Exploitation in any language

The BBQ Pit
1

In Spanish it’s explotacion.

I’ve been stewing about this for the last two days and I’m feeling the need to set it down in words. My bf of four months is not exactly legally allowed to be in the United States. He’s from Argentina. He’s been struggling since before I met him to find work but it’s difficult for the obvious reason. He picks things up here and there when he can. Finally a couple weks ago he got a steady gig doing construction.

First, he’s exhausted all the time. He works at least six days a week and sometimes seven. His exhaustion has been compounded by his working a second gig which has now ended but he’s still very tired.

He has little or no control over his schedule. He goes where they tell him to when they tell him to. So far he’s been sent to Milwaukee, Whitewater and Green Bay. Next week he gets sent to Iowa. All of this involves commute times of an hour or more each way. Which leads to more exhaustion and less time to spend with me or on his continuing education.

The American workers work 8-3. Oscar and the other undocumented workers work 7:30 to whenever the boss says stop.

The boss is a closet case who knows Oscar is gay. There has been some talk about splitting a motel room while they’re in Iowa, but Oscar has told him that he will commute back to Madison instead. Not really sure if the behaviour has risen to the level of harassment yet but it could go there.

Oscar gets paid $300 a week. The number of hours he works doesn’t matter. The number of days in a row he works doesn’t matter. Presumably if he misses a day (something that hasn’t happened) he’ll be docked but working on Sunday, his one day off, doesn’t net him any more.

And of course there are all those accidents that can happen on construction sites and he AFAIK isn’t covered by worker’s comp or anything else.

On the one hand, I’m grateful to his boss that he is willing to risk the sanctions for hiring undocumented workers. Oscar’s biggest issue since I’ve known him has been money/work. His family with wom he lives hassled him so badly about it around the first of the year that he disappeared for a week. Now he’s making a little money, is able to contribute to the family, will be opening a bank account and is taking me to Chicago for my birthday. On the other hand I’m extremely pissed at his boss for exploiting him (and others in similar circumstances) and I’m deeply upset that there isn’t any real recourse of which I’m aware. If Oscar complains, he can be replaced with some other (to the boss) faceless illegal who shut his mouth and keep to his place.

I looked up “exploitation” in my Spanish-English dictionary while Oscar and I were talking about his job. He’s totally aware that he’s being exploited and he’s bothered by it but has adopted a “what can I do aout it” attitude which breaks my heart.

Sorry about the general weakness of the rant.

Oh, and if you have any plans at all to post a diatribe about illegal immigration or undocumented workers taking American jobs, piss the fuck out of my thread because I am NOT in the mood.

2

That just sucks and I’m sorry that your bf is being jerked around.
Here in Texas,illegals are the backbone of the landscaping/construction industries and, in mosy cases, they’re hired because they can be worked to death for peanuts. Usually they get the nastiest and most dangerous jobs to boot.

It may just be my ignorance showing, but I’ve never read about a employer getting much more than a slap on the wrist fine for hiring undocumented workers.
I don’t think it’s so much a case of benign benevolence on the part of Oscar’s boss as the fact that he knows he can get him to work long hours for next to nothing while running him all over the place.
If he was truly doing him a favor, he’d pay him a decent wage.

3

What about undocumented workers taking American men?

I kid, I kid.

You should e-mail Eva Luna or one of the other immigration experts here to get some solid advice. Your bf is in a no-win situation as long as he is illegal. how hard would it be for him to get a green card?

4

You had your chance…

I’ve posted about it before and nothing really hopeful came out of it. Supposedly the only way at this point he can get a green card (without leaving the country and re-applying for a new visa which because he overstayed the last visa would be denied) is to marry an American. A girl American.

5

What you should do is come up here to Canada. We let everybody in! That way, he can marry a male Canadian (you). And, we have jobs. You’re welcome to a couple of them if you like.

6

Actually it’s explotación. alt 162 gets you the ó.

7

Actually, Dante might be onto something there. A couple of questions - can he get a Canadian visa, and how far away from you would he be if he was working here? If he can work in Canada legally, he would be making big bucks working in construction here. There are never enough healthy young men in the larger centres for construction.

8

Next to impossible, given the current state of affairs. If it were easy, there wouldn’t be several million people living in the U.S. with no lawful immigration status. I sympathize with their straits, but there’s not much advice I can give in this situation beyond what I already have.

Good luck, Otto, and I think your best bet at this point is to keep an eye on GW’s nebulous work visa proposal for unskilled workers. Although honestly, I don’t expect it to go anywhere; I think he’s just working all angles of the Hispanic vote.

However, if he manages to find a way to stay legally, I would look into filing a complaint with the state Labor Dept. after the fact for discrimination and back wages and what sounds like all sorts of other labor law violations.

9

I’m on a Mac, I don’t know from alt characters.

10

On a Mac, press “option-e,” then “o” – you’ll get ó. You can find all of these codes on your Apple menu, in a program called “key-caps.” press the “option” key, and all the option codes will show up (I have never used OS-X, and I have no idea if this works in it).

11

So what are you saying? People should be able to break our immigration and labor laws, but at the same time claim recompense for alleged labor law violations on the part of others? That’s a rather convenient stance, where people get to pick and choose which laws to follow. :rolleyes:

12

And here I was, in my utter naïvte, thinking Eva Luna meant something more like “people who exploit those unable to do anything about it should still be punished.”

13

My mom has helped many illegal immigrants. Regardless of whether one thinks they ‘belong’ here or not is moot to my mom. To her, making sure they have basic necessities and human rights is more important. I’m not going to argue about if it’s the right thing to do. Some of these guys are so desperate for money, they’ll do anything for a job that will send a paycheck home to their families.

Some illegals are treated like complete and absolute crap. One guy she knew fell off a roof and broke his back. His boss ‘fired’ him and threatened him if he told. Other cases include bosses calling immigration on payday (yay! free labor for a pay period!) or bosses giving fake checks.

It seems that nothing ever happens to the bosses. They claim that ‘they had nooooo idea’ and are pretty much left alone.

Otto, you and your SO have my sympathies.

14

Otto, that really, really sucks. I wish I knew what else to say :frowning:

15

Ever see The Wedding Banquet?

16

Don’t think the idea hasn’t been discussed. If I had any single female friends…

17

I’m saying that people who exploit and endanger others for their own enrichment, and break laws in the process of doing so, are in a whole different category, morally speaking, than people who break laws in order to feed themselves and their families.

I’m also saying that you are completely heartless if you can’t sympathize with the plight of someone whom economic circumstances and the geographical accident of birth have put into such a situation. You know, the only thing that separates me from impoverished Ukrainian villagers is that my great-grandparents turned right, and theirs either turned left or stayed put. I’m going to take a wild guess that your family didn’t come over on the Mayflower, either, so you could at least try to have a heart.

18

I disagree, as I don’t believe in moral relativism, but that’s another thread.

Anyway, I still don’t see how people can expect to operate outside of the legal system in terms of immigration and labor, but then also expect the same benefits found inside the system.

“Let’s see, I’ll immigrate to, or remain in, the United States illegally, and I will take a job in the United States illegally, and gosh darn it, I better get my Federally mandated minimum wage, too!”

How isn’t that like wanting to have your cake and eat it, too?

19

Because it gives unscrupulous employers a disincentive to screw otherwise helpless people, which in turn gives them less of an incentive to hire illegals over U.S. workers who are more able to fight back without fear of being retaliated against in purely immigration-related terms. Even the most heartless person ought to be able to see the purely pragmatic side of it.

P.S. Thought you might like to know there is a visa category, leading to permanent residency, for victims of human trafficking.

20

I happen to be against screwing helpless people.

Still, you’re dodging the question. Why should anyone be able to come here illegally, work here illegally, and then try to claim they are legally entitled to the benefits of our labor laws?

WARNING! Bad analogy to follow, but I’m tired.

It would be like two drug dealers, fighting over turf, and one of them tried suing in court over fair-trade practices. He wouldn’t have standing, case dismissed.

Same here, I just don’t see how someone could be working here illegally, and then expect, or demand, minimum wage, overtime, or any other legal bennie.