San Fernando Valley Sun\/el Sol<\/em>. \u201cIn fact, we\u2019ve already shown that one of our plaintiffs, who is working the same job as they were working last year \u2013 who is a U.S. citizen, by the way \u2013 their [hourly] wage went from almost $19 an hour to $16-something an hour.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nDe Loera-Brust said the wage rule violates the statutory requirement that H\u20112A wages not have an \u201cadverse effect\u201d on local worker wages. The UFW and UFW Foundation are currently awaiting a decision from a federal judge regarding a possible stay or injunction on the wage cuts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The decision could be handed down this month or later in the year, according to De Loera-Brust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe already had our first hearing, and in that hearing we asked the judge to grant either a stay or preliminary injunction on the wage [cuts], to basically reverse them \u2026 until the legality of the actual rule can be determined,\u201d said De Loera-Brust, noting they expect to eventually prevail. But for now, \u201cWhat we\u2019re asking for is don\u2019t hurt people\u2019s bottom line \u2013 don\u2019t make it harder for farm workers to make ends meet in the meantime, while we sort this out in court,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe nature of the H\u20112A program is very exploitative, because [migrant] workers can\u2019t change jobs and [there\u2019s no] pathway [to] citizenship. \u2026 That just creates a power dynamic that is inevitably going to be abused,\u201d said De Loera-Brust. He said the H-2A migrant workers are further exploited by being forced to reside in \u201ccramped and unsanitary housing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition, recent H-2A rules allow employers to deduct housing costs \u2013 up to 30% of hourly pay \u2013 from migrant workers\u2019 wages, which could push down their minimum wages and collectively reduce their pay by $1.7 billion in 2026 alone, routing it to the growers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is currently no cap or limit on the total number of H-2A workers that can be brought into the U.S. every year. In fact, noted De Loera-Brust, the number of visas being issued annually has grown from about 250,000 during the pandemic in 2020 to an estimated 525,000 in 2026. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He described H-2A as a modern version of the \u201cBracero\u201d foreign farm labor program, which ran from World War II until the mid-1960s. UFW founder Chavez opposed the government\u2019s Bracero program for similar reasons \u2013 it exploited migrant farmworkers, suppressed domestic worker wages and undermined their collective bargaining efforts. The H-2A program in its current form turns back the progress made. Years ago, Chavez and the union fought against the growers\u2019 efforts to bring undocumented migrant workers as \u201cscab labor\u201d to break their strike, which would circumvent their efforts to improve wages and working conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now currently confronted with a similar battle the union fought against years ago, a better solution to the H-2A program \u2013 and the recent wage cuts \u2013 would be to \u201clegalize the workers who are already here, who have been doing this work for decades,\u201d said De Loera-Brust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAcross the country, farm workers, including U.S. citizens, are already suffering the direct and indirect impacts of Trump\u2019s illegal wage cut,\u201d said UFW President Teresa Romero in a statement. The results have been \u201csmaller paychecks for the same work and greater competition with foreign guest workers, who are cheaper than ever to hire. \u2026 We proudly support Rep. Lofgren \u2026 fighting to reverse this illegal rule and restore fairer wages to farm workers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Supposedly during COVID the farm workers were considered essential workers which led to wage increases. So they’re now looking to undo those increases with modifying the H-2A program, allowing farmers to essentially vouch for illegals to remain with their operations with lower pay under the H-2A program. This is billions of dollars in the pockets […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world"],"blocksy_meta":[],"featured_image_src":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Jason","author_link":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/author\/jturning\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16780"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16781,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16780\/revisions\/16781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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