WASHINGTON, DC -- In another harsh blow to workers, yesterday evening the Bush administration issued a new regulation that will lower wages and gut labor protections for agricultural guest workers – changes that will drive down the wages and working conditions for all workers. Today, Democratic lawmakers condemned this latest move and vowed to work with President-Elect Obama to undo a slew of damaging rules the Bush administration is trying to rush through in its final days.
“After eight years of disastrous policies that have steamrolled workers and our economy, this President has done enough harm,” said U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), the chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee. “At a time when too many Americans are seeing their jobs and wages slip away, it’s despicable that this is how the Bush administration is spending its final days. I hope the new administration will work with us to quickly overturn this and other last-minute rules that open the door to more abuse in the guest worker programs and threaten the livelihoods of all workers in this country.”
“After eight years of disastrous policies that have steamrolled workers and our economy, this President has done enough harm,” said U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), the chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee. “At a time when too many Americans are seeing their jobs and wages slip away, it’s despicable that this is how the Bush administration is spending its final days. I hope the new administration will work with us to quickly overturn this and other last-minute rules that open the door to more abuse in the guest worker programs and threaten the livelihoods of all workers in this country.”
“It is not surprising that, in its waning days, this administration is possessed with an urgency to undo basic worker protections,” said U.S. Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-MI), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. “This regulation will hurt American workers and make foreign guestworkers even more subject to abuse. I will work with my colleagues and the new administration to right the wrongs undertaken in the issuance of these midnight regulations.”
"Once again the Bush Administration has shown that it is no friend to working people," noted U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA). "In this last minute maneuver the administration has slashed protections that agricultural guest workers have secured. These changes not only hurt foreign agricultural workers, but also undercut standards for American workers, as the new rules lower pay and working conditions for temporary foreign agricultural employees. My colleagues and I will work with the incoming Obama administration to ensure that these ill-conceived changes are undone."
“Given today’s economic crisis,” U.S. Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-CA) said, “it is stunning that on their way out the door, the Bush Administration would take this eleventh-hour swipe at farm workers who are already paid some of the lowest wages in the United States.”
The rule affects workers in the U.S. Department of Labor’s H-2A guest worker program, which has become rife with fraud and abuse under the Bush administration’s watch. Under this program, employers are allowed to hire foreign workers only if they can’t first find American workers, and only if the wages and working conditions they provide don’t have a negative impact on U.S. workers.
Among other things, yesterday’s rule weakens these requirements, making it much easier for employers to simply hire foreign workers over available American workers. These changes would also, for the first time ever, allow employers to pay American workers lower wages and benefits than H-2A workers for performing the same job.
The regulation came just one day after Congress approved legislation that creates new criminal penalties for foreign labor recruiters and U.S. employers that lure foreign guest workers to this country under materially false pretenses. Miller, Conyers, Lofgren and Berman championed these provisions, which were passed as part of a larger bipartisan measure to combat human trafficking. For more information on the bill, click here.
The Bush administration is also expected to issue new regulations next week that would lead to further exploitation of non-agricultural foreign guest-workers in the Department of Labor’s H-2B program and would fuel greater unemployment among U.S. workers in construction and service industries.
"Once again the Bush Administration has shown that it is no friend to working people," noted U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA). "In this last minute maneuver the administration has slashed protections that agricultural guest workers have secured. These changes not only hurt foreign agricultural workers, but also undercut standards for American workers, as the new rules lower pay and working conditions for temporary foreign agricultural employees. My colleagues and I will work with the incoming Obama administration to ensure that these ill-conceived changes are undone."
“Given today’s economic crisis,” U.S. Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-CA) said, “it is stunning that on their way out the door, the Bush Administration would take this eleventh-hour swipe at farm workers who are already paid some of the lowest wages in the United States.”
The rule affects workers in the U.S. Department of Labor’s H-2A guest worker program, which has become rife with fraud and abuse under the Bush administration’s watch. Under this program, employers are allowed to hire foreign workers only if they can’t first find American workers, and only if the wages and working conditions they provide don’t have a negative impact on U.S. workers.
Among other things, yesterday’s rule weakens these requirements, making it much easier for employers to simply hire foreign workers over available American workers. These changes would also, for the first time ever, allow employers to pay American workers lower wages and benefits than H-2A workers for performing the same job.
The regulation came just one day after Congress approved legislation that creates new criminal penalties for foreign labor recruiters and U.S. employers that lure foreign guest workers to this country under materially false pretenses. Miller, Conyers, Lofgren and Berman championed these provisions, which were passed as part of a larger bipartisan measure to combat human trafficking. For more information on the bill, click here.
The Bush administration is also expected to issue new regulations next week that would lead to further exploitation of non-agricultural foreign guest-workers in the Department of Labor’s H-2B program and would fuel greater unemployment among U.S. workers in construction and service industries.
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