Corporations Seek To Exploit More Guest Workers Through Expansion of Program
Corporate interests that want to continue making big profits by keeping wages as low as possible are using Congressional allies on both sides of the aisle to expand the number of guest workers in this country.
So says AFL-CIO blog: "With 7 million U.S. workers unemployed, why do employers clamor that they need to import foreign workers to work in low-wage jobs as dishwashers, hotel maids, crab pickers and landscape laborers? The answer is simple, according to Ross Eisenbrey, vice president of the Economic Policy Institute(EPI): There isn’t a shortage of workers willing to do these jobs. There’s a shortage of employers willing to pay a decent wage
"In a recent op-ed column in Newsday, Eisenbrey points out that at a time when hundreds of thousands of families are facing foreclosures on their homes and wages are stagnant, corporate interests and their allies in Congress on both sides of the aisle are pushing to expand the number of foreign guest workers.
"That would be bad news for low-wage workers in this country, whether immigrant or native-born, Eisenbrey says, because it would bring in more workers willing to accept low wages and less likely to join unions or otherwise seek to fulfill their workplace rights.
"Current law caps the number of guest workers allowed to enter the country each year at 66,000 under the H-2B visa program, if employers fail to find qualified U.S. workers...
"If Congress lifts the cap and allows all the foreign workers who used H-2B visas in the past three years to re-enter, potentially more than 200,000 visas could be issues. Employers want to bring in more guest workers to keep wages low, he says, because almost all H-2B employers pay less than a living wage.
"The AFL-CIO backs strong protections for immigrant workers’ freedoms and rights and opposes expansion of current guest worker programs. Last June, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka told a Capitol Hill press conference that Congress should place workers’ rights at the forefront of any immigration reform plan and pass a broad legalization program, free of new temporary guest worker programs.
"Said Trumka: 'The current system is unworkable. It has become a blueprint for exploitation of all workers, both U.S. and foreign-born. As long as this broken system persists, all workers will suffer because employers will be able to turn to a ready pool of exploitable workers to drive down wages, benefits, health and safety protections and other workplace standards for all workers.'
"Guest workers are easily exploited, Trumka says, because they typically are deeply in debt by the time they arrive in the United States, where the companies that hire them often charge additional fees for boarding, food and expenses. The workers say the recruiters and the employer threaten, coerce and defraude them into paying additional money and altered contracts, which they force the workers to accept under threat of losing their passports and visas. A study by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Close to Slavery: Guestworker Programs in the United States, relates that it is not unusual for guest workers to pay huge fees to obtain a seasonal guest worker position.
"As the AFL-CIO reported in April: In today’s Los Angeles Times, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and Pablo Alvarado, executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, describe how temporary worker programs will negatively impact immigrant workers—and the nation.
"Those programs will assure a steady flow of cheap labor from essentially indentured workers too afraid of being deported to protest substandard wages, chiseled benefits and unsafe working conditions.
"Such a system will create a disenfranchised underclass of workers. That is not only morally indefensible, it is economically nonsensical. We’ve had plenty of bad experiences with such shortsighted answers to a complicated problem."
So says AFL-CIO blog: "With 7 million U.S. workers unemployed, why do employers clamor that they need to import foreign workers to work in low-wage jobs as dishwashers, hotel maids, crab pickers and landscape laborers? The answer is simple, according to Ross Eisenbrey, vice president of the Economic Policy Institute(EPI): There isn’t a shortage of workers willing to do these jobs. There’s a shortage of employers willing to pay a decent wage
"In a recent op-ed column in Newsday, Eisenbrey points out that at a time when hundreds of thousands of families are facing foreclosures on their homes and wages are stagnant, corporate interests and their allies in Congress on both sides of the aisle are pushing to expand the number of foreign guest workers.
"That would be bad news for low-wage workers in this country, whether immigrant or native-born, Eisenbrey says, because it would bring in more workers willing to accept low wages and less likely to join unions or otherwise seek to fulfill their workplace rights.
"Current law caps the number of guest workers allowed to enter the country each year at 66,000 under the H-2B visa program, if employers fail to find qualified U.S. workers...
"If Congress lifts the cap and allows all the foreign workers who used H-2B visas in the past three years to re-enter, potentially more than 200,000 visas could be issues. Employers want to bring in more guest workers to keep wages low, he says, because almost all H-2B employers pay less than a living wage.
"The AFL-CIO backs strong protections for immigrant workers’ freedoms and rights and opposes expansion of current guest worker programs. Last June, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka told a Capitol Hill press conference that Congress should place workers’ rights at the forefront of any immigration reform plan and pass a broad legalization program, free of new temporary guest worker programs.
"Said Trumka: 'The current system is unworkable. It has become a blueprint for exploitation of all workers, both U.S. and foreign-born. As long as this broken system persists, all workers will suffer because employers will be able to turn to a ready pool of exploitable workers to drive down wages, benefits, health and safety protections and other workplace standards for all workers.'
"Guest workers are easily exploited, Trumka says, because they typically are deeply in debt by the time they arrive in the United States, where the companies that hire them often charge additional fees for boarding, food and expenses. The workers say the recruiters and the employer threaten, coerce and defraude them into paying additional money and altered contracts, which they force the workers to accept under threat of losing their passports and visas. A study by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Close to Slavery: Guestworker Programs in the United States, relates that it is not unusual for guest workers to pay huge fees to obtain a seasonal guest worker position.
"As the AFL-CIO reported in April: In today’s Los Angeles Times, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and Pablo Alvarado, executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, describe how temporary worker programs will negatively impact immigrant workers—and the nation.
"Those programs will assure a steady flow of cheap labor from essentially indentured workers too afraid of being deported to protest substandard wages, chiseled benefits and unsafe working conditions.
"Such a system will create a disenfranchised underclass of workers. That is not only morally indefensible, it is economically nonsensical. We’ve had plenty of bad experiences with such shortsighted answers to a complicated problem."
Corporate profits through exploitation of foreign workers is not only immoral but illegal. Congressional expansion of the program will only exacerbate a problem that must end now and members of Congress who push and vote for expansion will be complicit in worker exploitation.
Comments