Labor Secretary Solis Reverses Bush's Attack on Farmworker Labor Laws

http://causaoregon.blogspot.com/2009/05/labor-secretary-reverses-bushs-attack.html

Thursday, May 28, 2009
Labor Secretary Reverses Bush's Attack on Farmworker Labor Laws

This release comes from our partners at United Farm Workers and Farmworker Justice. For more on the organizations, please visit www.ufw.org and www.farmworkerjustice.org.

LABOR SECRETARY SOLIS REVERSES BUSH'S ATTACK ON FARMWORKER LABOR LAWS

Groups applaud the suspension of a policy that slashes wages, worker protections

(WASHINGTON DC) Labor Secretary Hilda Solis will suspend the midnight Bush Administration changes to weaken labor protections in the nation's agricultural guestworker program. The changes to the H-2A guestworker program took effect January 17, 2009, and have had a dramatic impact on wages and working conditions for agricultural workers under the program. In a notice to be published in the Federal Register tomorrow, the Labor Department announces it will reinstate the former regulations in 30 days.

"This is a great relief for our nation's farmworkers." said Arturo S. Rodriguez, President of the United Farm Workers (UFW). "The Bush Administration's rules lowered wages and worker protections and made it easier to bypass legal U.S. workers in favor of guestworkers. We are overjoyed that the Secretary has overturned these cruel and illegal changes."

The Labor Department decided to issue the suspension after a lawsuit was filed by farmworker unions, including the United Farm Workers (UFW), the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, AFL-CIO (FLOC), Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (PCUN) challenging the legality of the changes. The lawsuit is still pending but worker groups praised the DOL's decision. FLOC President Baldemar Velasquez called the announcement, "an important victory against the Bush Administration's efforts to exclude farm workers from voicing their concerns over the harsh policies of a bygone era."

The groups emphasized, however, that for all H-2A applications filed during the period when the Bush-Chao regulations have been in effect, farmworker employment will continue to be governed by the terms and conditions of the Bush regulations, including the lower wage rates imposed by the Bush rules. "We remain concerned about the wages and working conditions of those workers hired under the Bush-Chao changes," said Bruce Goldstein, Executive Director of Farmworker Justice and one of the attorneys on the lawsuit.

"There also remains a pressing need to address the farm labor supply issue in a more comprehensive manner. One-sided changes to the H-2A program do not solve our nation's agricultural labor supply issues. We need Congress to pass the AgJOBS bill."

FULL story at link.

As a Chinese she should know how immigrant labor is treated. I hope Solis makes a lot of changes.