A recent Pew Hispanic survey found that more than 70 percent of illegal immigrants from Mexico are interested in a guest-worker program and then returning home.

And I come here as a daughter raised on the South Side of Chicago - by a father who was a blue-collar city worker and a mother who stayed at home with my brother and me.

My father was a member of the Teamsters Union in California where he helped to organize better health care for workers. My mother worked for more than 20 years on an assembly line.

It is imperative for the health and safety of millions of workers that we ensure that breathing systems needed for protection are widely available convenient and economical.

We must ensure that every worker has healthcare and is able to save for their retirement. We must ensure that our workers have safe and health working conditions.

Illegal immigrants are beginning to comprise a black market class of workers in our society jeopardizing the financial health of companies which play by the rules while themselves vulnerable to the exploitation by those willing to take advantage of their illegal status.

Most illegals are without health insurance and when these workers need emergency healthcare the American taxpayer gets stuck with the bill.

Jobs are disappearing from every sector of the economy from engineering to health care workers forcing hundreds of thousands of families into unemployment and low-paying jobs.

In this most powerful nation in the world lack of access to health care should not force local and state governments companies and workers into bankruptcy while causing unnecessary illness and hospitalization.

San Francisco businesses face many challenges including high rents regulatory burdens and the rising cost of workers compensation insurance and employee health plans.