The March for America -- Rally for Immigration Reform Sunday

Written by Bruce Goldstein Saturday, 20 March 2010 17:57

Tens of thousands of people are coming to Washington, D.C. to demonstrate to Congress their support for legislation to reform our broken immigration system and enable law-abiding contributors of this country to be treated decently.  Info on the March and rally is available at http://reformimmigrationforamerica.org/blog/what-march/ .

Join Farmworker Justice to Honor Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis

Written by Bruce Goldstein Friday, 19 March 2010 18:21

Farmworker Justice announced on March 19 that the Farmworker Justice Award for 2010 would be presented to Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis.  Secretary of Solis, throughout her career as a legislator in California and in Congress and now in the Administration of President Obama, has demonstrated a commitment to empowering migrant and seasonal farmworkers to improve their wages and working conditions, occupational safety, health, immigration status and access to justice. 

The annual award will be presented at the 11th Annual Farmworker Justice Award Reception on Tuesday evening, May 11, in Washington, D.C. at the historic Mayflower Hotel.  Two additional awards will be presented the same evening, as announced earlier.

You may support the work of Farmworker Justice by cosponsoring the Farmworker Justice Award Reception.  Information is available at our website.  Your tax-deductible donations enable us to carry out our advocacy, litigation and capacity-building.

This year the Award Reception is co-hosted by the National Rural Funders Collaborative.

Join us!!

NY Reporter Cuts Lettuce for a Season in Arizona -- Hard Work

Written by Bruce Goldstein Sunday, 14 March 2010 21:12

This Arizona Republic article about the hard work of lettuce cutters, including Mexican citizens who work under the H-2A agricultural guestworker program, is by a reporter from Brooklyn who worked for a season as part of a series of jobs he held for book. "The job you won't do: Try working a season in the lettuce fields of Yuma," by Gabriel Thompson - Mar. 14, 2010, The Arizona Republic http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/viewpoints/articles/2010/03/14/20100314thompson14.html

 

Farm Bureau Reactionaries Sue Solis Over H-2A Guestworker Program Regulations

Written by Bruce Goldstein Friday, 12 March 2010 23:10

On Friday, March 12, the American Farm Bureau Federation -- long known for its backwards view of labor relations -- and the North Carolina Growers Association sued Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis and the Department of Labor for the new regulations, effective Monday, March 15, under the H-2A temporary foreign agricultural worker program.  The Bush-Chao regime, with a Department of Labor political appointee named Leon Sequeira, reversed years of labor protections under the H-2A program and slashed wage rates.  Secretary Solis issued new regulations, mostly to restore the previous wage rates -- an average of $1 per hour difference -- and other protections that the Reagan Administration had put into the regulations.  Now these grower groups have sued, claiming the regulations are somehow illegal, and Leon Sequeira is one of the attorneys for the growers.  The case was filed in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Followers of this blog know that there already are two lawsuits pending about the H-2A program, one which Farmworker Justice and its co-counsel filed on behalf of farmworker organizations, and one which grower groups filed against Secretary Solis for an earlier effort to reverse the Bush-Chao regulations.  Those cases are still pending.  Until now, the Bush-Chao regulations have been in effect.

The H-2A program is intended to allow agricultural employers to bring in temporary foreign workers when there are labor shortages in the United States.  Employers must first seek approval of the Department of Labor.  To gain approval the employers are required to recruit inside the United States for workers and to offer wages and other job terms that do not undermine the labor standards of U.S. farmworkers.  The Bush-Chao Administration slashed the wages and benefits so that employers in the U.S. could pay wages and benefits attractive to impoverished citizens of poor countries but not attractive to U.S. workers, and minimized the government's oversight of this program, which has rampant abuses.

The lawsuit by the Farm Bureau and its allies reveals the unabashed quest for the right to hire indentured servants.  We thank Secretary Solis for taking the time and resources to restore basic protections for farmworkers and end a shameful year in which tens of thousands of farmworkers were subjected by our own government to substandard job terms at the request of greedy growers.   In the 50th year since Edward R. Murrow released "Harvest of Shame," the Farm Bureau continues it legacy of subjecting farmworkers to intolerable conditions. We will help to ensure this lawsuit fails and we continue to encourage the Department of Labor to end rampant violations of workers' rights under the H-2A program.

Bruce Goldstein, Executive Director, Farmworker Justice

2 Awardees Announced by Farmworker Justice for 2010

Written by Bruce Goldstein Wednesday, 10 March 2010 18:36

Farmworker Justice is pleased to announce the recipients of two of its three annual awards, which will be presented at the Farmworker Justice Award Reception on Tuesday, May 11, 2010 in Washington, D.C. at the Mayflower Hotel.

The Shelley Davis Memorial Award will be presented to Patti Goldman, Vice President for Litigation, at Earthjustice.  Patti collaborated with our late Deputy Director, Shelley Davis, on advocacy and litigation to reduce farmworkers' exposures to toxic pesticides, and has continued to work with Farmworker Justice and farmworker organizations to improve the Environmental Protection Agency's policies, practices and enforcement efforts.  Earthjustice (founded as the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund) is a non-profit public interest law firm dedicated to protecting the magnificent places, natural resources, and wildlife of this earth, and to defending the right of all people to a healthy environment.  Patti received her undergraduate and law degrees at University of Wisconsin, and was editor-in-chief of the law review.  She works from the Seattle office.  This will be the first year of presenting an award in honor of Shelley Davis, an extraordinary advocate for farmworkers, who died of breast cancer in December 2008.

The Irma Flores Gonzales Award will be presented to Joel Davis.  Joel helped Farmworker Justice establish and build the Shelley Davis Memorial Fund to carry on the creative work of his sister, Shelley Davis, our late Deputy Director.  Joel is Shelley's oldest brother.  He is retired from a career as a corporate executive.  Working with other members of his family, Joel led efforts to ensure that Farmworker Justice's tremendous loss when Shelley died would not mean the end of the kind of advocacy, litigation and empowering of farmworkers for which Shelley was beloved.  Irma Flores Gonzales died in 2005 at age 62 while a member of our Board of Directors.  A leader in the Latino community at the national level, through her work as Chair of the Board of Directors of the National Council of La Raza, she helped build Farmworker Justice into an institution of greater impact.  The award has been presented to Cecilia Munoz, Charles Kamasaki, Ellen Widess and the Rosenberg Foundation for their assistance in building Farmworker Justice.

The recipient of the Farmworker Justice Award for 2010 will be named soon.  Previous winners include Dolores Huerta, Raul Yzaguirre, Arturo Rodriguez, Baldemar Velasquez, Linda Chavez-Thompson, Rep. Howard Berman, Rep. George Miller, Joseph T. Hansen, Sen. Edward Kennedy and Maria Echaveste.

You can support Farmworker Justice and enjoy a wonderful evening at the Reception on May 11 by becoming a sponsor.  More information is available on our website's Special Events page.

Why Guestworker Programs Are Inherently Problematic

Written by Bruce Goldstein Tuesday, 09 March 2010 23:22

Once employers get guestworkers, addiction sets in.  With no right to switch jobs, no right to remain in the country beyond the job term, and coming from a poor country where wages are very low, guestworkers will usually be highly productive at wages that are very low by U.S. standards.  So even when U.S. workers face high unemployment and desperately seek work in agriculture, the growers still say that U.S. workers are lazy and don't want these jobs.  The Daily Sentinel in Grand Junction, Coloradao, on March 5, published a story entitled;  "Demand high for orchard jobs: Ads draw big response for seasonal farm work."  The article reported on a grower's observation that a large number of local workers had returned to look for agricultural work recently and his reaction:

"One of the area's largest fruit growers, Talbott Farms, 3782 F 1/4 Road, received 400 to 500 walk-in requests for employment this year, co-owner Bruce Talbott said. The company hires about 120 people a year. "We got guys that came in here and say, ‘I worked here 15 years ago. Do you have any work for me?'" he said. "They're roofers, concrete guys, landscapers, all kinds of people who have been laid off from the trade industry."  The H-2A "workers are "highly reliable," Talbott said. Local job seekers are usually unaccustomed to the hard work that farm work entails, he said. And local workers are much more likely to quit midseason, or often, after only a day. H-2A workers have incentives to be here, do good work, stay out of trouble and make money to support their families in their home countries, Talbott said. They also know the farm well and "know the difference between putting in time and being an efficient employee," he said. "My very best guys are in the H-2A program," Talbott said. "They don't want to commit to a vehicle. They know they're safe here, and there's a lot less stress than trying to run the border."

The U.S. Department of Labor should not approve an H-2A application when three times as many workers apply for work as there are jobs. The employers must be required to comply with the law: U.S. workers must be offered the job and the job terms must be equal or exceed the wages and working conditions of the U.S. labor market.