As the Senate opens debate on an overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws, organized labor is picking up the pace of its advocacy for the bill.
The Service Employees International Union, which claims more than two million members, said it had purchased more than $1 million in television advertising to run in June on cable networks nationwide. Five advertisements, which will rotate, feature police officers, Republicans and small-business owners â€" not traditional supporters of labor â€" calling on Congress to stop fighting over immigration and “fix what’s broke†in the system. The ads call for a pathway to citizenship for 11 million immigrants in the country illegally.
The A.F.L.-C.I.O., the nation’s largest labor federation, said it would take 50 union leaders from 27 states to Washington on Wednesday to lobby in the Senate and the House. The organization said it was also starting a call-in campaign by union members focusing on about two dozen senators, including lawmakers from Alaska, Georgia, Illinois, North Carolina, Ohio and Tennessee, who have not made public their positions on the legislation. Richard L. Trumka, the president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., was among an array of supporters who appeared with President Obama when he spoke from the White House on Tuesday morning to urge the Senate to pass the bill.
Immigrant workers, especially Latinos, have brought growth to unions that had struggled for years with declining membership. The A.F.L.-C.I.O reached a hard-fought agreement with business earlier this year on a program for future temporary low-skilled foreign workers, which is included in the Senate bill.
