State Dept. Cracks Down on Abuse of Foreign Students by Hershey and Others
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In response to protests by foreign students exploited in a factory subcontracted by the Hershey Company and advocacy by the AFL-CIO and our allies, this week the U.S. State Department announced that it will make major revisions to a guest-worker and cultural exchange visa program and barred participation by a major player in the program, the Council for Educational Travel, USA (CETUSA).
Harika Duygu Ozer, one of the students involved in the protest, told the New York Times:
I hope this sends a clear message to other recruiters like CETUSA, that we will not be your captive workers.
As we reported last summer, students recruited for a cultural exchange program found themselves instead all but indentured to a factory in Palmyra, Penn., where they were made to perform dangerous work loading Hershey products with no safety protection for less than the minimum wage. In addition, the students stayed in housing provided by the Hershey contractor, for which it overcharged. Rents were deducted from the students’ pay. Read the rest of this entry »
Arkansas Ag Firm Agrees to $1.5 Million in Back Wages for Guest Workers
An Arkansas agriculture company has agreed to pay $1.5 million in back wages to 1,500 guest workers in a settlement with the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). The group filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of the workers in 2007.
Jim Knoepp, the lead SPLC attorney on the case, says:
This settlement sends an important message that guest workers have rights. Companies treating guest workers as disposable labor should take notice. They will be held accountable.
The guest workers—in the country under the federal H-2A agricultural guest worker program—harvested and packed tomatoes for Candy Brand in Bradley County, Ark., from 2003 to 2007. The 2007 lawsuit alleged that the company failed to pay its guest workers federally mandated minimum wages and failed to pay overtime wages for work in its packing sheds.
To cover travel expenses and applications for visas, Candy Brand’s workers paid up to $500 simply to work for the company during eight-week harvests. The SPLC lawsuit alleged the company refused to reimburse workers for the travel, visa and other fees they paid to obtain the jobs—a problem commonly faced by guest workers.
Hershey Sit-In Exposes Employers’ Use of Subcontracts to Thwart Workers’ Rights
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A courageous group of foreign students in the United States on a cultural exchange program joined with union members and members of Jobs with Justice last week to expose the U.S. labor market’s dirty little secret: the web of subcontracting that prevents workers from exercising their rights because they don’t know exactly who employs them.
The students, who led a sit-in at a factory that is subcontracted by the Hershey Chocolate Co. in Palmyra, Pa., are on a State Department cultural exchange program (called the “J-1 Visa” program) that allows companies to hire students for summer work.
Although the students’ work directly benefits Hershey, the company claims it has no responsibility for their working conditions or pay. According to news reports, they work at a factory operated by Excel, a third-party logistics company, which passed the buck to SHS Staffing, a temp service contracted by Excel. SHS, in turn, says it only handles payroll and the workers were supplied by an outfit called the Council for Educational Travel USA (CETUSA), which supplied the workers to SHS.
AFL-CIO Partners with Domestic Workers Alliance, National Guestworkers’ Alliance
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In a historic move, the AFL-CIO today signed new, separate partnership agreements with the National Domestic Workers Alliance and the National Guestworkers’ Alliance. The landmark agreements outline a framework for the groups to partner around issues of organizing, winning rights for excluded workers and building long-term relationships. The new partnership agreements kicked off the three-day Excluded Workers Congress in New York City.
The partnerships are part of the AFL-CIO’s outreach to the growing numbers of workers whose fundamental rights are not guaranteed by law and who are often excluded from safety protections and other legal protections, including the right to organize for better living standards and a voice on the job. In 2006, the AFL-CIO signed a similar agreement with workers’ centers, partnering with the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON). Also in 2006, the New York Taxi Workers’ Alliance became the first workers’ center to become a member of the New York City Central Labor Council.
Guest Workers in U.S. Keep Up Fight for Their Rights
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In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, thousands of guest workers with H-2B visas were recruited from Latin America and Asia and brought to the Gulf Coast on the false promise of steady jobs, fair pay, great conditions and even permanent legal status. Many of the workers paid thousands of dollars each to recruiters to buy what they thought was an American dream, only to find out later their dream was a nightmare filled with terrible work conditions and no protections.
The workers fought back, and today have rung up some significant achievements. They now plan to build on their victories by focusing on organizing and political action to expand the rights of guest workers. The H-2B workers are recruited for jobs after employers certify that they cannot find U.S. citizens to do the work. The guest workers are then bound to that one employer and cannot move to another job if they are mistreated.
Dan Rather Report: Employers Use Guest Workers to Keep Wages Low
In the midst of a recession and nearly 10 percent official unemployment, thousands of workers are being brought from overseas to work at jobs that employers say no American wants. In a hard-hitting report, veteran journalist Dan Rather takes a look at the H-2B visa program and exposes how employers use it to avoid hiring American workers—and keep wages low.
On Dan Rather Reports, which aired last night on HDNet, Rather talks to employers, guest workers and human rights advocates about the H-2B visa program, which allows employers to hire temporary workers from foreign countries for jobs they say they can find no qualified or willing American workers to do. Labor attorney Greg Schell tells Rather it has become a gold mine for employers:
It’s an employer’s dream. I can go to a Third World country and select the workers I want. And they’re gonna come here and they can only work for me. So if I treat them poorly or if they want a raise or more benefits, I can just say, “Well, sorry. I’m not gonna give it to you. And if you don’t like it you have only one legal choice. Go home.”
Report: Immigrant Crab Workers Exploited
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In a stinging indictment of our broken immigration system, a new report shows that crab-picking houses on Maryland’s Eastern Shore rely mainly on hundreds of immigrant women workers who are forced to pay excessive and illegal fees to foreign recruiters only to end up in low-paying jobs in isolated rural areas with poor housing.
The report, “Picked Apart: The Hidden Struggles of Migrant Worker Women in the Maryland Crab Industry,” was released today by the International Human Rights Law Clinic at American University’s Washington College of Law and Centro de los Derechos del Migrante (CDM). The transnational non-profit organization is dedicated to improving the working conditions of migrant workers in the United States.
Bipartisan Bill Would Strengthen Guest Worker Rules
Under current law, unscrupulous employers are free to abuse guest worker programs by exploiting workers, driving down standards and, often, displacing U.S. workers. This hurts all workers and gives these employers an unfair competitive advantage over businesses that play by the rules.
Bipartisan legislation introduced yesterday would provide much-needed security and higher standards in two of the programs. The H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act, introduced by Sens. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), would enhance protections within these visa programs.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney praised the legislation, saying it “makes progress in combating fraud and abuse within the H-1B and L-1 temporary worker programs.”
It’s time for our nation to put an end to employer abuse of these worker programs. Employers should neither be allowed to displace domestic workers nor intimidate guest workers and drive their working standards below those of the domestic labor market.
Solis Investigating Guest Worker Visas on Florida Hotel Project
In one of her first official acts as labor secretary, Hilda Solis has asked for a review of how Mexican sheet metal workers were given visas to work on the St. Regis Hotel project in Bal Harbour, Fla., when more than 1,000 members of the Sheet Metal Workers union (SMWIA) are out of work in the same area.
The company hired to install the heating and air conditioning ducts, CYVSA International, received approval from the state of Florida and the Bush Labor Department for visas to bring in foreign workers for seasonal work. But the visas are supposed to be granted only if there are no Americans available to do the job.
Florida ranked second in the number of jobs certified for foreign workers under one of the visa programs known as H-2B. In 2008, a total of 22,195 jobs in the state were approved for H-2B foreign workers, including 1,145 construction workers, 119 roofers, 10 electricians and six bricklayers.
