Where I Stand — Mike O’Callaghan: Immigrants are people, too

Saturday, June 24, 2000 | 8:24 a.m.

Mike O'Callaghan is executive editor of the Sun. He is also publisher of the Henderson Home News and the Boulder City News, where this column first appeared as "One Man's View."

WORKING WITH IRON, concrete, a shovel or a jackhammer is especially tough on the body during these days with triple digits showing on the thermometer. It gets only a little better when it's cold during the winter months.

Drive down the street and get out of your air-conditioned vehicle. Take a deep breath of hot air and spend some time watching the people building and excavating. Then just think about the long hours they have already put in or have in front of them before they will return home.

If they are immigrants, their home may be full of parents, grandparents and children. The cost of electricity encourages them to use the air-conditioning sparingly, but it's sure an improvement over the conditions at work.

So what's the problem, you may ask? They are getting paid the same amount of money and have the same working conditions as other workers. This may not be a correct assumption, according to the Las Vegas Interfaith Council for Worker Justice. There is a strong possibility that the worker with dark skin, who speaks better Spanish than English, isn't getting equal pay and the safe working conditions that other workers receive.

It doesn't take long for a worker to know he isn't being treated equally. So why doesn't he explain his problem to the boss and request better treatment? He has, and now he's out on the street looking for a job.

Again this year, as it did last year, the interfaith council has brought the problems of immigrant workers to our attention. The workers they bring with them tell of work experiences that most of us have come to believe were no longer in existence. But they do exist right here in Clark County, and it's a shame of our times.

I understand hard work outside in desert heat and northern cold. Work as an ironworker on dams and bridges and running a rock crusher in the desert were good experiences for me. The job bought me food, clothes and paid college fees. More importantly, I was treated as an equal by my bosses and fellow employees. The job superintendents and even the company owners took time to see me on the job, and at night in the construction camp or downtown they greeted me and introduced their wives and children.

It was hard and dirty work, but at the end of a day I could stand back and see the results of my sweat and skills. Just last month when flying in a private plane on the way into Boise, Idaho, I pointed out the window and proudly exclaimed, "I helped build that dam."

A few Clark County companies are denying immigrant workers the pride and success they deserve. Intimidation on the job and some questionable safety procedures that should be challenged have become a way of life workers are fearful of challenging. It may be hot, dusty and strenuous, but being treated as less than an equal human being is the painful aspect of these jobs.

A couple of companies have made it clear to immigrant employees that they are willing to spend thousands of dollars more to control them than they will give them in wages. If they don't like it, they can look for another job.

This treatment of immigrant workers isn't limited to Clark County or Nevada. Next door in California, Catholic Cardinal Roger Mahoney wrote an article in the Los Angeles Times praising the recent declaration by the AFL-CIO. Rather than viewing immigrant workers as a threat, the nation's largest union, under the leadership of John Sweeney, seeks "amnesty" and protection of immigrant workers who don't have legal status.

Mahoney noted: "The American economy is growing, not in spite of immigrant workers but with their help. Farm workers and garment workers put food on our tables and clothes on our backs. The state's robust tourism industry is supported by busboys, dishwashers, cooks, maids and janitors. In return for their efforts, immigrant workers deserve the protections that permanent residency and the enforcement of workplace rights would afford them."

The cardinal could have been writing about some Clark County immigrant workers in the following paragraph: "First, their jobs are susceptible to the usual twists and turns of an economy that often sees low-wage, low skilled workers displaced by sudden changes in the market. Also, immigrants are particularly vulnerable to discrimination and harassment by unscrupulous employers who are willing to exploit the labor of immigrants -- especially those without legal status -- who they know are reluctant to seek legal recourse."

We should all be pleased that the Las Vegas Interfaith Council is speaking up for those working immigrants who have so few voices willing to speak for them.