Recently in Workers' Rights Category

I'm happily returning from my blogging hiatus this week to make a common-sense argument: passing the DREAM Act is not only the right thing to do, but in these trying economic times it is also the sensible thing to do. 

I am such a passionate advocate for the DREAM Act that I often forget there are people in this world that don't know what the DREAM Act is.  According to Wikipedia:

The Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act (also called "The DREAM Act") [is] a piece of proposed federal legislation in the United States that would provide certain immigrant students who graduate from a [U.S. high school], are of good moral character, arrived in the US as children, and have been in the country continuously for at least five years prior to the bill's enactment, the opportunity to earn conditional permanent residency.

Wikipedia (23 March 2009)

The National Immigration Law Center also has a basic information sheet (pdf) that I print out and give to people who are not familiar with the DREAM Act.  I don't go into any migration-related meeting without it.  In 2007, I pushed hard for the DREAM Act when it was introduced  in the U.S. Senate, and I was crushed when it failed.  Migrant youth cannot wait any longer.  The time to pass the DREAM Act is now. 

The following is a guest post by Farmworker Justice, a nonprofit organization that seeks to empower migrant and seasonal farmworkers to improve their living and working conditions, immigration status, health, occupational safety and access to justice.
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Before leaving office, the Bush Administration is leaving one parting "gift" to our nation's farmworkers.  In midnight regulation changes to the nation's agricultural guestworker program he will slash wages and reduce worker protections for those who harvest our crops. 

The changes, proposed by the Department of Labor (DOL) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) were revealed on the DOL website late Monday evening but have not been officially published in the Federal Register yet.

The H-2A program is a temporary agricultural guestworker program that permits employers to apply for permission to hire foreign labor for jobs lasting ten months or less.  To bring in H-2A guestworkers, employers must show that they cannot find U.S. workers who want the jobs.
 
These will be the most far-reaching changes in the laws regulating agricultural guestworker programs since 1942.  They will return us to an era of agricultural labor exploitation that many thought ended decades ago.
 
The changes cut wage rates and wage protections for both domestic and foreign workers, minimize recruitment obligations inside the U.S. and curtail or eliminate much of the government oversight that is supposed to deter and remedy illegal employer conduct. 

This parting gift on behalf of the Bush Administration to our nation's farmworkers is irresponsible and completely unacceptable.  The H-2A guestworker program is already rife with abuse.  These changes will only make a bad program worse.  That's why today, Farmworker Justice is releasing a special report, Litany of Abuses, Why We Need More --Not Fewer-- Labor Protections in the H-2A Guestworker Program.  You can download the report here: LitanyofAbuseReport12-09-08.pdf. 

This report explains the current protections within the program and highlights some recent court cases illustrating the harm caused to both U.S. farmworkers and guestworkers alike.  We urge you to take a look at the report then act now to urge Congress to take action to stop the Bush Administration from formally issuing the regulations.

The aim of the Administration is to create an endless supply of guestworkers who our government will allow to be exploited at low wage wages and suffer grueling productivity standards that U.S. workers cannot afford to accept.  At a time of economic crisis when the jobless rate has reached a 15 year high, such actions on the part of this outgoing administration are immoral and unacceptable. 

We call on Congress to do whatever it takes to overturn the Administration's changes to the H-2A guestworker program.  There are reasonable alternatives to the farm labor crisis that have won bipartisan support.

During this holiday season, with so many families facing overwhelming economic burdens, we must think about the families toiling to put food on our tables.  They deserve fair wages and decent working conditions.  Bush's legacy to farmworkers must be undone.

For more information on the H-2A regulatory changes, and news as it develops, please our H-2A News page on our website.

White Hot Films has released its ground-breaking documentary, American Harvest, on DVD.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't see too many nativists or anti-migrant organization pushing for the real solutions to our immigration issue which has a lot to do with the way our companies and country treats these people abroad.  Rather than promoting fair labor and sustainability in other countries these angry groups only seek to build walls and terror tactics to keep them from coming here.  With this thought I bring you the video titled "The Story of Stuff" which explains how American greed and consumerism is aiding the destruction of economies and environment abroad.

"Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life. That we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals. That we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction in consumption. We need things consumed, burned up, replaced and discarded at an ever accelerated rate.


 

Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao and Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, at any moment,will announce extensive changes to the H-2A guestworker program, slashing wages and reducing worker protections for hundreds of thousands of our nation's farmworkers. These policy changes deserve our attention.

The H-2A program is a temporary agricultural guestworker program that permits employers to apply for permission to hire foreign labor for jobs lasting ten months or less. To bring in H-2A guestworkers, employers must show that they cannot find U.S. workers who want the jobs. These will be the most far-reaching changes in the laws regulating guestworker programs since 1942. If the changes are finalized, as we expect them to be next week, and take effect, this Administration will have returned us to an era of agricultural labor exploitation that many thought ended over 65 years ago.

What a Labor Day gift to farmworkers!

This is the story of those migrants swept of in the Postville Iowa immigration raid as told by one of the interpreters. The article, at the New York Times, is titled "An Interpreter Speaking Up for Migrants" and only serves to remind us of the injustices against those simply trying to work and survive. When I read a story about migrants being detained and unjustly prosecuted I think of what the United States is supposed to represent and stand for. We like to think this is the “land of the free, home of the brave” and place where “liberty and justice for all” is not just a slogan for a dime store t-shirt. The truth is many that come here, through whatever means, see the country the same way so it’s hard to read about people being shackled and dragged through court only to end up in prison in this land where “all men are created equal.”

From Erik Camayd-Freixas’s video on the NY Times website:

What was striking was to see these people enter – and basically you know they’re shackled at their feet, at their wrists and their wrists are shackled to their waste with chains. So they can only take a few little steps, short little steps and the chains are dragging on the floor so it makes a terrible impression. Then you see that they are all about five feet tall and you start – when they start calling their names you start recognizing Mayan names – last names. So there was a real racial contrast between the detainees in chains and the rest of the court with its grandeur. They were being charged with Social Security fraud, using a false Social Security number, but what struck me was that they were also being charged with aggravated identity theft and that just seemed awkward. It didn’t fit.

I just saw a video on the plight of Indian guest workers working for Signal International in New Orleans.  This just goes to show that we're fighting for more than just rights here.  We're fighting for migrant freedom.



Contact the New Orleans' Workers Center for Racial Justice to find out how you can help.

The Postville raid was the largest in the history of the U.S. and I'm going to keep posting on it.  The other side often claims that "migrants bring wages for U.S. citizens down".  Harvard economist George Borjas is often their citation of choice.  I tend to see this in the same light as everything else migrants are blamed for -- healthcare, education, etc. -- migrants are straw men people hold up because they don't want to ask themselves the hard questions with all these issues.

The solution for increasing wages in the U.S. is not kicking every single migrant out, it is unionizing and collective bargaining.  That's why most labor unions, like the AFL-CIO, are supportive of legalizing undocumented migrants.  They know they can unionize undocumented migrants when they're legalized, and raise wages for everyone.  In the meantime, they see the way U.S. immigration laws are being enforced as being counterproductive to labor.  Raids are often used as a scare tactic, and employers are almost never punished for exploiting undocumented workers.