While illegal workers are in a similar position, they have a greater sense of permanence and willingness to fight injustice than temporary workers, labor organizers said.
Mike Garcia, president of SEIU Local 1877 in Los Angeles, said that workers' illegal status "hasn't been a significant barrier," but a temporary-worker program would be. Immigrants make up 65% of the SEIU's 28,000 California members and 95% of the affiliated janitors' union, he said.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Friday June 08, 2007 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 61 words Type of Material: Correction
Immigration bill: An article June 1 in Section A on how unions view the Senate immigration bill said the AFL-CIO and large industrial unions had historically seen illegal immigrants as unwanted competitors to their membership. However, in recent years, the AFL-CIO has made efforts to reach out to illegal immigrants, including an alliance last year with a network representing day laborers.
"How are we going to continue to build power off of a temporary workforce that has a temporary mind-set and doesn't see the union as a vehicle for improving their lives?" he said. "Why would they sign the union card?"
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Temporary-worker plan
Service workers' unions want the Senate to amend the legislation and create a "path to citizenship" for temporary workers. Even if the temporary-worker program isn't changed, they want the bill to pass the Senate so that it can be amended in the House, where lawmakers have already submitted legislation they favor.
"We think that this is the best chance that we've had in a long time to have a meaningful conversation about immigration reform," said Eliseo Medina, the SEIU's executive vice president. "If we don't take advantage of this opportunity, it's going to be a long time before we get back to this point."
These union leaders say legislation proposed this year by Reps. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-Ill.) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) could be incorporated into a House version of the bill to address their concerns about the temporary-worker program.
Called the STRIVE (Security Through Regularized Immigration and a Vibrant Economy) Act, the legislation would create an annual pool of 400,000 temporary workers who, after working in the U.S. for at least five years, meeting English and civics requirements, and paying a $1,500 fine and application fees, would be eligible for "conditional permanent residency and eventual citizenship."
Industrial unions oppose several provisions in the STRIVE Act, said Ramirez, the AFL-CIO lobbyist, including enlarging the program and requiring immigrants to return home to apply for residency or citizenship. They are already lobbying members of the Latino caucus who support it, including Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Los Angeles), and those who might, like Rep. Linda T. Sanchez (D-Lakewood), a union member and labor lawyer who serves on the House Judiciary Committee.
Industrial and service-sector unions are also lobbying other members of the Judiciary Committee, which is likely to be the first panel to consider any House version of the Senate bill. Those targeted include Reps. Howard L. Berman (D-Valley View), Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) and Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose), who chairs the panel's immigration subcommittee.
Rothenberg, the political strategist, said efforts to kill the bill would probably fail in the House, where most Democrats in "reliably Democratic districts" such as Lofgren's are more concerned with passing a legalization plan than with the drawbacks of a temporary-worker program.
"There is a bias in the Democratic Party toward saying, 'We've got 12 million people here, we can't just throw them out,' " he said.
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molly.hennessy-fiske@ latimes.com
