FJ responds to the release of the Georgia Report on Agriculture : The voice of the farmworker excluded once again
Wednesday, 04 January 2012 07:44
The Georgia Commissioner of Agriculture, Gary Black, as part of the state’s onerous immigration law, has issued the“Report on Agriculture Labor.” The report is very disappointing because the agricultural laborers – the focus of the report – play no role in the report. Despite lengthy surveys of growers and other agricultural business operators, the Report lacks any input from the seasonal farmworkers who are supposed to be the main subject. The report does explicitly acknowledge that federal law does not permit state governments to create a foreign guest worker program, and that solutions to labor issues facing Georgia agriculture rest in the hands of the federal government. But the report ignores the “elephant in the room” – which is what to do about the fact that the majority of seasonal farmworkers in the United States are undocumented workers and we need their labor.
Much of the report is a long list of complaints that some growers have about the H-2A agricultural guestworker program (although 90% of the Georgia growers have not used it). One mind-boggling example is the allegation, aimed at legal aid programs, that “attractive women come on to my property, without my permission to try and talk my workers into suing me.” (p. 58). The report gives these growers’ complaints more than ample space, but there are no voices of farmworkers, farmworker organizations or even the U.S. Department of Labor, which has had primary responsibility for administering the H-2A program and its predecessor since it began over 60 years ago.
Our recent report “No Way to Treat a Guest: Why the H-2A Agricultural Visa Program Fails U.S. and Foreign Workers,” is just one example of sources that could have been used to provide a balanced approach. Despite the growers’ complaints, to his credit, the Commissioner did not recommend many of the harsh changes in the H-2A guestworker program that some grower groups have advocated. His call for more education, outreach, research (including research into worker concerns) and federal action will undoubtedly anger many agribusiness representatives. Nonetheless, the report missed an opportunity and demonstrated once again that many policymakers in this country do not view farmworkers as part of agriculture.
Senator Chambliss’s HARVEST of Shame:Job Loss and Wage Cuts for American Farmworkers
Tuesday, 04 October 2011 10:00
On July 19, 2011, Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) introduced the HARVEST Act of 2011, S. 1384. The HARVEST Act would transform the agricultural labor force into a system of guestworkers with no meaningful protections. Chambliss’s HARVEST of shame would minimize government oversight of a massively expanded H-2A program, reduce wages and other worker protections, limit the ability of legal aid lawyers to protect the few remaining rights of guestworkers, and make other changes to ensure farmers have ready access to a steady stream of cheap replaceable workers.
Read Farmworker Justice's Fact Sheet on the proposed HARVEST Act
New Agricultural Labor Market Reform Act Would Stabilize U.S. Farm Work Force & Protect Farmworkers
Friday, 23 September 2011 09:08
Statement of Farmworker Justice on the Introduction of bill by Congressman Berman
Farmworker Justice welcomes the introduction of the Agricultural Labor Market Reform Act of 2011 and supports its enactment. We thank Representative Howard Berman for his leadership in support of reasonable, workable and fair immigration reform.
“The Agricultural Labor Market Reform Act of 2011 would offer a meaningful solution to the needs of agricultural employers, farmworkers and the nation,” said Bruce Goldstein., President of Farmworker Justice.
The bill would establish an earned legalization program under which current undocumented farmworkers in the U.S. who meet stringent requirements are given temporary permission to work in agriculture for three to five years and the opportunity to earn immigration status. Immediate family members in the U.S. also would be eligible to apply for immigration status. “Since more than one-half the seasonal agricultural workers in the U.S. lack authorized immigration status, and the supply of farm labor is threatened by increased immigration enforcement, Congress must reform our broken immigration system. This bill would help ensure a stable, legal workforce in agriculture, which is good for farmworkers, employers, consumers and the national interest,” said Goldstein..
Read full press statment here
FJ Immigration Update 9/22/2011: E-Verfiy
Thursday, 22 September 2011 15:09
Farmworker Immigration Update, September 22, 2011
Yesterday, the House Judiciary Committee approved Chair Lamar Smith’s (R.-Tex.) E-Verify legislation, the Legal Workforce Act, H.R. 2885, by a party-line vote of 22-13. The bill would require employers to use the E-Verify system to verify work authorization of new hires. Farmworker Justice opposes the Legal Workforce Act because of the harm it would cause farmworkers
E-Verify would do nothing to address the immigration status of more than one million undocumented farmworkers currently harvesting our fruits and vegetables – or the several million undocumented workers in other jobs.
Read our full update here
FJ Press Statement on American Specialty Act & Legal Agricultural Workforce Act
Friday, 09 September 2011 12:46
Rep. Smith and Rep. Lungren have both put forth separate guestworker proposals which would lead to job losses and wage cuts for American farmworkers while continuing to ignore the roughly one million experienced foreign-born agricultural workers who, without work authorization, currently harvest most of our crops.
Representative Lamar Smith, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has proposed legislation that would create a massive new agricultural guestworker system with up to 500,000 H-2C visas.
Rep. Lungren proposes a massive new uncapped guestworker program with no meaningful labor protections or enforcement for workers.
Read the full press statement here.
FJ Releases New Summaries of Rep. Smith and Rep. Lungren Guestworker Proposals
Thursday, 08 September 2011 14:07
Rep. Smith and Rep. Lungren have put forth separate guestworker proposals which would lead to job loss and wage cuts for American farmworkers while continuing to ignore the roughly one million experienced agricultural works without work authorization who currently harvest our crops.
Read summaries of the proposed bills and the impacts on both immigrant and US farmworkers.
FJ Summary of Rep. Smith's 'American Specialty Agriculture Act' Sept 2011
FJ Summary of Rep. Lungren's 'Legal Agricultural Workforce Act ' Sept 2011More Articles...
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