Business Week Online says:
Immigrant advocacy groups have organized a general boycott for May 1, hoping to show the country how important they are.
What if all the poor and unemployed whites and blacks show up at all the jobs the Mexicans have walked off of and say "We're here to work!" It could happen, according to a rumor I heard recently.
Yesterday, in a conversation with a group of local North Carolina hip hop artists and spoken word artist Monte Smith, the subject of the illegal immigration debacle came up. Monte piped in and told us that he's heard rumors from unemployed people where he lives in North Carolina. Apparently, some of them plan to show up to businesses with a majority of Mexican employees today and try to take their jobs!
We all had a good laugh about it, but it won't happen unless these people want to work for $5.15 an hour (or less!). They're starting to think that's better than the nothing an hour they're getting while unemployed.
This little rumor speaks volumes to the gnawing discomfort many Americans feel towards illegal immigrants, for what they see as "jumping the line" and not "waiting their turn" in terms of legal citizenship.
There also seems to be a lot of outright economic resentment from people in my community here in North Carolina, some of whom have told me they are tired of trying to get jobs or contract work only to be "undercut" by Mexicans.
Mexican immigrants and all other immigrants should be allowed to work and earn a better life, but legally. Perhaps something should be done so the immigration process is easier, hence people won't feel the need to break the law. I believe businesses should be held responsible for illegal hiring practices, which in the long run hurts all Americans.
As for May Day, it seems that all we can do is sit back and watch how things unfold today. Meanwhile, I'll keep my ears open to see if any of the "walk on" workers are successful in securing jobs!
Article comments
1 - Bliffle
Sounds like a good idea. If I were poor and desparate I'd do it. $5 is better than nothing, and as a US citizen I'd be able to hold a foreman legally responsible if he refuses to pay after a day of work, whereas the poor illegal is simply screwed. This is a common practice around here. Also, I'd appear at the HD parking lot with a couple tools I was competent with, like a Mag7 and brain bucket for construction, weed whacker for gardening, etc. Illegals can't do that because they have to drop everything and run if Immigration shows up.
2 - Purple Tigress
Hmmmm...Are you sure they are all Mexicans? A few of them aren't from other Latin American countries or possibly born-in-the-US Latinos?
3 - cherryl
"Hmmmm...Are you sure they are all Mexicans? A few of them aren't from other Latin American countries or possibly born-in-the-US Latinos?"
you're right, many of them are prolly American born or from other countries. i think the focus of this joke/rumor was that poor unemployed people wanted to grasp an opportunity from people walking off jobs for a protest (May Day), and around here migrants unfortunately, legal or illegal are just lumped together as "the mexicans". so yeah you're absolutely right about that.
4 - Andy Marsh
Someone told me today that a local landscaping company had to pull all the non-latinos off of other jobs to get one big important job taken care of...he plans on repaying his "striking" workers by telling them tomorrow morning they can take the rest of the week off.
The deal is, he had enough "other" employees to get the job done, so the line about jobs Americans won't do seems to be bullshit.
5 - Dave Nalle
All our local fast food restaurants have their non-immigrants working double shifts now - not because of today's walkout but because the INS rounded up thousands of illegals over the last two weeks and the rest went underground, and there's no one available to hire to replace them.
dave
6 - Purple Tigress
Don't you wonder why they hire illegals? Do they ask them to work double shifts? Do they ask illegals to go without breaks? Do they ask illegals to take cash under the table?
7 - cherryl
"Don't you wonder why they hire illegals? Do they ask them to work double shifts? Do they ask illegals to go without breaks? Do they ask illegals to take cash under the table?"
it's not just illegals that go through that. i've been asked to work under such conditions many times, as has my husband. we both did landscaping work for years and we are both citizens.
illegals just have no lawful recourse when they are asked these things, but unscrupulous employers will try these things with anyone, and that's the point: the US is too full of employers who think that slavery still exists. And for the most part they get away with treating people like this.
my mother-in-law used to work for wal-mart and they are guilty of several violations against her like withholding overtime pay, etc. to the point that she joined a class action lawsuit against them, and she is a natural born US citizen like my husband.
8 - Bliffle
The confrontation sponsored by the illegal aliens is a failure. Calling out this challenge was a serious strategic mistake, a bad case of overreach. I doubt that most people even noticed.
9 - Dave Nalle
If nothing else it made the Socialist Workers Party happy to see someone noticing their international holiday for something for the first time in years.
I love the transparent nature of choosing May Day to organize this protest, demonstrating clearly once and for all who's really behind these efforts to stir up anti-immigrant sentiment.
Dave
10 - Andy Marsh
I was thinking that this morning Bliffle. If I hadn't heard about it from the friend that told me about one employer and the little bit of news I watched yesterday, I never would have noticed it. I really love that new mexican rendition of our national anthem...kinda makes you yearn for the days of Jimi playing it...
11 - Bliffle
"I love the transparent nature of choosing May Day to organize this protest, demonstrating clearly once and for all who's really behind these efforts to stir up anti-immigrant sentiment."
I knew it was those damned Elizabethans! Pretty soon they'll have us all dancing 'round the maypole singing Dowland ditties and dancing the Brasne with it's licentious overtones!
12 - Purple Tigress
Cherryl, I was pretty sure this was the case. However, illegals are even less likely to complain and highly unlikely to take big businesses or small businesses to court.
I worked at two restaurants. They loved illegals working there because they didn't require breaks or all the other things that Americans might insist upon. I've had brushes with construction and landscaping industries.
So perhaps the real problem is the employers.
13 - Ralph
I can play the National Anthem on Conga. But I'm not Hispanic...
BTW, what is the term, if any, for persons of color who speak Spainish/Portuguese based languages. If I remember correctly the entymolgist term for Latin off-shoots was the Romantic Languages (i.e. Spainish, French, Italian). Classically trained vocalists love to sing in Italian because the language does not have dipthongs, which are kind of hard to vocalize musically.
I'm getting of subject here. What is the proper term? The Asians don't like to be called Orientals, the American Indians like being called Native Americans (I think). I gave up trying to figure out what Black/Afro/American's like being called, Negro doesn't do it, yet that means "Black" in Spainish, and MLK used it alot in his speaches; I'm lost here! Terminology changes every so often and I can't keep track. I have a hard enough time trying to keep track of what tools I loan out to the neighbors, let alone a politically sensitive issue like "name calling."
Anyone know?
14 - cherryl
i think most blacks don't like negro cuz, while it means 'black', it means something like 'black object'. oriental as well refers to objects like vases, etc. this is my take on these words, and i am black and asian/pacific islander.
15 - Heloise
The proper term is Latino or Ladino. In California they have called themselves Chicano, but I don't hear that anywhere else.
In my hometown (Chicago), but I live in Texas now, I call them unwanted aliens. AC360 is talking about how half the immigrants in Chicago are illegal immigrants. Not surprised.
They marched and moved out thousands of poor black people out of the lakeshore housing HUD projects where they lived for nearly 30 years and dumped them in the southern suburbs around Chicago.
Now, if they can do that to Americans what should they do for some illegals getting fat and paid by illegal employers?
Heloise