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
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