AFL-CIO Statement on H-2A Guest Worker Program

Statement by President John Sweeney on DOL Announcing Intent to Strip Worker Protections From H-2A Guest Worker Program

February 07, 2008 -- The Department of Labor will hurt both immigrant and U.S.-born workers alike if it goes ahead with its plans to strip a number of workers’ rights from the H-2A agricultural guest worker program. The Bush Administration has shown once again that it will go to any extreme to cater to the interest of corporations at the painful expense of workers, and that it is not serious about real fixes to our nation’s broken immigration system.

The Department of Labor’s proposal will strip the H-2A agricultural guest worker program of necessary wage protections, undermine other essential worker protections, weaken efforts to recruit workers from the U.S., and further erode government oversight.

In short, it is a policy the will do nothing to solve the problem at hand –the need for a fair immigration policy that protects all workers—and instead will ensure a deterioration of working conditions in the agricultural sector and make our nation’s employers even more reliant on the importation and exploitation of foreign workers.

The answer is simple. We need comprehensive immigration reform that provides relief to the growing number of undocumented workers in our country by offering them a path to citizenship. We do not need more policies that turn our nation back in the wrong direction.

Source: AFL-CIO

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