Rio Grande Valley, Texas—Ranchers and packing plants produces more than $60 million dollars. To do so farm workers are forced to work from sun up to sun down, rain or shine. All to comply with the agri-business needs.
Wages are very low and in many cases farm workers do not even earn the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour because they are paid by contract. Most farm workers are undocumented. But not satisfied with paying them low wages, they are threatened with being reported to immigration if they do not produce more.
Agri-business is not satisfied with exploiting undocumented workers who have lived in the Valley for years. But now farmers want cheaper labor so they are telling contractors “Bring me H-2A workers.” H-2A is the new Bracero program.
In the Rio Grande Valley, H-2A workers are hired from November through July. The H-2A program has grown from a few contracts to over 20 contracts. As a result, more workers are coming this year because it is more lucrative for contractors and packing houses to employ these workers than locals. Since local workers do not “work as well”, or rather they are not as easily exploited as H-2A workers.
H-2A workers do have some rights, unfortunately these rights are hardly ever respected. When workers can no longer tolerate verbal and physical abuse and complain, these complaints fall on deaf ears. They in some cases these workers are threatened with being reported to the cartels in their hometowns.
Another reason why H-2A workers do not complain is because to qualify for the H-2A program, they get indebted. They mortgage their houses, cars or take out high-interest loans.
The abuses endemic to the H-2A program suggest that guest worker programs cannot and should not be the model for America’s farms. The creation of a large temporary workforce with few rights, no freedom to change employers, and no path to permanent status not only harms both U.S. and domestic workers. https://www.farmworkerjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/7.2.a.6-fwj.pdf
But unfortunately, as long as we live under this type of capitalist system, justice for farmworkers and all workers will not be achieved.
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