Honest day's pay...

Here's a question that I haven't heard asked or answered: How hard is it for conservative politicians to argue that immigration is a threat to wages while also arguing that unions (which, arguably, by keeping upward pressure on wages, also provide non-union workers with better wages) are no longer compatible with the modern economy?

Oddly enough, the unions and conservative groups may have found an unexpected bridge on this issue. Politics can make strange bedfellows.

As a quote in a recent Post-Dispatch story noted, the numbers of illegal immigrants working in construction and other trades is almost non-existent because of union oversight.

Could a combination of greater union representation among hourly workers and stiffer penalties for employers who hire illegal immigrants be more effective than walls, guns and temporary worker status?

- Murphy