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This page contains the latest news and current updates on the H-2A guestworker program.  For general information on the H-2A program, please click here to go back to the main page.

 

·         Bush Reveals Plan to Slash Wages for Farmworkers by Changing H2A Program

o        Nation-wide Coalition Opposes Bush Guestworker Plan

o        Key Congressional Members Send Letter to DOL Criticizing Proposed Changes

o        Immigration Coalition Seeks Withdrawl of Bush Plan

o        Farmworker Advocates Request Extension on Public Comment Period

·         First Wave of Harmful Changes Implemented in Nov DOL Memo; Farmworker Advocacy Groups Issue Letter of Opposition

 

     Commentary: 

·         Bush Administration Aims for Cheap Foreign Labor in '08

   


April 14, 2008

 

Advocacy Coalition Condemns Bush's "Deeply Flawed" Guestworker Plan

Proposal would undermine US workforce and exploit temporary foreign labor

 

Documents for Download

Summary Two-Pager: Illegal, Unfair and Counterproductive: The Bush Administration Proposal on the H-2A Guestworker Program

Short (9 page) Comments to the DOL signed by 100 organizations nationwide

Short Comments to the DHS

Full Comments by FJ and two dozen other organizations to the Department of Labor (170 pages)

Full Comments to the Department of Homeland Security (19 pages)

(Washington D.C.)  Today over a hundred organizations from around the country have issued formal objections to the Bush Administration’s plan to overhaul the H-2A agricultural guestworker program.  The groups claim that these flawed changes would encourage agricultural employers to hire a flood of foreign workers that would be brought into the country without basic protections and assurances.  The Department of Labor (DOL) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), who are issuing the proposed regulations changes, were open to input on the plan during a short public comment period which ended today.

 The H-2A program allows agricultural employers to hire foreign workers for seasonal jobs using temporary work visas if they can show that there is a shortage of U.S. workers.  The program also ensures that the wages and working conditions offered are not so low as to undermine the labor standards of U.S. farmworkers.  The groups claim that the DOL has long neglected to enforce worker protections in the existing plan, which has been plagued by abuses, and is now trying to rush through an immensely flawed overhaul that would reduce government oversight and worker protections even further.

 According to a sign-on letter some of the groups submitted, the intent of the proposed changes is to increase employer’s access to easily exploitable laborers from poor countries who could not demand the wages and working conditions legal U.S. workers could. “The end result of DOL’s proposed changes—developed with the requested input of agricultural employers who have made clear their preference for a captive workforce of young, male guestworkers—would be a diminishing workforce of U.S farmworkers replaced by a vulnerable workforce of exploitable imported temporary workers”.  Although the DOL asked for agricultural employer input for the program, it failed to ask the same of farmworker advocacy and labor organizations.

 The solution to our nation’s need for farmworkers, the letter says, is to reduce discrimination against agricultural workers in U.S. employment law which results in farmworkers being denied the basic worker protections afforded to workers in other professions.

 “The Administration has an opportunity to offer meaningful solutions to the perpetual “plight” of farmworkers that has been the subject of exposés and government commission recommendations for decades” the letter states.  “Rather than rise to this opportunity, DOL proposes to return to a distant past of failed government policies and complicity in rampant abuses by agricultural employers.  By proposing regulations relieving employers of liability, discouraging U.S. workers from seeking H-2A jobs, lowering H-2A wages, eliminating or reducing many of the program’s labor protections, and narrowing the class of U.S. workers protected by the H-2A regulations, DOL would permit employers to displace U.S. workers, exploit the vulnerability of hundreds of thousands of guestworkers and worsen job terms for all farmworkers.  This nation should not go down that path once again”.

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March 10, 2008

 

Senators Kennedy and Obama Send Letters to DOL requesting extended Public Comment Period on Proposed Changes to H-2A Program

 

 

The letter from the Senators can be downloaded here

 

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March 06, 2008

 

Key Senior Congressional Members Send Letters to DOL Urging Withdrawal of Bush Proposal

 

Representatives Miller, Conyers, Berman, Woolsey and Lofgren urge withdrawal of Bush Plan

 

Representatives George Miller (D-CA), Chairman of the Committee on Education and Labor; John Conyers (D-MI), Chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary; Howard Berman (D-CA), Acting Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs; Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), Chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections; and Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Chairwoman on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security and International Law, sent a letter this morning to Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao urging her to withdraw the proposal to change the H-2A guestworker program.  The letter also asks that Secretary Chao extend the shortened 45-day comment period to the normal 90-day period if she insists on going forward with the proposed changes

 

Download a pdf of the letter here

 

 

Clinton Issues Statement Criticizing Bush Administration Guestworker Plan


Thursday, February 21, 2008 
Contact: Clinton Press Office 202-224-2243 or
press@clinton.senate.gov
 
STATEMENT OF SENATOR HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON ON THE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR'S PROPOSED H-2A REGULATIONS
 
Washington, DC – “I am deeply concerned that the Bush Administration's proposed H-2A regulations would worsen an already flawed program.  The changes would weaken protections for U.S. and foreign workers, reduce government oversight, and slash wage rates, while failing to address the many problems that have prevented growers from using the program for more than a small fraction of their labor needs.  Our nation needs sensible, comprehensive H-2A legislation that protects the rights and wages of workers and provides a stable and sufficient workforce for growers.  I call on the Administration to join me in striving to achieve that kind of real and meaningful reform.”
 

Obama Issues letter to DOL condemning Bush Administration Plan

 

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Today, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, sent a letter to Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao in which he criticizes the Department of Labor's proposal to change the H-2A agricultural guestworker program.

In the letter, Sen. Obama presses Secretary Chao to support the labor-management, bipartisan compromise in Congress, known as AgJOBS. He calls on the Administration to either withdraw the proposal to change the H-2A program or, at a minimum, extend the time period for the public to comment on the extensive proposed changes. (She has set a 45-day comment period that is utterly inadequate due to the scope of the proposed changes.)

We thank Sen. Obama for his commitment to farmworkers and for taking time out of his busy schedule to address an issue of such great importance to the nation's farmworkers. 

Read Obama's letter here

 

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February 20, 2008

 

Immigration Coalition Seeks Withdrawal of Bush Plan to Overhaul H-2A Guestworker Program

A major national immigration coalition urges Secretary of Labor Chao to withdraw proposal to change H-2A temporary foreign agricultural worker program due to its anti-worker bias, and supports passage of the AgJOBS legislation.  The coalition is FIRM, Fair Immigration Reform Movement.

Read the letter from FIRM here.  Below is the list of organizations on the FIRM steering committee.

African Resource Center (Washington, DC)

CAUSA (Oregon)

Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (California)

Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition

Florida Immigrant Coalition

Gamaliel Foundation (National)

Hate Free Zone (Washington)

Idaho Community Action Network

Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights

Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition

Michigan Organizing Project

Michigan Organizing Strategy to Enable Strength (MOSES)

National Capital Immigrant Coalition

Nebraska Appleseed

New Jersey Immigrant and Policy Network

New York Immigrant Coalition

Northwest Federation of Community Organizations (Washington, Idaho, Montana, Oregon)

Pineros y Campesinos de Noroeste (Oregon)

Sunflower Community Action (Kansas)

Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition

Voces de la Frontera (Wisconsin)

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February 20, 2008

 

Farmworker Advocates Request Extension on Public Comment Period

A coalition of organizations that plan to submit comments on the Bush Administration’s proposal to eliminate major labor protections in the H-2A agricultural guestworker program has submitted a letter to Secretary Chao asking her to extend the time frame for public comments from 45 days to 90 days.  The letter is attached.  The DOL’s complex proposal contains numerous changes, some blatant and some not obvious, that require extensive review and analysis that is not reasonably possible in a 45-day period.  

The groups that signed on to the letter appear below.  Thanks very much to those working on the comments and on these efforts. 

Farmworker Justice

AFL-CIO

California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation.

California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc.

Centro Campesino, Inc. (MN)

Change to Win

Farm Labor Organizing Committee, AFL-CIO

(continued on following page)

Farmworker Legal Services (Bangor, Michigan)

Florida Legal Services, Inc.

Friends of Farmworkers

International Brotherhood of Teamsters

League of United Latin American Citizens

MAFO, A Partnership of Farmworker Organizations

Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) 

National Council of La Raza

National Employment Law Project

National Farm Worker Ministry

Northwest Workers Justice Project

Organización en California de Líderes Campesinas, Inc.

Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (PCUN, Oregon)

Service Employees International Union

Student Action with Farmworkers

Texas RioGrande Legal Aid

UMOS (Wisconsin)

United Farm Workers

United Farm Workers Foundation

United Food and Commercial Workers International Union

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February 13, 2008

 

DOL announces sweeping changes to H-2A Program

(WASHINGTON DC)— The Bush administration has published their plans to substantially cut the wages of agricultural workers in the U.S. and weaken the modest labor protections of the H-2A guestworker program. These administrative policies, announced today by the Department of Labor (DOL) as a proposed change to regulations, would drastically lower protections and minimum housing standards for the farmworkers who harvest our nation’s crops. The changes also would allow employers to hire foreign workers without having to first recruit U.S. workers effectively and without meaningful government oversight.  The proposal should be withdrawn.

“Farmworkers face the most devastating policy changes since the end of the abusive Bracero program in the early 1960s” said Bruce Goldstein, Executive Director of Farmworker Justice.  “The White House and Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao are heartlessly slashing wage rates and removing labor protections for United States agricultural workers. The administration is encouraging agricultural employers to hire cheap foreign labor thus lowering the wages for all U.S. workers,” he continued.  “Employers should offer wage rates based on America’s labor standards, not those of developing nations.”

The Department of Labor will allow 45 days for the public to comment on the proposal before finalizing it.  DOL plans to reduce government oversight of the application process by which employers petition for foreign workers, by changing from a “labor certification” process to a so-called “labor attestation” process, which means that employers need only promise to comply with the law. 

The DOL proposal will also change the wage formula for the H-2A program by using different statistics to set the wage rate.  Previously these rates were calculated based on surveys performed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.  For example, the 2008 rates (based on 2007 wages) include:  California, $9.72 per hour; Georgia, $8.53; New York, $9.70; North Carolina, $8.85 (down from $9.02 last year); Ohio, $9.90.  Now the DOL wishes to use flawed surveys by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) that result in substantially lower wage rates.  The complex proposal would involve large numbers of individual wage rates in numerous geographic areas and would allow employer manipulation of the wage system. 

In addition, many H-2A employers would no longer need to provide workers with housing; they will be permitted to provide a housing “voucher.”  Frequently, there is no housing available for farmworkers so a voucher is essentially worthless.   

Farmworker Justice supports a solution to our farm labor needs that was negotiated by the United Farm Workers and major agribusiness employers called AgJOBS --the Agricultural Job Opportunities, Benefits and Security Act. 

“We already have hundreds of thousands of farmworkers in this country who need better wages and working conditions,” said Goldstein. “AgJOBS has broad bi-partisan support in Congress.  The Bush Administration should work with Congress to pass AgJOBS, not lower wage rates and labor standards to enable agricultural employers to bring in vulnerable guestworkers to harvest America’s fruits and vegetables,” he concluded.

Download an MS Word version of this One Page Statement by Farmworker Justice

 

See also the United Farm Workers' statement/Action-Alert page and the AFL-CIO's statement on their website.

 

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First Wave of Harmful Changes Implemented in November DOL Memo

Bush Administration Makes One-Sided Changes to the H-2A Agricultural Guestworker Program IN November 2007 Memo

Context:

On August 10, President Bush announced that the Administration would consider changes to the H-2A agricultural guest worker program to streamline the program while retaining labor protections.  

In early October 2007, the Los Angeles Times reported on letters sent by the National Council of Agricultural Employers (NCAE) to the Bush Administration demanding extensive changes to the H-2A program.  On October 14th, the New York Times published an editorial criticizing the Bush Administration’s plan to make one-sided changes to the H-2A program and urging passage of AgJOBS. Click here to see more media coverage.

On November 6, 2007, the Department of Labor issued a memo that drastically limited H-2A employer obligations to recruit US workers for the agricultural employment.  The memo also imposes the obligation on state workforce agencies to verify employment eligibility of any US workers referred to employers in response to an H-2A job order with a “strong recommendation” to use the highly flawed E-Verify program. Farmworker Justice and the UFW alerted Congress and issued press statements condemning the DOL’s actions against farmworkers (click here to see FJ’s press statement  and here to see UFW’s press statement). On November 14, 2007, the DOL rescinded the Nov. 6 memo but issued an equally illegal replacement.  Please see our bulletin for more information. Through these illegal policies, the Bush administration is enabling agricultural employers to hire cheap foreign labor and helping to lower the wages for all U.S. workers. 

The Administration’s resources would be better spent cooperating on the passage of AgJOBS and on enforcing the labor protection in the H-2A program.  These changes to the H-2A program would not address the reality that the majority of farmworkers already in the United States are undocumented.  The bipartisan AgJOBS legislation offers a balanced approach that both employers and farmworkers can live with and that will serve America well. 

Q.  How did Congress Respond to the Administration’s Illegal Actions against Farmworkers?

A.  Congressional members wrote letters and press releases to President Bush and Secretary Chao, click on the links below to read them:

Q.  What did Advocates Do in Response to the Administration's Announcement of Plans to Change the H-2A Program?

A.  Farmworker Justice met with high-level officials from the DOL to discuss changes to the H-2A program and submitted a letter with recommended changes to the H-2A program. 

FJ also is working closely with the United Farm Workers union and other farmworker, labor and immigration advocates around the country stop these one-sided changes to the H-2A program.  A coalition of labor groups and a coalition of Latino groups have sent letters to the Administration opposing one-sided changes to the H-2A program. 

In January of 2008, more than a dozen farmworker advocacy organizations, including Farmworker Justice, released a letter to the Department of Labor (DOL) criticizing the agency for its recent and illegal policy changes to the H-2A agricultural guestworker program as outlined in a November 14th memo.  The groups are demanding that Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao immediately retract the policy memo.  

 

Press Release

Letter to DOL and attachments:

November 14th DOL memo

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Commentary: Bush Administration Aims for Cheap Foreign Labor in '08

January 2008

by Bruce Goldstein, Executive Director

2008 will be a hard year for farmworkers if the Bush Administration has its way.  The Department of Labor announced plans to change the agricultural guestworker program in ways that not only fail to solve the farm labor supply problem, but will also severely harm workers. 

It began in November when the Department of Labor (DOL) issued new instructions to its staff to allow farm operators to bring in guestworkers without vigorously recruiting qualified  U.S. workers (legal immigrants and citizens).  The new policy was illegal and unfair to tens of thousands of migrant farmworkers who wanted and needed these jobs. 

The Administration also revealed that it would announce a series of more extensive changes to the H-2A guestworker program that would include lowering wage rates, minimizing recruitment of U.S. workers, weakening housing requirements, reducing government oversight and otherwise encouraging the use of cheap foreign labor.  If these proposed changes go through, 2008 may prove to be the year in which America returns to the era of rampant farm labor exploitation under the notorious “Bracero” guestworker program during the 1950s and early 1960s.

Under the agricultural guestworker program—called H-2A—an employer may apply to hire foreign workers on temporary work permits to perform seasonal jobs. This visa binds guestworkers to the employer that obtained the visa for them and requires that they return home once the season ends. A guestworker who wishes to return the following season must hope for a new invitation from the employer. With their legal status in this country tied to their employer, guest workers are vulnerable to abuse.  This is a system with great potential for creating sweatshops in the fields of America’s farmlands.

In other industries, employers facing a labor shortage compete for workers by improving wages and working conditions.  Not agriculture.  Instead of raising wages to attract workers within this country, they are asking government to  for permission to lower wage rates so they can hire foreign workers instead.  If the Labor Department lowers the wage rates, farmworkers in this country have no real chance of winning better pay.  Once an employer offers the required H-2A minimum wages and working conditions, it is free to reject a U.S. worker who wants higher wages and can instead hire endless numbers of foreign workers from poorer nations.  

Also, enforcement of the inadequate protections that do exist in the current program is severely lacking.  The Labor Department is supposed to make sure that H-2A employers comply with the program’s labor standards but often turns a blind eye to employer abuses.

Instead of re-creating a system we know does not work, what we need is a real solution that would reform the guestworker program in ways that would supply employers with the labor they need while also protecting American workers.  That solution is AgJOBS.  It is a product of hard-fought negotiations between business and labor, and Republicans and Democrats in Congress, that came after years of conflict over federal farm labor policy.   All parties made tough concessions to reach a realistic, practical agreement that is consistent with America’s values.

AgJOBS would streamline the H-2A process for employers, modestly lower the wage rates for a period, and provide guestworkers with new legal safeguards for the job terms promised to them. AgJOBS also would allow qualified undocumented farmworkers already in the U.S. to come forward, pay fines and fees, and earn legal immigration status by continuing to work in American agriculture for three to five more years.  It would create the strong, stable workforce needed for real food security in this country.

America needs a balanced approach to farm labor and immigration policy that will be good for employers, good for workers and good for the nation.  Let’s not regress to a system of inhumane exploitation that we know is not sustainable.  The Bush administration should be stopped from issuing one-sided, cheap foreign labor policy changes and should press Congress to pass AgJOBS in 2008.

 

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