Immigration reform has made its way into the political debate once again as Congress debates new adjustments to visas and worker amnesty. And employers with farm workers, hotel employees, construction workers and engineers have problems with some aspect of the bill because it doesn't satisfy their particular selfish needs.

According to the agricultural industry, the proposed McCain-Kennedy Immigration Reform Bill would allow immigrant workers easy routes to leave their current employment and seek higher-paying jobs elsewhere, for example, in construction.

The result, they say, would be a labor shortage and higher consumer prices.

Information technology companies fear the law would prohibit them from employing a sufficient number of immigrant workers to stay competitive.

They claim there are not enough qualified American workers to fill the current job openings.

Positions from national employer groups, like the Chamber of Commerce and the Home Builders, have issues that focus on the business operations, while ignoring the employees' concerns.

They have little concern for workers seeking to improve their standards of living. Yet they have anxieties about the additional costs and paperwork involved in verifying that employees have their legal labor rights.

Business is only interested in keeping its cheap, exploited labor, not in implementing and enforcing workers' rights.

With very few exceptions, corporate America has never given workers anything more than the bare minimum.

As we have seen in countries that have weak labor laws or union representation repressed by government decree, workers fight for employment that pays pennies per hour and find the "fair market value" for their labor at the bottom of the barrel.

Corporate interests are shocked when they are expected to prove they are abiding by the law. If they had to document the status of their employees and provide workers their legal rights as employees, how would they find the workers they wanted to exploit?

Workers from every part of the world have every right to work in this country. Most of us have forefathers who came from some distant land.

What is lacking is the respect and dignity deserved by anyone willing to work, to improve their living standards and become part of a great country.

Corporations do not have the right to take advantage of immigrants willing to work and have them forfeit their labor rights under the laws of this country.

What would happen if Congress had the guts to legislate a bill that declared that companies could employ an unlimited number of immigrant workers as long as each and every employee had the opportunity to join a labor union without fear of intimidation, threats or firings?

Employees could simply choose to sign authorization cards indicating their willingness to join a union, be represented and protected under a collective bargaining agreement and enjoy the benefits of a higher standard of living.

What if they had the opportunity to be paid a living wage, secure training and work above the underground economy?

What if Congress actually passed the Employee Free Choice Act (currently in Congress to reform the National Labor Relations Act) and allowed workers the right to join a union without reprisal and fined those who violated the law with punitive damages?

I suspect that corporate America's attitude would be a little bit different.

Pitting one worker against another would disappear. Calling "Immigration" on workers trying to organize would cease. And cries of a labor shortage (of cheap labor) would turn into a pool of qualified applicants.

If you treat workers right, pay a decent wage and provide some sense of security, you will get workers willing and able to do those jobs that corporations claim Americans won't do.

Just look at the meat-packing industry. It was once a major union stronghold and employed thousands of workers until the food conglomerates busted the unions.

Now many immigrant workers desperate to find employment go in the slaughterhouses and find themselves working in some of the most dangerous and lowest-paid jobs available.

It's a job they say Americans won't do - well, not now anyway.

Tom Szymanski can be reached at toms@ibew725.org.