Amendment to Remove the Guest Worker Program from the Comprehensive Immigration Bill of 2006

hmoroz — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 14:56:03 -0400

Legislation

The middle class

Opposes

Video Summary

Injustice Facts

Number workers employed in the U.S. under the nation’s current guest worker programs, who were aggressively recruited from Latin America to fill hotel jobs in post-Katrina New Orleans and then exploited by their employer, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center: 84

Percentage of workers in one study whose employers found out their immigration papers were falsified yet who were not fired until they complained about workplace conditions: 25

Percentage who were not fired until they tried to organize a union: 21

Number of days unemployed guest workers could legally remain in the U.S. without starting a new job: 60

Average length of unemployment in 2006: 9.6 weeks

Overview/Summary

Middle Class Position Analysis

The Middle Class Supports This Amendment and Opposes the Procedural Vote To Kill It. The middle class supports removing the guest worker provisions from the comprehensive immigration reform bill because of the potential for these vulnerable temporary employees to be exploited in ways that downgrade wages and working conditions for American workers. The fundamental problem with any guest worker program is the way it institutionalizes the second-tier status of immigrant workers, providing employers with a constantly renewing labor force that is in many ways at their mercy, and thus will tend to be paid less and work under worse conditions than citizens. The more jobs that can be transformed into “guest worker jobs,” the fewer domestic jobs will provide the wages and benefits capable of providing a middle-class standard of living. While the bill’s provisions for temporary workers to be hired at the prevailing wage would provide some important protection against this race to the bottom, a constant supply of disempowered guest workers could still prevent wages in an industry dominated by guest workers from rising when they otherwise might.

In addition to the general problem with guest worker programs, the specific program established by this bill leaves immigrant workers vulnerable to exploitation in additional ways. By mandating that guest workers who are unemployed for more than 60 days leave the country, the bill puts pressure on workers to remain in jobs with substandard wages and working conditions or rush to accept a new job with poor conditions before the period runs out, out of fear of losing legal status. In addition, stronger mechanisms for enforcing the bill’s labor protections are needed, because the bill’s weak administrative process carried out at the discretion of the already overburdened Department of Labor risks being insufficient to genuinely deter violations.

Quotes from Experts

Beyond this Bill

Additional Resources

“Close to Slavery: Guestworker Programs in the United States,” from the Southern Poverty Law Center

“Guest worker programs should include strong wage protections for U.S. workers,” from the Economic Policy Institute

Guest workers