With update: I thank Carlos for his comment down below. While I agree that CMC could have or even should have treated Pedro differently, it is well within fair for Collins or CMC to have policies that are in English. (I'd also like to point out that few people are calling for a smarter path to help those people at work in Collins -- teaching them English! Many students volunteer to teach local youngsters. Why not volunteer to help the dining hall people get more proficient in English?)
And while it may certainly be true that CMC hasn't knowingly hired an illegal immigrant, we do know that Pomona College routinely offers illegal immigrant students financial aid. Given the rather lax enforcement of these laws, I think it's still a fair question to ask, particularly if Pedro's children are American. I repeat: I would gladly sign any petition or help raise any money to bring his entire family here if even one of them was an American citizen.
As for this website that has sprung up trying to syndicate my blog, I say thank you, but you've gotten some of your facts wrong. I currently have a B in Macro and had a B+/A- in Econ. 50. If you'd like to see all of my grades, simply ask and I'll send you a transcript. Maybe you can syndicate that, too? More to the point, this isn't a natural monopoly, it's a coerced monopoly because you can't exit the meal plan and still live on campus.
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There has been a lot of discussion about Pedro Gonzalez, a Hispanic worker at Collins who was terminated after he flew back to Mexico to deal with an eviction from his landlord. The Port Side covered story in its latest issue and student groups have been emerging, with a petition ready.
My heart goes out to Pedro and his family. I understand that dealing with housing issues in Latin America and Mexico are often fraught with difficulties -- some of which, like bribes, are extralegal. At the risk of sounding like a policy wonk, for those interested in learning more about the difficulties of land rights and titles, please read Hernando De Soto's The Mystery of Capital.
The Port Side claims that Pedro's language difficulties -- he does not speak English well despite being in America for nine years -- ought to have been taken into consideration when H.R. at CMC fired him and that the onus was on them to make sure that Pedro understood the rules. I disagree -- if you work for an employer, it is your duty, not the employer's, to stay abreast of the rules.
I recognize that citizenship questions seem outdated in this modern age where everything is well, up for grabs and where the President's aunt is staying in Boston illegally until at least next year, but I have to wonder if Pedro was a U.S. citizen. If he was, why didn't his children and his wife live with him in Southern California? Were they saving up for that? If it's the case that Pedro and his family are U.S. citizens, where can I donate to help them all settle in the U.S. ? If you haven't notice, things have gotten particularly dicy in Mexico. If Pedro isn't a U.S. citizen, what was Bon Appetit doing employing him in the first place? (For the record, I support greater immigration quotas.)
Now it would seem to me that a much more efficacious way to deal with what one perceives as unfair labor practices would be to exit Collins Dining hall and to cease any interactions with it and where possible, to leave the meal plan. I sincerely doubt that this will happen.
In any event, I think it's worth noting that The Port Side is absolutely silent on another labor question here on our campus, which thankfully, The CMC Forum addressed last month or so. That's the question of H-1B visas. Some of our smartest finance students have been denied jobs or internships with banks that took some of the stimulus money. It's become a problem out banking. And the bill, the Employ American Works Act, "essentially prohibits banks that took stimulus money from hiring foreign workers for two years," according to at least one news report.
I'm not a cynic, but I somehow doubt that the Worker’s Support Committee will be signing petitions or agitate about that law, ill-intention though it may be. They ought to speak out against it. These students argue, among other things, in defense of supporting the "community." What could be a better helping the community than trying to repeal laws that target some fellow students? Given that many of these jobs are in finance and wind up, on net, creating more jobs for everyone all over the world, it's a no brainer where efforts would be better spent.
