal has been the "Third Worldization" of the United States:
an increasingly underemployed, lower-wage work-force; a small but growing moneyed class that pays almost no taxes; the privatization or elimination of human services; the elimination of public education for low-income people; the easing of restrictions against child labor; the exporting of industries and jobs to low-wage, free-trade countries; the breaking of labor unions; and the elimination of occupational safety and environmental controls and regulations." -Michael Parenti

I have nothing at all against foreign workers or immigrants. None of this is their fault. I would love to see a world where trade is not only free, but fair. Where all the workers of the world are paid fairly, get decent benefits, and work under decent conditions. Where American workers can work in Thailand for good wages, while their Thai counterparts can work here for good wages and nobody's wages or benefits are driven down as the result. But that is not what we have. Not even close. And American companies take advantage of inequality among the workers of the world in every way they possibly can.