Re: [Marxism] One reason for rulers' assault against immigrants: Number of Immigrant Workers in Unions up by 30 Percent over past 10 years

["Joaquin Bustelo" <jbustelo@xxxxxxxxx>]

I must say the logic of Mike Friedman's subject line completely eludes me.
The implication is immigrant workers have a higher propensity to join or
form unions than others, and this higher propensity for unionization is one
reason for the anti-immigrant offensive.

The problem is that the data presented contradicts this idea.

The data shows that although the number of immigrant workers shot up by 66%,
the number of immigrant union members only went up 30%, and the proportion
of union members who are immigrants went up 33% (from 9% to 12%). Given
rounding, this figure of 33% is indistinguishable from the both the increase
in immigrant union members (30%) as well as the portion of the labor force
that is immigrant (which went from 11 to 15%, a 36% increase). 

The bottom line is that immigrant workers remain underrepresented in the
ranks of organized labor -- 15% of the labor force versus 12% of the union
members. And therefore a slightly smaller percentage of immigrant workers
are union members compared to the working class as a whole.

Perhaps a case can be made that, given the sectors of the economy and areas
of the country they are in, immigrants have a higher tendency to join/form
unions compared to other workers in those sectors and regions, but that case
isn't made in the material Mike sends.

*  *  *

This brings up a very interesting question -- why the attempt to explain the
anti-immigrant offensive at least partly in terms of hostility to unions
when the data does not support it?

Joaquin


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