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Help me help you, Smith urges union leaders |
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Posted: 05/24/07 07:16 PM [ET] |
“I write to ask your help,” states Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, to the heads of three large labor unions.
The help in this case is a combined effort to block the Senate’s proposed immigration overhaul from becoming law.
Smith acknowledges that he and the three union heads might disagree on certain aspects of the Senate bill, but believes they should share a dislike for its temporary-worker provisions.
“To protect the American workers that we all represent, we must prevent this bill from becoming law,” Smith said.
Smith is sending the letter today to AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, International Brotherhood of Teamsters General President James Hoffa, and Service Employees International Union (SEIU) President Andy Stern.
Union leaders have expressed tempered support for the Senate bill. The SEIU, for example, has credited the compromise for helping to allow the nation’s 12 million illegal immigrants move “out of the shadows” and toward citizenship. The group also takes issue with the Republican insistence that “temporary is temporary.” Instead, immigrants should have the opportunity to win permanent legal status, it says.
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