If ‘Illegals’ Are a Problem, Labor Unions Are a Solution

At first glance, two articles on the front page of The Times last Saturday might seem unrelated. But they suggest a wrong way and a right way for this country to deal with the Mexicans, and other Latin Americans, who are here illegally.

One article dealt with the summit meeting between President Reagan and President Miguel de la Madrid in Mexicali. It focused on the issues that they discussed in four hours of meetings--including Mexico’s economic troubles, international drug trafficking, the crisis in Central America and environmental problems along the border.

Only at the end did the article note that “immigration problems” also came up. And that passing reference is an accurate reflection of how insignificant the issue was at the summit. In fact, when senior officials of the Reagan Administration briefed the White House press corps concerning the meeting afterward, they did not include immigration on their list of topics. It came up only when a reporter asked about it.

U.S. officials said that they mentioned the immigration-reform bills pending in Congress that would try to stem the flow of immigrant workers by making it illegal to employ them. The Mexicans reportedly replied that any new law should include protection for the rights of migratory foreign workers. Nothing new on either side.

Those who consider illegal immigration to be a serious national problem might be dismayed by this decision to downplay the immigration issue, but it is an indication that Reagan and De la Madrid have more important things to worry about than the movement of workers back and forth across a long, porous border. Given the long history of that migration, and the fact that it benefits both countries (employers in the United States need cheap labor, and Mexico needs the dollars that its workers send home), that is a rational course of action. Or inaction, to be more precise.

But the issue should not be completely ignored. For while it can be argued that illegal immigration is not itself a “problem,” there is no denying that problems can result when Mexican workers enter this country without proper papers. Chief among them is the fact that illegal immigrants are prone to exploitation, not just by criminals but also by unscrupulous employers who won’t pay fair wages or treat the workers humanely.

That is where the other front-page story comes in. It reported the decision by a federal judge in Los Angeles in a lawsuit by three Latino workers against the union that represents 16,000 maids, waiters, busboys, cooks and janitors at the city’s downtown hotels.

U.S. Dist. Judge Richard Gadbois ordered Local 11 of the Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union to conduct its meetings in Spanish as well as in English. Noting that half the local’s members are Spanish-speaking, Gadbois said that union officials’ past refusal to translate proceedings violated the right of Latino union members to equal participation.

That decision should remind labor leaders throughout this country of how much more they could be doing for Latino workers, especially those who are here illegally.

More than any American institution, except for public education, organized labor has had to face the unique challenge of serving a clientele that often speaks a different language from that of its leadership. The blue-collar work force in the Southwest has always been heavily Latino, but it has become even more so in recent years as fewer Anglos go into industrial jobs. At the same time, industrial union membership is declining.

So why does the AFL-CIO spend so much time lobbying Congress for restrictive immigration laws to “solve” the “illegal-alien problem?” Instead, shouldn’t it be pushing its member unions to get out there and start signing up all those unorganized workers, many of whom are immigrants?

Passing a complicated and controversial new immigration law is the wrong way for this nation of immigrants to stop the migration of Mexican workers. That phenomenon is so linked to the history of the Southwest and the area’s economy that no government action can stop it, save militarizing our southern border--and even that might not work.

A better way to deal with the phenomenon, particularly with the immigrant workers’ vulnerability to exploitation, is to give them the freedom to protect themselves. That can be done by letting them join together to deal with their employers as equals, bargaining for better wages and fair treatment. In other words, let them join unions.

Some unions--notably Cesar Chavez’ United Farm Workers and the International Ladies Garment Workers’ Union--have successfully dealt with the challenge posed by immigrant workers, organizing them and teaching them to stand up for themselves. More unions should follow their lead. Then labor leaders may find that the problems that they blame on “illegals”--including low wage scales and unemployment--can be worked out in the free market, through bargaining between workers and employers, rather than through unwieldy government decrees.