Post-hurricane rebuilding will be done by undocumented workers -- and they need protection

[DonViejo]

By Saket Soni

October 12, 2017 - 4:00 a.m.

In Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, mammoth hurricanes have left behind a colossal amount of work. The cleanup and reconstruction efforts are going to take years. That means a severe demand for salvage and demolition crews, roofers, carpenters, drywall installers, painters, plumbers and workers in all manner of other trades and skills. And if recent history tells us anything, much of this demand will be met by immigrants — migrant laborers, many of them highly skilled, and many of them lacking legal status.

As a workers’ rights organizer in New Orleans, I remember what happened on the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina. Immigrant workers surged in to tackle the huge job of rebuilding, only to be exploited by unscrupulous employers in an unregulated, chaotic and dangerous labor bazaar. The workers had little access to decent housing and little ability to protest against unsafe conditions or wage theft.

This wasn’t a problem only for immigrants. As long as labor was exploitable and cheap, American-born workers and local businesses suffered too, as conditions and wages slid toward rock bottom.

If we had a federal government sensitive to these issues, the solution would be a moratorium on immigration enforcement in disaster zones. This would ensure that the rebuilders could keep working, and that those depending on them could return home as soon as possible. Given the Trump administration's relentless attacks on immigrants, there’s little hope for this sensible fix.

more
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-soni-hurricane-recovery-undocumented-immigrants-20171012-story.html#nws=mcnewsletter

[Not Ruth]

1. Unions would rather have union labor doing the work

Perhaps unions will take in more undocumented workers and create a new political force