Colorado replaces immigrant workers with prison (slave) labor

[boris_cleto]

Quote:

L.A. Times:

Ever since passing what its Legislature promoted as the nation's toughest laws against illegal immigration last summer, Colorado has struggled with a labor shortage as migrants fled the state. This week, officials announced a novel solution: Use convicts as farmworkers.
The Department of Corrections hopes to launch a pilot program this month -- thought to be the first of its kind -- that would contract with more than a dozen farms to provide inmates who will pick melons, onions and peppers.
Crops were left to spoil in the fields after the passage of legislation that required state identification to get government services and allowed police to check suspects' immigration status.
"The reason this [program] started is to make sure the agricultural industry wouldn't go out of business," state Rep. Dorothy Butcher said. Her district includes Pueblo, near the farmland where the inmates will work.
Prisoners who are a low security risk may choose to work in the fields, earning 60 cents a day. They also are eligible for small bonuses.
The inmates will be watched by prison guards, who will be paid by the farms. The cost is subject to negotiation, but farmers say they expect to pay more for the inmate labor and its associated costs than for their traditional workers.
Advocates on both sides of the immigration debate said they were stunned by the proposal.
"If they can't get slaves from Mexico, they want them from the jails," said Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, which favors restrictions on immigration.
Ricardo Martinez of the Denver immigrant rights group Padres Unidos asked: "Are we going to pull in inmates to work in the service industry too? You won't have enough inmates -- unless you start importing them from Texas."

Farmers said they weren't happy with the solution, but their livelihoods are on the verge of collapse.
"This prison labor is not a cure for the immigration problem; it's just a Band-Aid," farmer Joe Pisciotta said.
He said he needed to be sure he would have enough workers for the harvest this fall before he planted watermelons, onions and pumpkins on his 700-acre farm in Avondale. But he's not thrilled with the idea of criminals working his fields.
"I've got young kids," he said. "It's something I've got to think about."
I'm always struck by the idea that if immigrant labor didn't exist, firms would start paying high wages and offering benefits to entice natives into plucking chickens and picking lettuce. If you believe that, you haven't been paying attention to America's corporate culture. Decent wages and benefits come from collective bargaining.

There's the rub. According to a new study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research, "From 1983 to 2006, unionization rates among African-Americans dropped from 31.7 to 16.0 percent. Unionization rates also dropped among whites (from 22.2 to 13.3 percent) and Hispanics (24.2 to 11.4 percent) during the same period." Those are overall unionization rates, which don't even get to the whole picture: many government employees belong to a union, and the private sector unionization rates are lower still.

All of which is to say that if people who are concerned about the status of working people put half as much energy into supporting this as they do into hatin' on the immigrants, we might really get somewhere.

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/48659

Colorado didn't become a workers paradise just 'cause they kicked out all the beaners?

[i_me_me_mac]

[treble cleft]Thats the sound of the men, working on the chain................ Ga_ee_ang..........[/treble cleft]

[macjac]

[treble cleft]"rink-rink-rink-rink"
Thats the sound of a right-wing wanker,
ranking on someone................ [/treble cleft]

The migrant workers are the test case.
Those "Corporate Prisons" will be open to all
sooner than anyone will be prepared to deal with.

[i_me_me_mac]

Actually, i think going back to the old-fashioned "prison farm" system would be a pretty good idea - make all the murderers and violent
felons actually work out their prison terms at hard labor - that would be REAL punishment vs. free room and board and plenty of spare
time for gang-related activities....

[macjac]

Originally Posted by i_me_me_mac

Actually, i think going back to the old-fashioned "prison farm" system would be a pretty good idea - make all the murderers and violent
felons actually work out their prison terms at hard labor - that would be REAL punishment vs. free room and board and plenty of spare
time for gang-related activities....

But that wasn't what we were talking about
...was it...

[boris_cleto]

Now the Feds want to make it more expensive to be an immigrant.

http://www.alternet.org/rights/48694/

Quote:

Is the Bush administration trying to slow down the surge in potential new Democratic voters by tightening access to U.S. citizenship through drastically higher application fees?

"For immigrants, the price of fully participating in our society would rise by 892 percent," says Larisa Casillas, coordinator of the Bay Area Immigrant Rights Coalition in Oakland. She says the citizenship fee "has been raised six times since 1989 when it was only $60."

[i_me_me_mac]

Originally Posted by macjac

But that wasn't what we were talking about
...was it...

*cough*cough*cough*

Quote:

Colorado replaces immigrant workers with prison (slave) labor

*cough*cough*cough*

close enough!

.

[macjac]

Originally Posted by i_me_me_mac

*cough*cough*cough*
*cough*cough*cough*

close enough!

.

Still not liking the prospect of Cheney's BlackShirts...
...oops I mean "BlackWater Troops"...
and Raytheon's Microwave RayGun that G.H.W.DOUCHE
commissioned while he had his fist up Reagan's arse,
and the Halliburton Prisons paid for with extra allocated
emergency funds that never found it's way to the troops,
nor the lack of Habeos Corpus, that once protected us.

[i_me_me_mac]

Yeah, just because you are paranoid does not mean they are not really out to get you.......

[macjac]

Originally Posted by i_me_me_mac

Yeah, just because you are paranoid
does not mean they are not really out to get you.......

I've always been "an activator" & "an agitator" since the '60s
when Abie Hoffman & several others of "The Chicago Seven"
were my downstairs neighbour at the Digger's Free Store in
the East (Greenwich) Village, NYC.

I've always assumed that they "were out to get" everyone
that ran contrary to the way they liked. (That's to say 'people
that asked too many questions' -and fought back when they
didn't like the answers-)

For the rest of the SHEEPLE that isn't a problem, it was just
easier to "go along" even when the tail in front of him goes over
the edge of the cliff. (...or through the slaughter house door.)

It just made sense for the Herders to weed-out the trouble
makers. Then there's those 'Judas Goats' among us, that
for one reason or another, gladly lead the lambs to slaughter...