President Bush should be charged for his criminal pandering to Big Ag Business! As my long time readers know, I am a former Migrant Worker, as was my family including my Beloved Father and Mother!There has been a long history of abuse in our country of Farm Workers. And this month, President Bush has continued this evil tradition!
The Bush administration has announced new rules this week to make it easier for farm owners to bypass American workers, exploit Guest Workers and provide very poor working conditions! Here are two reports of this story:
The New York Times reports:
LOS ANGELES — The Bush administration announced new rules on Thursday that it said would lessen the bureaucratic burden on employers seeking to hire foreign farm workers. Advocates for the workers, however, contended the changes would depress wages and working conditions...The changes apply to a guest worker program known as H-2A, after the visa that allows farmers to hire foreign workers on a temporary basis for field jobs they cannot fill with Americans...Bruce Goldstein, executive director of Farmworker Justice, an advocacy group that opposes the changes. He said, “The intent is a massive expansion of the guest worker program by enticing employers into a program with low wages and poor working conditions.”
Harvesting Injustice reports:
“This parting gift on behalf of the Bush Administration to our nation's farmworkers is irresponsible and completely unacceptable. The H-2A guestworker program is already rife with abuse. These changes will only make a bad program worse. That's why today, Farmworker Justice is releasing a special report, Litany of Abuses: Why more -not fewer-labor protections are needed in the H-2A program. This report explains the current protections within the program and highlights some recent court cases illustrating the harm caused to both U.S. farmworkers and guestworkers alike. We urge you to take a look at the report then act now to urge Congress to take action to stop the Bush Administration from formally issuing the regulations. There are reasonable alternatives to solve the farm labor crisis that have won bipartisan support. The Bush Administration's harmful changes are completely unnecessary.”
The regulations go into effect on Jan. 18, 2009, just two days before President Obama is inaugurated. Bush, in this last minute, lame duck moment, is pandering to PAC Contributors and Farm Owners. This change is bad for American Workers and Bad for migrant workers. Who does it benefit? Big business farm owners, the Lobbyists and the pocket-books of the RNC.
Kudos to the Unapologetic Mexican Blog and Harvesting Injustice for their investigative reporting!
I suggest that the sub-sidies of farmers now also be removed since they are no longer needed to uphold the guarantees to the workers under the H-2A Visa.
ReplyDeleteThank you for updating me on this latest catastrophe of the Bush administration. I share your sentiments completely.
ReplyDeleteI continue to wonder what continued damage our lame duck President will do while he is still in office.
ReplyDeleteConsider the Wall St. Bailout. All of money already spent and no accountability.
Today, he is in Iraq on a secret visit!
What else will he do?
What more harm will he create?
It isn´t over yet!
Better to favor citizens of all kinds rather than illegals but if these migrant workers have legitimate visas and are truly temporary workers, then they must be treated humanely. I don't know what their living conditions are but when I worked at canning factory, we had as many as 6 or 8 guys to one room in a house owned by the canning company. I believe this is the nature of seasonal employment. I was watching a DVD on crab fishermen in the Bering Straits last night. This is not only considered the most dangerous job in the world but it is also very hard work with 18 hours shifts followed by 6 hours off and often very little time to eat during the day. The only thing attractive about this kind of seasonal work is that one can earn up to $50,000 for two months worth of work.
ReplyDeletehey thanks for the mention!
ReplyDelete(ps, its unapologetic... :)
Thank you Nezua! I updated the spellling on this post.
ReplyDeleteThis move by Bush has upset both sides, the anti's and the pro's. Obviously, business interests have trumped the common man on both sides. That should tell us all something.
ReplyDeleteAnon,
ReplyDeleteYou are right.
I dont think either side supports exploitive employers with abusive and unsafe working conditions and low pay for anyone.
This clearly was a move pandering to Business ONLY!!
I wonder what else this lame duck president will do before he leaves office.
Anonymous said...
This move by Bush has upset both sides, the anti's and the pro's. Obviously, business interests have trumped the common man on both sides. That should tell us all something.