Immigrants' economic muscle evident in one-day boycott

Immigrants made their point Monday: Without us, industries will tremble, jobs go undone and prices rise.

As nationwide demonstrations thinned the work force in businesses from meat-packing plants to construction sites to behind the counter at McDonald's, economists said there can be no dispute that immigrants — legal and illegal — wield significant clout.

"If illegal immigration came to a standstill, it would disrupt the economy," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com. "It would lead to higher prices for many goods and services, and some things literally would not get done. It would be a major adjustment for our economy, for sure."

Another economist, Diane Swonk, said it would be an economic mistake to restrict entry and work rights when revising immigration policy.

"To be turning our backs on people who want to work is kind of silly in an environment where you've got tight labor markets and we're getting older and need younger people to work," said Swonk, chief economist at Chicago-based Mesirow Financial.

While the full impact of the one-day "Day Without Immigrants" boycott was hard to gauge immediately, the protests touched many industries — with a heavy impact on only a few.

Major meat producers, including Tyson Foods, Perdue Farms, Cargill and Swift closed or cut back at dozens of plants. Goya Foods, a major Hispanic-owned food chain, all but closed for the day. Agriculture, construction and restaurants, industries that depend heavily on Hispanic labor, also took a hit.

McDonald's said some of its employees participated in the rallies, prompting the Oak Brook, Ill.-based company to operate an unspecified number of its nearly 14,000 outlets with limited crews, shortened hours or drive-thru service only. McDonald's did not provide further specifics but released a statement saying it strongly supports changes in U.S. immigration.

In California, dolls from China, DVD players from Japan and shirts from Malaysia piled up at Los Angeles-area ports. Lettuce wasn't picked in Blythe, and strawberries languished in Oxnard. On one block in the Koreatown district of downtown Los Angeles, only two of every nine businesses were open. The Garment District was nearly deserted.

At the nation's largest seaport complex, the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach, as few as 10 percent of truckers showed up.

"It's eerie, looking out at the Vincent Thomas Bridge with no trucks on it. It just looks kind of flat and lonely," said Teresa Adams Lopez, a spokeswoman for the Port of Los Angeles.

The 110, 710 and 47 freeways, the latter of which includes the Vincent Thomas Bridge, had only a few of the rigs that normally are so thick that motorists can't see the signs.

The effect in the fields was even more significant: The agricultural work stoppage apparently was the biggest on record in the state, surpassing the 1973 grape strike in the Coachella and San Joaquin valleys and the 1970 Salinas Valley vegetable strike.

"But both of them only involved targeted crops and didn't come close to the numbers of farmworkers participating today," said Marc Grossman, spokesman for the United Farm Workers union. The year-round farm work force in California numbers about 225,000, according to the California Farm Bureau Federation.

By itself, the "Day Without Immigrants" won't hurt the economy in the long run, analysts said. Shoppers quickly will go back to shopping and workers to working.

The message, however, was emphatic and unmistakable.

"This was a reality check," Economic Roundtable President Daniel Flaming said. "You can't wish away these workers. They are rooted in the community. Not everyone realized that before."