The H-2B Guestworker Program
September 2011 Update on H-2B program developments
The H-2B temporary foreign worker program allows employers to hire workers from other countries on temporary work permits to fill nonagricultural jobs that last less than one year. H-2B workers are commonly found in the landscaping, forestry, seafood processing, and hospitality industries.
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.
Abuse in the H-2B Guestworker Program
The H-2B program is rife with exploitation and abuse. As with all guestworkers, H-2B workers suffer from an imbalance of power with their employers because their temporary, non-immigrant status ties them to particular employers and makes their ability to obtain a visa dependent on the willingness of the employer to make a request to the U.S. government. H-2B workers and U.S. workers at H-2B employers lack many of the protections afforded to workers in the H-2A program, such as the 3/4 minimum work guarantee, free housing, the special adverse effect wage rate, and eligibility for federally funded legal services.
Many H-2B workers begin their employment indebted to recruiters, contractors, or employers who charge high fees to gain access to the jobs. Many workers finance the fee payments by taking out high interest loans or putting the deeds to their homes in the hands of a labor recruiter as collateral. Once in the US, many workers face unrealistic productivity requirements and unsafe working conditions, underpayment for their difficult and dangerous work, insufficient work, and unsuitable living conditions. Despite these conditions, these debt-ridden workers are reluctant to complain because their employers or contractors exercise control over them and they fear losing their job or not being rehired the following season.
An excellent resource on Guestworker Programs in the U.S. is the Southern Poverty Law Center's Close to Slavery.
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