$50 an Hour to Pick Lettuce? You Bet

by Tula Connell, Apr 5, 2006

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), thought he could push around members of the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD).

He was wrong.

Meeting in Washington, D.C., for their annual legislative conference, union leaders representing Iron Workers, Plumbers and Pipe Fitters, Laborers, Painters and Allied Trades and other hard-hat unions traveled to Capitol Hill where they urged Congress to protect wages for U.S.-born and immigrant workers in the trades.

And when McCain spoke about immigration at the BCTD conference yesterday, the crowd began booing, with one participant honing in on the real issue, shouting: “Pay a decent wage!”

McCain’s response? Immigrants were taking jobs nobody else wanted.

But that wasn’t enough of an insult. McCain then offered anybody in the crowd $50 an hour to pick lettuce in Arizona.

When some union leaders said they’d accept his offer, the expensive-suited Washington, D.C., politician insisted none of them would do such menial labor for a complete season.

Said McCain: “You can’t do it, my friends.”

Anyone taking bets on whether McCain or building and construction trades guys would last longer working in the hot sun for 12 hours a day?

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