SEIU weighs in supporting a guest worker program

Eliseo Medina, vice president of the Service Employees International Union – the second largest union in the United States – has weighed in on immigration reform, calling for the implementation of a guest worker program as outline in a Senate bill cosponsored by John McCain and Ted Kennedy.  A New York Times story on the announcement is here.

The NYTimes article reporting the SEIU announcement notes that there is a split in the labor movement on the issue of the guest worker program. The AFL-CIO, for example, opposes the program.  The AFL-CIO did reverse its position on undocumented workers several years ago, calling for their legalization and the end of employer sanction enforcement.  But the guest worker program is a bridge too far — the union remains concerned about the economic effects of a large-scale guest worker program.

-jmc