ok another ethics and immigration question?

Question

Where i live in vermont the main source of jobs come from slate quarries. I want to say this first i dont blame the mexicans - guatamalans at all i would do the same thing i i could. Now within the last 10 years id say pretty close to half of the jobs in our area are filled with immigrants.
From what ive been told Our company pays then 5$ an hour and the govt pays another 5$ an hour giving them 10$ an hour.
Their paychecks are taxed but nowhere near as much. Basicaly a lot of hard working people cant get jobs anymore because of this.
I think that the employers are taking advantage of them to make extra money. ( well i dont think this i know this for a fact)
and it just isnt right. Its people like this taking al our money out of the economy, what can be done?

what i know for sure is that they have some deal worked out with the govt to allow them up here to work and my employers bring them all the way from guatamala and mexico and like ten of them live in the same aprtment

also every year they are only allowed to work so many month then they have to go back and they come back in 4 months

Answer 1

The scenario you describe is rather odd. Federal minimum wage, to start with, is HIGHER than $5 per hour. Second, government PAYING private wages is even more than unusual.

There are job development and training programs that pay part of an employee's wages for a time, and there have been economic development programs that include a local/state government "sweetener" for wages. Typically, such programs only help out for a relatively brief period of time before the company takes over the cost of the wages.

Taxes are set by Federal, state and local law. Employees MIGHT get a small and temporary tax cut if they are in one of those special employment development programs, but again it usually never lasts long.

If illegals are gaining jobs in such programs, then there is entirely lax enforcement of employment regulations that set up such job development incentives to start with. Either the companies are committing fraud in their employment reports, or there is collusion between the employers and government inspectors. In either case, that is a separate layer of corruption that needs investigation and exposure.

In your shoes, I would be talking to some local TV and newspaper reporters or editors. There's an explosive story there if you are delivering the facts.

to restate that last point, I am going to be watching for news out of your area about this. If I don't see something in a fairly short time, I'm going to expose this question on this board and elsewhere as an attempt to subtly place mis-information and malicious propaganda. So put up, or shut up.

But as for the wider question - if these jobs are so attractive, why aren't you and your neighbors pounding on the companies' doors demanding to be hired? Ar we talking, AGAIN, about jobs you don't actually WANT?

Answer 2

Immigrants have been coming to our lands for years. Its only now that the truth is allowed to be seen. You really need to stop and look at the big picture though. Not only our the jobs being filled with cheap labor. They are also removing the job itself and sending it to Mexico via NAFTA. I cant not count how many companies have gone belly up only to use it as a write off. Then to hire said company to haul their equipment south of the border.

As far as doing something about it, you could document it and then leak it to the press.

B1 visa and the HB1 visa I think have a lot to do with this topic as well.

The only true option is to educate yourself before all the blue collar jobs are taken. Sad to think that these jobs use to be the back bone of this country. I myself have watched as the man power in Texas has changed in pay. Now days a good dock job will only pay about seven bucks an hour.

Educate yourself is your only option.

Hate to work in the textile business back when G Bush did not sign the bill back into law. 1000 plus jobs a day lost in this country to over seas workers. This went on for a period of about two to three months. As you can see just by going into your local mall the inpact on the country. There are all these new clothing shops now that have popped up.

Answer 3

I'm sure you've been told sounds wrong. There's no way the government pays a parallel paycheck like that. Then again, I never thought it sounded real that the governmen would pay farmers to allow their fields to go fallow, either, so what do I know?

That sounds too much like urban legend. Now, if they pay $10, most of the workers are immigrants, and half of their income is in the form of mining subsidies, then, de facto, the government is paying half, but they're not paying half BECAUSE the workers are immigrants. They're supplying a big chunk of the income, unrelated to the ethnicity of status of the workers.

Just a guess on my part. Do you have any links to what you've been told? If not, ask the folks who are telling you if they can back that up.

Answer 4

Americans have to accept that labor costs are the number one expenditure for any business. There's no way we can be competitive on that front. After we get that through our heads, we need to have a nation-wide retraining effort for those likely to be affected . . . College and trade schools should be free for those who can no longer work or afford to work.