Widespread support for the AgJOBS farmworker immigration
legislation has not stopped members of Congress from introducing
proposals that would result in unfair treatment of farmworkers.
The major alternatives are described below following a discussion
of the Administration’s plans regarding the agricultural
guestworker program.
White House
In mid-2007, the White House supported a comprehensive immigration
reform package that included a revised version of the AgJOBS
legislation. Following the July filibuster of the comprehensive
bill in the Senate, the White House announced
plans to increase enforcement efforts against unauthorized
immigration. The White House plans include a new rule regarding
“no match Social Security numbers” and increased immigration
raids. This increased enforcement will have a detrimental effect
on the agricultural sector. It will drive undocumented workers
further underground, leaving workers even more vulnerable to
exploitation and further destabilizing the farm labor force. The
White House also announced plans to revise the H-2A agricultural
guestworker program regulations. Although no details have been
provided, given the White House’s previous recommendations for
changes to the H-2A program (see our
bulletin regarding the “leaked”
White House immigration principles at the end of March 2007),
we suspect the proposed changes would weaken important worker
protections.
Congress should not permit one-sided changes to the H-2A program
and harsh enforcement measures that will harm workers, farmers and
consumers. Congress should enact the bipartisan, labor-management
AgJOBS proposal. AgJOBS would provide America with a stable farm
labor force and help ensure that farmworkers are treated fairly.
America’s farmworkers, farmers, and consumers of fruits,
vegetables and other vital agricultural products need AgJOBS.
Senate
Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) has a long history of proposing
harsh, one-sided changes to the H-2A temporary foreign
agricultural guestworker program. Sen. Chambliss’s primary goal
is to eliminate wage protections in the H-2A program in order to
provide growers with cheap foreign labor.
When the Senate debated the proposal to increase the federal
minimum wage in January 2007,
Sen. Chambliss filed a proposed amendment that would
have slashed wage rates paid to farmworkers under the
H-2A guestworker program. His amendment intended to eliminate the
H-2A adverse effect wage rate (AEWR), which is designed to
prevent foreign workers from exploitation and U.S. workers from
wage depression, and would have redefined the “prevailing wage” as
one based only on entry-level wages.
Thanks to the work of those opposing the Chambliss farmworker wage
amendment to the minimum wage bill, Sen. Chambliss withdrew his
amendment. However, we can expect
to see more such amendments from Sen. Chambliss in the future.
The debate on Sen. Chambliss’ amendment to the minimum wage bill
gave Senators Kennedy, Feinstein and Craig an opportunity to speak
about the need for AgJOBS. The
bipartisan AgJOBS bill
addresses the controversial wage rates in the H-2A program and
provides a tough but balanced compromise regarding the AEWR.
We look forward to your
continued help in fighting Sen. Chambliss's efforts to undermine
farmworker rights and your support in passing AgJOBS.
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Click
here to read a description of Sen. Chambliss’s amendment
to the minimum wage bill.
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Click
here to read a sign-on letter opposing Sen. Chambliss's
amendment.
-
Click
here to read a letter from the
United Farm Workers opposing Sen. Chambliss's proposed amendment
to the minimum wage bill.
-
Click
here to read a Bulletin entitled Senator Chambliss’s
Harsh Attempts to Reform the H-2A Program.
In
May 2006, Sen. Chambliss proposed a similar amendment to AgJOBS
during the Senate debate on immigration reform. To read more about
that debate, please see our 109thCongress/CongressionalDebate
page.
House
Representative Lincoln Davis (D-Tenn.) has proposed a bill, HR
934, that would slash farmworker wages in the H-2A agricultural
guestworker program. Click
here to read more about his bill.
Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) has once again introduced a one-sided,
anti-worker proposal to revise the H-2A temporary agricultural
guestworker program. His bill, the Temporary Agricultural Labor
Reform Act of 2007, H.R. 1792, would revise the H-2A program by
reducing governmental oversight, allowing employers to displace
U.S. workers, and subjecting guestworkers and U.S. workers to
substandard wages and working conditions with no meaningful
ability to enforce their rights. To read more about his bill and
the effect it would have on farmworkers, please click
here.
