H-2B Guestworker Program
The H-2B Guestworker Program
As in the H-2A program, devastating new regulations went into effect for the H-2B program in January 2009. For more information about those regulations, please see H-2B lawsuit CATA v Chao.
Unlike the H-2A agricultural guestworker program, which has no limits on the number of H-2A workers who can be brought into the US, there are numerical limits on the number of work visas that can be issued under the H-2B program. The 2006 cap on H-2B workers is 66,000. In response to employer complaints that the cap on H-2B workers is too low, in 2005, Congress passed the Save Our Small and Seasonal Business Act. This Act temporarily exempted H-2B workers who have worked under the program in the last three years from counting toward the 66,000 cap.
Employers have tried to pass similar legislation in subsequent years but have been unsuccessful.
H-2B Legislation in the 110th Congress
On September 26, 2007, Senator Sanders (I-VT) introduced the Increasing American Wages and Benefits Act, S. 2094. The bill would reform the H-2B guestworker program to ensure the protection of US and foreign guestworkers by applying many of the same protections currently available to H-2A workers to H-2B workers, such as transportation reimbursement, the 75% work guarantee and the provision of workers' compensation. The bill also would increase prevailing wage rates, emphasize the recruitment of US workers, and authorize the Legal Services Corporation to represent H-2B workers. In addition, Sen. Sanders' bill would begin a process of regulating the international recruitment of guestworkers by labor contracting firms that are hired by employers in the United States. The guestworker recruitment system often enables the ultimate employers to escape responsibility for the mistreatment of the foreign citizens.
- Legislative language of the Increasing American Wages and Benefits Act, S. 2094
- Summary of the Increasing American Wages and Benefits Act, S. 2094
- Fact sheet on the Increasing American Wages and benefits Act: Legislation to Reform the H-2B Guest-Worker Program
- Farmworker Justice's letter in support of the Increasing American Wages and Benefits Act, S. 209
Congressional Briefings and Hearings on H-2B Forestry Workers in the 109th Congress
Senate hearing on Forestry workers
On March 1, 2006, the Senate Subcommittee on Public Lands and Forests on the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources held a hearing to "review the role of the Forest Service and other Federal agencies in protecting the health and welfare of foreign guest workers carrying out tree planting and other service contracts on National Forest System lands, and to consider related Forest Service guidance and contract modifications issued in recent weeks."
Resources, more information on the H-2B guestworker program
In July 2010 American University's Washington College of Law and the Centro de los derechos del Migrante (Center for Migrant Rights) released a report on the lives of H-2B guestworkers (mostly women) in the Maryland crab industry. It is an excellent resource with lots of detailed information about housing conditions, common workplace injuries and sexual harrassment. It also has a lot of information on illegal recruitment fees the workers pay for the visa in their home countries. Download the report: Picked Apart: The Hidden Struggles of Migrant Worker Women in the Maryland Crab Industry 
.
The abuse and exploitation of H-2B forestry workers has been extensively documented by Tom Knudson and Hector Amezcua of the Sacramento Bee in a series of articles documenting the life of H-2B forestry workers in the US. Check out the award-winning Piñeros: Men of the Pines.
The Southern Poverty Law Center's Immigrant Justice Project is representing forestry workers in several cases against timber companies who have violated labor and wage provisions. For information about these cases, please see this SPLC News Page. SPLC also has a booklet, Beneath the Pines, telling the stories of migrant pine tree workers.
Access to legal representation
The Northwest Workers' Justice Project and the Brennan Center for Justice filed a complaint under the labor side agreement to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) seeking access to justice for H-2B guestworkers. Read the history of that complaint here.
