Why unions embrace illegal immigrants

Poured into a pair of Wranglers, E. Dale Wortham looks out of place amid a group of Hispanic union organizers holding signs and protesting in Spanish about working conditions at a clothing factory.

He finally steps from behind the crowd, points a finger at the factory, and adds his opinion of the situation:

"You see those windows?" he bellows in full Texas twang. "We want them open. Those people are baking in there. And this gate, we want it fixed so workers aren't cut getting into the parking lot."

The group looks around awkwardly, some nod in agreement, others kick the dirt. Finally, someone else speaks up, and Mr. Wortham - president of the Harris County AFL-CIO - slinks back into the background.

Meet one of the front men for the new AFL-CIO: a self-proclaimed "recovering redneck," who finds himself embracing a group of workers he once routinely called the Immigration and Naturalization Service on.

Wortham's change of heart is a function of a larger change taking place in union halls across the country. For years, the illegal immigrant was seen as the enemy - someone who would work for next to nothing and drive down the wages of union workers.

While some unions don't go as far as the AFL-CIO - which last year called for legalizing millions of undocumented immigrants - many have jumped on the immigrants-rights bandwagon. American labor leaders are visiting Mexican officials, recruiting immigrant leaders for organizing campaigns, teaching undocumented workers about labor rights, and planning rallies, such as the "Immigrants Freedom Ride" in Washington Sept. 25.

This new pro-immigrant attitude stems from economic pressures, as unions seek to protect their wages from nonunion competition and to reverse long-term declines in membership.

But some experts see a deeper shift as well: Labor groups like the AFL-CIO, they say, are trying to recast their roles entirely.

"No longer do they want to be seen as such a narrowly focused interest group, but rather a social movement - one they can say [represents] the voice of working men and women," says Gary Chaison, a labor expert at Clark University in Worcester, Mass. "By recasting themselves as a social movement, they feel they'll have broader appeal."

But most people who join unions do so for pragmatic reasons, entering with a "what can you do for me?" attitude, not "what can you do for others?" Dr. Chaison explains. "That is creating conflict within the unions."

Initially, American unions were formed along immigrant lines. British and Scottish coal miners joined together to the exclusion of Irish coal miners. So unions' immigrant roots were also exclusionary roots.

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