25,000+ Workers Just Received a Substantial Raise

[Omaha Steve]

Sorry for the delay. I'm catching up on 3 days worth of mail.

http://nhlabornews.com/2013/07/25000-workers-just-received-a-substantial-raise/


Image from Creative Commons on Flicker by Spyros Papaspyropoulos

More than 25,000 “guest” workers just received substantial raises, thanks to a new method of calculating prevailing wages.

Under federal law, employers who import temporary workers from other countries are required to pay the local prevailing wage. But until last month, those wages were calculated according to a formula adopted during the Bush administration. The recent change in regulations means that guest workers will now be paid at substantially higher rates – discouraging employers from “importing” foreign workers in order to pay them less than local workers.

In our increasingly globalized economy, it’s not just merchandise that gets imported and exported – workers move across national boundaries, too. Right now, more than 25,000 foreign nationals work here in the US under the H2-B “temporary worker” program. Employers throughout the United States – including hundreds here in New England – rely heavily on the H2-B visa program.

As the country moves forward with ‘immigration reform’, many red flags have been raised over this temporary worker program. Some say that these workers do jobs that American workers will not do – but this is simply not true. In many cases these are seasonal jobs, where staffing needs go from non-existent to a need for hundreds of workers overnight.

FULL story at link.

[antiquie]

1. Excellent news.

I hope there is enforcement. This should help workers at both ends of the hourly struggle.

[Starry Messenger]

2. That's a big deal.

I recently read that was one of the demands during the French Revolution too. The wealthy really like making the rest of us fight for scraps.

[mick063]

3. Now give them collective bargaining.

Does anyone out there see where this is headed?

I'm all for the "browning" of America. Just as long as they have the right to vote.

[NaturalHigh]

4. Hi Steve. How is your new granddaughter?

[BumRushDaShow]

5. He posted a thread about her

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023190997

A little sweety.

[NaturalHigh]

6. Thanks.

[gtar100]

7. I've always disagreed with that statement "jobs Americans won't do."

Like we all think we're so much better than everybody else. That's true of a lot of people but not everyone by a long shot. I've had a lot of jobs in my life that got me no respect from those who benefited from the work I did - cleaning sewers, collecting garbage, scrubbing toilets, etc. I learned one thing clearly... when you're poor and you need to feed your family, you take the job.

I'm no saint or martyr by a long shot and a lot of people have had to make far more difficult decisions than I have about work. But this bullshit about jobs we aren't willing to do serves only the people who profit from abusing workers through paying substandard wages (aka theft). It's just more self-serving bullshit from elitists.