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The successful rescue this weekend of nine miners trapped for days 240
feet below the surface of Pennsylvania transfixed the nation. Scenes of
freezing, filth-covered men emerging alive one by one from the narrow
rescue shaft delighted us, and reporters on location spoke in almost
reverent appreciation of these men and the risks they take in one of the
dirtiest and most dangerous jobs in America.
After washing off and receiving medical attention, some of the miners
began giving interviews. Judging by their accents, these miners are
native-born Americans.
This must come as a great shock to Wall Street Journal readers, who are
frequently told that extreme levels of legal and illegal immigration are
necessary, since immigrants do the "dirtiest and most dangerous" jobs in
America -- "jobs Americans won't do."
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the fatality rate for coal
miners is over seven times higher than for industry as a whole, making it
the most dangerous job in America.
However, this dangerous and dirty work is still done by Americans, and
wages for miners are high. In 2001, according to the BLS, the average
hourly earnings for miners were $17.65 -- well above the average for all
other industries. In other words, industry must often pay higher wages to
those who do dirty and dangerous work than it must pay to those who do
less dirty and less dangerous work.
Unless, of course, industry can hire illegal immigrants.
Meatpacking is another dirty and dangerous job that was once also high
paying and sought after by Americans. Beginning in the 1970s, however,
union-busting corporations began importing illegal immigrants to do
meatpacking jobs -- even sending buses to the border to ferry illegal
immigrants back to their packinghouses.
Now those once high paying jobs pay little more than minimum wage and the
illegal immigrants who fill them dare not complain about working
conditions or pay since there are always more recently arrived illegal
aliens ready take their places.
The meatpacking industry was a major labor battleground, and importing
easily oppressed foreigners was a key corporate weapon. The corporations
won, and American workers were tossed out on the street. Adding insult to
injury, they later had to pay higher taxes for more classrooms, healthcare
and other services required by their new neighbors in radically changed
communities.
We congratulate the Pennsylvania miners on their grit and survival, and
hope they can continue to hang on to their jobs.
A Nation of Immigrants (Wall Street Journal)
TAKE POSITIVE ACTION
It is no wonder the corporate class loves illegal immigration; it is no
wonder the Wall Street Journal regularly repeats the false slogan:
"Immigrants do the jobs Americans won't do."
But it is perplexing that so many reporters, editorialists, and columnists
repeat the same corporate lie.
Please take the opportunity of this weekend's demonstration of Americans
doing the dirtiest and most dangerous job in American to write a letter to
the editor of your local paper and remind him or her that the corporate
opinion, "Immigrants do jobs Americans won't do," is simply not true.
Your local paper's contact information can be obtained at:
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
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