Immigration/Labor Rights

FJ testifies at House Hearing on Guestworker Programs

Last Updated (Wednesday, 07 May 2008 16:46) Written by barb howe Wednesday, 07 May 2008 13:02

    With all the attention guestworker programs and the economy are getting in the news these days, the House Committee on Education and Labor held a hearing today to explore how these programs impact US workers. In his opening statement, Chairman George Miller (D-CA) expressed concern about existing requirements in our guestworker programs to protect US workers and whether those requirements are effectively enforced.

     FJ’s Executive Director Bruce Goldstein testified about the harmful and unnecessary changes to the H-2A agricultural guestworker program that the Bush Administration is proposing that would lower wages and working conditions. Such changes would be devastating to both US and foreign guestworkers. He emphasized that the more effective solution to the farm labor problem already exists in the form of the AgJOBS legislation. AgJOBS -- the Agricultural Job Opportunities, Benefits and Security Act—is an historic compromise between agricultural employers and labor unions that has broad support across both sides of the aisle. Growers and labor unions alike agree it is a more effective response to the labor shortage than the Bush plan.

    Other worker advocates also testified about the H-2A and other guestworker programs. Javier Riojas, an attorney with Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, talked about a case involving 400 Mexican workers who were hired as H-2B workers (the H-2B guestworker program is for seasonal non-agricultural work) but then were set to work harvesting melons and onions. The H-2B program requirements are less stringent for employers.

    Bill Beardall of the Equal Justice Center in Texas presented a powerful illustration of how employers can intimidate undocumented workers. He read a transcript of a voicemail an employer left for an employee who was looking to get paid for landscaping work he had done. The transcript threatened the worker with deportation and told him to stop asking for his money.

    Other witnesses offering testimony included John Young, an apple grower from New Hampshire,who testified on behalf of the New England Apple Council, supporting AgJOBS; Andrew Sum, Director/Professor of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University and two representatives from the US Department of Labor: Leon R. Sequeira, the Assistant Secretary for Policy and William L. Carlson, Administrator for the Office of Foreign Labor Certification. The DOL officials defended the Administration's proposal to slash wages and benefits under the H-2A program.