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.”
