Black Farm Workers Sue Farm Company For Replacing Them With Foreign Workers

[Concerned American]

If the article was accurate, then the employer broke the law, no?

Your idealism is commendable. However, you are naive. Sen. Diane Feinstein D-CA worked tirelessly for years to end penalties for farmers that employed illegal immigrants. The laws are there but they won't enforce them.

 

[DudleySmith]

This is old news. Several sites used to post on these suits, until the sites went defunct. There are plenty of legal latino farm workers who suffered the same fates. Investigation Article from 2001, when some Democrats were still supporting labor and remembered what Cesar Chavez and other latino activists had to say about criminal illegal aliens and the H2-A program. And those of you who believe the GOP will suddenly go after criminal illegal aliens if they win the next two elections need to stop the drinking and doing drugs.

Silence in the Fields

The U.S. government is allowing farmers to fill thousands of jobs with foreign 'guestworkers.' The conditions are hardly hospitable -- but those who speak out can be sent straight back home.

www.motherjones.com

Although the federal government oversees wages and working conditions, farmers often mistreat H-2A workers without fear of being penalized. A six-month investigation of the program by Mother Jones reveals widespread complaints that growers have threatened workers at gunpoint, refused them water in the fields, housed them in crumbling, rat-infested buildings where sewage bubbles up through the drains, and denied them medical care after exposing them to pesticides. Farmers control their visitors, their mail, even their weekly shopping trips. A study by the U.S. General Accounting Office notes that H-2A workers, knowing they can be deported at any time, “are unlikely to complain about worker protection violations, fearing they will lose their jobs or will not be hired in the future.” Workers say they have adopted several unwritten rules: Don’t gripe about wages and working conditions. Don’t seek the benefits you’re entitled to. Don’t make noise, even when your health is in jeopardy. “What you see, you must remain silent,” says a Jamaican H-2A worker assigned to a Massachusetts vegetable farm. “What you hear, remain silent.”

...

In fact, study after study of the H-2A program concludes that there’s actually a surplus of agricultural labor, not a shortage. “Unemployment and underemployment are endemic among farmworkers,” says one Labor Department report. “Even at the seasonal peak in September, one-third of farmworkers are still not working in U.S. agriculture.” In studies and congressional testimony about the program, the General Accounting Office also dismisses the idea of a labor shortage. “Agricultural employers in most of the United States have had adequate supplies of labor for many years and continue to do so,” the GAO reports.


The agency acknowledges that some regions do experience local shortages, but notes that those might be alleviated “with fairly modest wage increases.” Instead, H-2A enables farmers — from small operators to corporate giants employing more than 600 workers — to effectively circumvent the free market, paying guestworkers as little as $6.39 an hour rather than raising hourly wages to attract U.S. workers. “A lot of farmers say, ‘I advertised for 300 jobs and no one applied,'” says Thom Myers, a farmworker advocate in Raleigh, North Carolina. “But what about the guy who runs a hardware store who has the same argument? What about the guy who runs a restaurant? If this was any other industry, the government would say, ‘Hey, raise your pay until the supply and demand curves cross.'”


Rather than pay market wages, H-2A growers have instead developed a litany of schemes to ward off domestic workers. In Idaho, the Snake River Farmer’s Association urged its members to write backbreaking job descriptions to discourage Americans from applying. “Irrigators or pipe movers is a great job description because no one wants to move pipe,” explains an association handout. Farmers in other states have turned away U.S. residents for being a few minutes late for interviews, or for not knowing the fine points of federal labor law. In North Carolina, the Growers Association says it hires domestic workers after a simple five-minute phone interview — but state officials describe the process as intentionally inefficient and even hostile. “They go out of their way to discourage local workers from seeking employment,” Lee Albritton, a former job-service employee, wrote in a memo to his supervisors. In 1999, the state found jobs on non-H-2A farms for 12,700 domestic workers. By contrast, on H-2A farms, the state found jobs for only seven workers.


To further discourage U.S. workers, growers often refuse to provide migrant crews the same kind of transportation they offer H-2A workers. “Farmers know that unless there’s travel money involved, no large number of domestic workers will get to the job site,” says Greg Schell, an attorney at Florida’s Migrant Farmworker Justice Project. “If they send a bus to the Rio Grande Valley or Belle Glade, Florida, they can get thousands of experienced farmworkers. But without a bus, the job may as well be on Mars.”

... and more at the link. There never has been any 'labor shortage' in the U.S., not ever. Even if Trump gets re-elected his PArty will just stonewall him again, make some noises and then do nothing yet again. They've already seen none of the Big Giant Right Winger have anybody's back and just stand by passively as police officers get murdered, buildings burned to the ground by commies, faggots grooming the country's kids for sex with pedophiles with Federal support and encouragement, and the whole agenda, sending cops and citizens to prison for defending themselves from violent thugs,etc. with impunity. There is no rule of law any more, so you are going to get more of the same.

Quit pissing on our legs and then claim it's raining; 'conservatives' and moderates aren't going to do jack about anything, and the deviants and commies know you aren't. They laugh at you gimps here every day. The GOP isn't an opposition Party, and isn't pro-American any more than the DNC is.

 

[DudleySmith]

Your idealism is commendable. However, you are naive. Sen. Diane Feinstein D-CA worked tirelessly for years to end penalties for farmers that employed illegal immigrants. The laws are there but they won't enforce them.

Wah wah wah

 

[KissMy]

Trump had 4 years to close the border & tariff all imports, yet he purposely failed at every turn. Then Trump lifted the few tariffs he put on a small amount of China goods. Nothing but political stunts to fool voters.

 

[Concerned American]

yet he purposely failed at every turn.

Democrat congress obstructed his actions at every turn. His success was when he circumvented the commies in congress and got the pentagon to agree that the southern border was under attack and the wall was, indeed, DEFENSE. Critical thinking--try it sometime, moron.

 

[OhPleaseJustQuit]

Trump had 4 years to close the border & tariff all imports, yet he purposely failed at every turn. Then Trump lifted the few tariffs he put on a small amount of China goods. Nothing but political stunts to fool voters.

"he purposely failed".............

 

[KissMy]

Democrat congress obstructed his actions at every turn. His success was when he circumvented the commies in congress and got the pentagon to agree that the southern border was under attack and the wall was, indeed, DEFENSE. Critical thinking--try it sometime, moron.

Trump didn't need congress to slap tariffs on all imports. Yet waited until 2018, then he made deals that removed most of them immediately before they could take effect & nearly all of them by election time.

Republicans were the ones working to get tariff powers back from president

To limit tariffs under Section 232. Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA), and Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) proposed competing bills. Senator Toomey’s bill requires congressional approval for all tariffs imposed under Section 232, while Senator Portman’s bill adds more steps to the process of the President enacting Section 232 tariffs.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) has been one of the strongest proponents of reclaiming Congress’s power to impose tariffs. After reviewing Senator Toomey’s and Senator Portman’s proposals, he has suggested that any tariff imposed under Section 232 should require the approval of Congress to continue the tariff after a certain period of time. Senator Grassley’s proposal also requires the executive branch to report on how 232 tariffs are protecting against national security threats.

On January 23, 2019 Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH-8) introduced H.R. 723, The Global Trade Accountability Act, “to provide for congressional review of the imposition of duties and other trade measures by the executive branch, and for other purposes.” This would transfer some authority back to Congress in the realm of international trade.

 

[Concerned American]

Trump didn't need congress to slap tariffs on all imports. Yet he made deals that removed most immediately before they could take effect & nearly all of them by election time.

Republicans were the ones working to get tariff powers back from president

To limit tariffs under Section 232. Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA), and Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) proposed competing bills. Senator Toomey’s bill requires congressional approval for all tariffs imposed under Section 232, while Senator Portman’s bill adds more steps to the process of the President enacting Section 232 tariffs.4

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) has been one of the strongest proponents of reclaiming Congress’s power to impose tariffs. After reviewing Senator Toomey’s and Senator Portman’s proposals, he has suggested that any tariff imposed under Section 232 should require the approval of Congress to continue the tariff after a certain period of time. Senator Grassley’s proposal also requires the executive branch to report on how 232 tariffs are protecting against national security threats.

On January 23, 2019 Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH-8) introduced H.R. 723, The Global Trade Accountability Act, “to provide for congressional review of the imposition of duties and other trade measures by the executive branch, and for other purposes.” This would transfer some authority back to Congress in the realm of international trade.

Nice way to deflect from the wall, ineffective but nice try. As for all of these failures, executive orders can be nullified--you'll find out how quickly in November.

 

[Gabe Lackmann]

Pitts Farms for replacing them with foreign workers here in the US on H-2A work visas.

How do you know your country is fucked?

When they have to IMPORT MFers to pick cotton!

 

[Concerned American]

How do you know your country is fucked?

When they have to IMPORT MFers to pick cotton!

They did that four hundred years ago and look how successful that was? SMH.

 

[DudleySmith]

Trump had 4 years to close the border & tariff all imports, yet he purposely failed at every turn. Then Trump lifted the few tariffs he put on a small amount of China goods. Nothing but political stunts to fool voters.

He little real support from his own Party. Republicans are never going to do anything about it either, never did in the past. Even Eisenhower lost interest when the public;s attention moved on to other sniveling.

 

[initforme]

Do Americans need to be picking crops for $12 per hour? Nope, for $20 per hour maybe.

 

[Unkotare]

Do Americans need to be picking crops for $12 per hour? Nope, for $20 per hour maybe.

The market decides that, not you.

 

[Concerned American]

Do Americans need to be picking crops for $12 per hour? Nope, for $20 per hour maybe.

I see those $12 an hour jobs going away, replaced by automation because of short sighted greed like you just suggested. Lower income earners need to learn to budget and live within their means and improve their skills over time like people have done forever. If you have just a modicum of awareness, you have witnessed the inflation that wrong-headed thinking has produced in just one year. Those same low earners are worse off today than they were a year ago.

 

[initforme]

Hogwash

 

[initforme]

Low paying jobs are t essential in most cases.

 

[Concerned American]

Low paying jobs are t essential in most cases.

Best not to say that with your mouth full, moron.

 

[Indeependent]

Democrat congress obstructed his actions at every turn. His success was when he circumvented the commies in congress and got the pentagon to agree that the southern border was under attack and the wall was, indeed, DEFENSE. Critical thinking--try it sometime, moron.

KissMy is psychotic...or stupid.

 

[Concerned American]

When they have to IMPORT MFers to pick cotton!

Where in the US do they hand-pick cotton. Here's a hint NOWHERE! And they haven't hand picked anywhere in the US for over sixty years. Try being truthful.

 

[DudleySmith]

Less than 2% of crops are picked by hand, most is automated, even blueberries, and it wasn't high wages that created that; automation has been going on since the 1700's. Illegals aren't needed at all, they just help drive the U.S. into Third World shithole status, which is why both left and right wing labor racketeers love them.