Interesting: Hilda Solis reviews project using Mexican "guest" workers instead of union workers

From the AFL CIO blog [1]:

In one of her first official acts as labor secretary, Hilda Solis has asked for a review of how Mexican sheet metal workers were given visas to work on the St. Regis Hotel project in Bal Harbour, Fla., when more than 1,000 members of the Sheet Metal Workers union (SMWIA) are out of work in the same area.

The company hired to install the heating and air conditioning ducts, CYVSA International, received approval from the state of Florida and the Bush Labor Department for visas to bring in foreign workers for seasonal work. But the visas are supposed to be granted only if there are no Americans available to do the job.

They also provide this Solis quote from a meeting she conducted with the AFL-CIO:

We are going to have to take a look at it and, hopefully, work closely with [Homeland Security Secretary Janet] Napolitano to see how we better focus so that these things don’t happen and that we avoid them [in the future]. There were before I came into my position visas that were permitted under the Bush administration that we will take a very, very close look at and [with] a very keen eye go through. But, rest assured, we will take a strong view on that.

[1] blog.aflcio.org/2009/03/04/ solis-investigating-guest-worker-visas-on-florida-hotel-project

Wed, 03/04/2009 - 16:24 · · Importance: 4