The Daily ItemLYNN ? Fourteen years ago, Selso Lopez fled his impoverished native Guatemala with hopes of starting a new life in the United States. Willing to work hard, he accepted menial jobs that brought him face-to-face with the nation’s underground economy – a pervading set of circumstances in which unscrupulous employers hire needy immigrants, often for low pay amid unsafe workplace conditions.Last week, Lopez, a Lynn resident, was among several immigrants to testify at a hearing before the Joint Task Force on the Underground Economy and Employee Misclassification, held at the North Shore Career Center on Union Street.Lopez described how he and others were physically and mentally abused by business owners and job foremen, sometimes not getting paid for work done, or retaliated against for attempts to organize or for merely complaining. Immigrants are often exposed to poisons or dangerous conditions, forced to operate heavy machinery with little or no training, and must pay out of pocket for parts when equipment is broken on the job, he said.One fellow worker was beaten by his employer when he inquired about his paycheck and was told never to return, Lopez said.In another instance, a group of Guatemalan immigrants worked three weeks without pay, only to learn the company had shut down and moved to a different state, said Lopez, adding that the workers lost a total of $22,000 in wages. “We trusted the manager,” he said, still perplexed by the deceipt.Jeffrey Crosby, president of the IUE-CWA Local 201 labor union, which represents about 18,000 workers on the North Shore, many of them at GE, told his colleagues on the hearing panel that illegal labor practices hurt the economy. “We must re-establish the basic premise that if you work, you get paid,” he said. “We will not fix the economy if we don’t first fix the underground economy. Unfortunately, this problem is going to get worse because good employers who are trying to survive are more likely to engage in these kinds of illegal practices.”Crosby said Lynn is home to approximately 7,000 Guatemalan immigrants, many of whom have no documentation. “They are some of the hardest-working people you could ever hope to get your hands on. Your legal status should not be an issue,” he said, referring to employers who abuse workers and then threaten to report them to immigration officials when they complain.Sarang Sekhavat, director of federal policy at the Mass Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, said immigrants face great difficulties and often resort to using phony Social Security numbers in order to obtain work or pay taxes. Sekhavat said unionization efforts are viewed with contempt by unsavory employees who use such occasions to report the illegal workers to U.S. Immigration officials.Nick DiGiovanni, business manager for Carpenters’ Local 26, said employers using illegal laborers can underbid legitimate construction companies, a growing trend that recently has spread to bidding on public projects such as improvements at Beverly High School.According to DiGiovanni, any employee who uses immigrant labor, pays no health care or other benefits, can easily underbid the competition. “This thing is so big it affects everybody,” he said, explaining that if an illegal workers gets hurt on the job, he’ll probably head for the nearest hospital emergency room, where his medical treatment will be paid through the uncompensated free care pool – which ultimately is subsidized by taxpayers.Marcy Goldstein-Gelb, a panelist and executive director of the Mass Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health, said another Lynn man might of testified at the hearing, but could not because he is dead. She recalled the Aug. 30, 2007 death of Benedelson Ovalle Chavez, a 17-year-old immigrant who fell 20 feet while fixing the roof of a Salem Church. The employer, Olympic Roofing, had provided Chavez with no training or appropriate safety gear for such work, she said.Goldstein-Gelb said employers who