Corporate greed fuels illegal immigration
Re “A law that means business,” Opinion, July 12
Tamar Jacoby claims that the meatpacking industry in the Midwest would have collapsed without an influx of illegal alien workers.
Meat processing was a well-paid unionized craft until the 1980s, when big corporations were allowed to bust the unions and fill their plants with illegal immigrants. Wages in the industry fell by roughly 50% in real dollars during the 1980s.
Today, a meatpacker makes roughly $10 an hour, which is the same wage paid in 1980! Have you ever heard of an industry that had to lower wages because of a bona-fide shortage of workers?
Americans will do any job that pays a living wage.
The problem isn’t workers, but the greed of big business and their enablers in Congress and the White House.
Ronald Iltis
Goleta
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
