Bush Administration Seeks To Curtail Labor Protections From the Guest Worker H-2A Program | LULAC

The League of United Latin American Citizens, our nation’s oldest and largest Hispanic civil rights organization, is outraged by the Bush Administration’s attempt to modify the H-2A temporary foreign agricultural worker program.

The lengthy proposal calls for a new wage formula that would slash a farmworker’s wage rate, and weaken an employer’s housing requirements by providing a precariously defined ‘housing voucher’. Typically, there is no housing available for agricultural workers therefore a housing voucher would be ineffective. The proposal also removes an employer’s obligation to first recruit US citizens and legal permanent residents before hiring guestworkers.

“The Bush Administration’s H2A proposal is nothing more than stripping away existing labor protections,” said LULAC National President Rosa Rosales. “It does nothing to address the fundamental needs of immigration reform.”

“This proposal is simply unacceptable; it will result in lowering wages, and worsen already deplorable worker conditions for farm laborers,” said Jaime P. Martinez, LULAC National Labor Advisor. “Farmworkers’ wages are already exploited. Imposing these new wage formulas would do more harm than good.”

LULAC advocates for a comprehensive, bipartisan approach to any farm labor bill, principally the Agricultural Job Opportunities, Benefits, and Security Act (AgJOBS) a bill that would provide a decent standard of living and decent working conditions with labor right protections.

The League of United Latin American Citizens, the largest and oldest Hispanic membership organization in the country, advances the economic conditions, educational attainment, political influence, health and civil rights of Hispanic Americans through community-based programs operating at more than 700 LULAC councils nationwide.”*

*From: http://www.lulac.org
Traducido: usando Google o Altavista/Babel Fish

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