Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Disaster capitalists never miss an opportunity.
Why today’s vote on H-2C visas is food’s biggest labor battle
...For groups that advocate on behalf of farmworkers, however, the stakes are breathtakingly clear: “A massive expansion like this is a greater opportunity to exploit a greater number of people all at once,” says Saket Soni, director of the National Guestworker Alliance and the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice. “It takes the worst provisions of current migrant worker programs and bundles them into some sort of toxic policy cocktail.”
But Soni says there’s another, subtler, and perhaps more insidious consequence if the AG Act passes. “While it’s very bad for hundreds of thousands—and possibly millions—of migrant workers,” he says, “It’s also bad for U.S. workers because it sets up deep divisiveness between migrant workers and under- or unemployed workers in existing communities.” That’s because a migrant worker who fears deportation is more likely to work at two times the rate and speed of a U.S. worker and is less likely to join committees or unions that are designed to defend the right of all workers. “The economy makes us all interdependent,” says Soni. But the AG Act, he says, would all but guarantee an unfair competitive advantage to employers “who want to get ahead by cutting the cost of human dignity at work.”
And as for moving the program from DOL to USDA administration, well, in some ways it seems like robbing one bureaucracy to pay another bureaucracy. The agricultural industry says it only makes sense that its primary regulatory body should be in charge of its pertinent labor reforms. But Soni says that’s surreal, if not almost satirical: “Appointing meat inspectors to be in charge of labor conditions is absurd and bizarre.”
Whether the AG Act vote today will have any legs is tough to say. CNN reports that President Trump on Monday night dined with Goodlatte, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton and Georgia Senator David Perdue, all Republicans. “The conversation included what to do to replace the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which protects young undocumented immigrants brought to the US as children from deportation, now that Trump has announced an end to the program. Trump, attendees said, remains focused on finding a solution while also emphasizing border security.”
It’s possible that passage of the AG Act today would be enough to pacify Republicans who are in search of some significant immigration reform before year’s end. It’s also possible that this will just be another wavering Wednesday....
But Soni says there’s another, subtler, and perhaps more insidious consequence if the AG Act passes. “While it’s very bad for hundreds of thousands—and possibly millions—of migrant workers,” he says, “It’s also bad for U.S. workers because it sets up deep divisiveness between migrant workers and under- or unemployed workers in existing communities.” That’s because a migrant worker who fears deportation is more likely to work at two times the rate and speed of a U.S. worker and is less likely to join committees or unions that are designed to defend the right of all workers. “The economy makes us all interdependent,” says Soni. But the AG Act, he says, would all but guarantee an unfair competitive advantage to employers “who want to get ahead by cutting the cost of human dignity at work.”
And as for moving the program from DOL to USDA administration, well, in some ways it seems like robbing one bureaucracy to pay another bureaucracy. The agricultural industry says it only makes sense that its primary regulatory body should be in charge of its pertinent labor reforms. But Soni says that’s surreal, if not almost satirical: “Appointing meat inspectors to be in charge of labor conditions is absurd and bizarre.”
Whether the AG Act vote today will have any legs is tough to say. CNN reports that President Trump on Monday night dined with Goodlatte, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton and Georgia Senator David Perdue, all Republicans. “The conversation included what to do to replace the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which protects young undocumented immigrants brought to the US as children from deportation, now that Trump has announced an end to the program. Trump, attendees said, remains focused on finding a solution while also emphasizing border security.”
It’s possible that passage of the AG Act today would be enough to pacify Republicans who are in search of some significant immigration reform before year’s end. It’s also possible that this will just be another wavering Wednesday....
https://newfoodeconomy.com/h2-c-visa-is-foods-biggest-labor-battle/
https://judiciary.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Ag-Act-9.28.17.pdf
