Not just a few “bad apple” employers (guest workers, under union contract)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.calcatholic.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?id=b7a39cf5-0b85-46d0-8b0c-78748681c7c9

Published: April 24, 2008
Not just a few “bad apple” employers

UFW to work with Mexican state to bring legal workers to California under federal guest worker program

Saying it seeks to counter abuses in the recruitment of workers under a federal guest worker program, the Keene-based United Farm Workers union announced it will help in bringing foreign workers legally to the United States. The union has signed an agreement with the Mexican state of Michoacan to help recruit guest workers, under union contract, to come to the U.S. under the federal H-2A guest worker program.

Many growers in southeastern and midwestern states use the H-2A program to recruit workers. The program allows growers to sponsor workers for short periods and requires them to provide housing. A labor union, the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, in 2004 signed contracts with growers associations in behalf of 7,000 Mexican H-2A workers.

But while midwestern and southeastern growers participate in the H-2A program, California growers rarely do because of the large number of undocumented workers in the state, said the April 18 Sacramento Bee. California growers complain that H-2A does not does admit workers fast enough at harvest time. Under its agreement with Michoacan, the UFW will seek out growers, especially in California, to sign contracts that protect workers’ rights during the recruitment process in Mexico and in U.S. fields.



Growers "face a different world in contracting labor in the future," Jack King, the California Farm Bureau’s government affairs director, told the Bee. "I expect there will be a lot of groups forming to bring workers into the United States. I guess we would welcome the UFW as well."

Despite federal laws to protect guest workers, employers exploit them, said a report, “Close to Slavery: Guestworker Programs in the United States,” published last year by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Foreign recruiters of guest workers, said the report, have, for instance, charged Guatemalans an average of $2,000 in travel, visa, and hiring fees. Other groups, such as Thai laborers, have paid well over $10,000.


FULL story at link.