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In a small town where my parents live there is a factory/manufacturing plant that makes calendars. Historically for the non educated low skilled workers within a fifty miles radius working at the calendar manufacturing factory was always considered a good job. They pay was about $11 an hour for working on the assembly line. Up to recently 99% of the workers were white people which was the demographic of the local nearby communities.
About a year ago people started to notice that the work force was filled with more and more Hispanics from Mexico. We found out that the owner of the plant somehow was able to get a number of special Visa's for workers they had formally recruited in Mexico. Company representatives went down to Mexico and interviewed hundreds of eager Mexicans and hired about two dozen of them and got a special Visa to allow them to come legally to the United States and move into the previously all white community.
The workers of the plant did not have anything against the new Mexican workers personally. Many were nice hard working people who rented homes that had sat vacant for years and cleaned them up. As more Mexican workers were hired the schools filled up and had the first enrollment increase in years. But of course the taxpayers had to pay for an addition to the schools and for ESL Instructors.
The workers and local community wanted to know why the factory needed to go down to Mexico for workers and get a special Visa for them when there was a mass of local applicants for the job and usually 20 qualified applicants for every open job. The owner of the factory told everyone that the new American worker needs to compete with potential applicants from all over the world. Who ever is the most qualified will be hired. Just because someone is local does not mean they are going to be hired before someone from Mexico.
What do you think, should Americans have to compete with applicants who currently live in Mexico for low skilled factory jobs?
Are both sides getting paid the same amount? Apparently no, if the owner is willing to shell out money to get visas for those workers? So the question may be more appropriately, if you are only looking out for the bottom line, and there's an American wanting $11/hr and a LEGAL Mexican wanting $6/hr for doing the same low-skill work, who should you pick?
Now if they are getting paid the same amount, then maybe the owner is Mexican or partial to them.
Absolutely not, this is corporate behavior that is/should be illegal.
These type visas are supposed to be used only when the skill levels cannot be satisfied in the US (or receiving country). That clearly doesn't apply here.
I have (some) faith that the Obama Administration's coming immigration reform will prevent this type of thing.
I'd check with the local law enforcement to see if they really are special visas. The company may be saying that just to appease those curious about illegal aliens.
Doesn't the entire principle of free enterprise leave all doors open for any form of competition? What if the factory found a method of automation that would enable them to print and ship the same number of calendars with only half the work force, and laid off the other half. Would that be any more or less fair than replacing workers with people who will work for less?
What is it the community really objects to? Losing jobs, or sharing their "all white" town with Mexicans? It sounds to me like one of those Dutch Reformed towns in the upper midwest.
What is it the community really objects to? Losing jobs, or sharing their "all white" town with Mexicans? It sounds to me like one of those Dutch Reformed towns in the upper midwest.
I'm sure it's the jobs going to foreign people who wouldn't be there except for those particular jobs. Why go out of the country to bring workers in when there are able bodied, willing people right there in the same town?
I'm sure it's the jobs going to foreign people who wouldn't be there except for those particular jobs. Why go out of the country to bring workers in when there are able bodied, willing people right there in the same town?
Sounds fishy to me. I'll bet they are illegals.
If the locals charge $11 an hour and the Mexicans work for $6 an hour, legally, why wouldn't they?
If they're paying $11 an hour to the Mexicans, what's the problem?
I'm sure it's the jobs going to foreign people who wouldn't be there except for those particular jobs. Why go out of the country to bring workers in when there are able bodied, willing people right there in the same town?
Sounds fishy to me. I'll bet they are illegals.
What if there is a paper mill in the same town, that charges $100 a bale for paper. But they can bring paper from Mexico for $50 a bale. Are they obliged to buy their paper from the higher-cost local mill?
The OP already explained that the workers were recruited in Mexico, and proper visas were arranged for them.
However, I was under the impression that a US employer could hire a foreign worker only if he proved that the job was offered to Americans and could not be filled.
I'm reminded of the amusing situation the LA Rams football team faced years ago. Rafael Septien, a Mexican, was their place kicker. They were required to hold tryouts to prove they could not find an American who could kick just as well, and every drunk in Los Angeles showed up at the Coliseum to try out for Septien's job as the Rams place kicker. None were better, so Septien kept his job.
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