A two-week congressional recess hasn’t cooled the embers of the political fire generated by a bill that would make it easier for workers to organize.

While they’re at home, senators and members of Congress have been the targets of a grass-roots campaign by the AFL-CIO promoting the Employee Free Choice Act. The union says the outreach involves thousands of workers in 350 events in at least 10 states.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has launched a $1 million television ad campaign in five states designed to denounce the bill and persuade wavering senators to oppose it.

As the EFCA cage match gets bloodier, it looks as if another issue might cause a labor-management brawl. And it’s one of the few areas where the two groups have been unusually cooperative in recent years—immigration.

On Tuesday, April 14, the AFL-CIO and Change to Win released five principles for immigration reform. The framework is significant because it symbolizes labor unity on the issue, especially the guest-worker dimension that split the movement in 2007.

This development could add further momentum to what immigration reform supporters hope will be a concerted Obama administration effort to pass a comprehensive bill this year.

One proposal by the labor groups is to establish “an independent commission to assess and manage future [immigration] flows, based on labor market shortages that are determined on the basis of actual need.”

The business community is wary of allocating employment visas through such a commission. Dan Yager, chief policy officer at the HR Policy Association in Washington, told The Wall Street Journal: “I think that’s just a way to avoid having a guest-worker program, and our view is that there is definitely a need for that.”

But in other areas, business and labor are on the same page—such as the need to overhaul the employment verification system and to create a path toward legal residency for the 12 million undocumented workers currently in the United States.

Both sides also should agree that immigrant workers must be treated fairly.

“Having access to a large undocumented workforce has allowed employers to create an underground economy, without the basic protections afforded to U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents,” the immigration framework states. “An inclusive, practical and swift adjustment of status program will raise labor standards for all workers.”

During a recent trip to the United Arab Emirates, I saw a region that is dependent on foreign labor. Everywhere you turn in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, there’s a building going up. On my first look around, I understood the joke that the crane is the UAE national bird.

The thousands of people toiling on the construction projects are from somewhere else—India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh or other countries in the region. None of them has UAE citizenship.

That situation could foster abuse. In fact, while I was in the UAE, the British Broadcasting Corp. aired a documentary asserting that guest laborers are exploited.

I didn’t see mistreatment myself. But I did notice the forlorn expressions on workers at a project near the Dubai hotel where I was staying. They were in line for fruit being passed out during a break.

Although having a job in the UAE may be better than unemployment at home, life is a struggle in their adopted country. They are sacrificing so that rich Emiratis—and international tourists—can enjoy gleaming hotels, office buildings, marinas and shopping malls.

For a brief moment, I felt a twinge of moral superiority, convinced that we don’t treat foreign workers this way in the United States.

But then I remembered that some nefarious American employers take advantage of Mexican immigrants. Wealthy suburbanites in the Washington area sometimes fail to pay Guatemalan day laborers—or even give them a ride back to the place where they were picked up in the morning.

While campaigning last fall, President Barack Obama touted his skill at fostering consensus on tough issues. He hasn’t demonstrated that ability in office so far. But perhaps he will find a way to bring labor and management together to ensure that the U.S. meets a higher immigration standard than the rest of the world.