The Horror: Immigration bill failure could create staff shortages for U.S. firms?

And The Spin has begun! Does anyone dispute that Immigration is good but that the issue is ILLEGAL immigration should not be reward with amnesty? No one is saying round them up all at once... but you can pick them up a little at a time and what about the Identity theft these criminals are committing. Steel workers are not considered low skilled wages and immediately after 9/11 Steel workers were lined up around the corner looking for work.

NO AMNESTY

Business weighs cost of immigration failure
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070614/us_n...

Sheridan Bailey is offering workers $20 an hour to raise the steel building frames that are giving the U.S. city of Phoenix a taller skyline. Only thing is, he can't find any.

"When we advertise, people don't show up, or if they do, they are not qualified," said Bailey, the chief executive officer of Ironco Enterprises.

"We were paying $15.50 last year," he said. "We are now paying 20 bucks an hour and we're still not getting enough of what we need."

The builder is one of hundreds of U.S. employers hoping an immigration overhaul will survive in Congress to legalize up to 12 million undocumented workers to fill jobs they say are going begging.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said this week the worker shortage was especially acute for low-skilled jobs, and warned of a "very detrimental impact" to the economy if it were left uncorrected.

Undocumented workers account for 1-in-20 employees in a country of immigrants, a figure rising to 1-in-8 for construction firms and 1-in-10 for the leisure and hospitality industry, according to a study by the Pew Hispanic Center.

Many employers agree. They complain they are unable to fill vacancies, despite offering pay above current U.S. minimum wage levels of between $5.15 and $7.93 an hour depending on the state.

One of them, Texan vegetable grower J. Carnes, found just half the 450 workers he needed to lift onions from the fertile fields around the town of Uvalde in recent weeks, even though he offered pay of $7 to $13 an hour for piece work.

"We are doing just about what we can to get the word out ... but U.S.-born workers really don't exist at prices the American farmer can pay," he told Reuters by telephone.

David Cortez, a restaurateur from nearby San Antonio, said he also came up short, unable to find 25 to 30 servers, busboys and dishwashers for his family's landmark Mi Tierra eatery.

Too bad,poor companys may have to hire Americans,waaaaaa.If they paid a living wage they might not have so many problems but their greed wont let them.

Year after year of record corporate earnings and profits - what a shame they might actually have to share some of that with their employees.

Sheridan Bailey is offering workers $20 an hour to raise the steel building frames that are giving the U.S. city of Phoenix a taller skyline. Only thing is, he can't find any.

"When we advertise, people don't show up, or if they do, they are not qualified," said Bailey, the chief executive officer of Ironco Enterprises.
Many employers agree. They complain they are unable to fill vacancies, despite offering pay above current U.S. minimum wage levels of between $5.15 and $7.93 an hour depending on the state.

One of them, Texan vegetable grower J. Carnes, found just half the 450 workers he needed to lift onions from the fertile fields around the town of Uvalde in recent weeks, even though he offered pay of $7 to $13 an hour for piece work.

"We are doing just about what we can to get the word out ... but U.S.-born workers really don't exist at prices the American farmer can pay," he told Reuters by telephone.

No dispute at all. Get our fence up, throw the known gang members and criminals out and deal with the rest after that.

Issue work permits and fine those employers who hire without permits, heavily.

What a bunch of liars. I guess the idiots who have come up with this piss poor amnesty and immigration reform bill figure that if they play the "oh me, poor me" card, everyone will run and tell them it is OK AGAIN to screw the citizens here in America!

My God, the world is going to end if we can't have cheap onions! Or, if there is a sky scraper that doesn't get built in Phoenix! Or, if some restaurant owner needs someone to wash dishes!

Trust me, our economy will not collapse if I eat out a bit less because the restaurant raised its prices, or if the price of an onion doubles, or if there is one less building in Phoenix!

Sure, the price of fruit will go up, but consider this:

Governments won't have to support big business with the health care burden. School districts might have a little more money with no illegal kids to educate. We won't have to provide cheap housing for illegals! The REAL cost of cheap labor is much more than most people realize!

you know what a horror is ? What 'he' did in september 2001..and what he is still doing ...

It is absolutely insane that any of employers mentioned actually think that an average family of four (american or illegal) can survive on $6.00 - $20.00 an hour....at Max it's $800.00 a week BEFORE taxes....After taxes that's about $28,000 a year for a family of four....I made more then that when I was in the Army...twenty years ago.