"H-2A workers are very vulnerable to pressure from their employers. They can only work for the growers who recruit them, who can legally impose production quotas and fire workers for not meeting them. Recruiters are legally allowed to refuse to hire women, and almost all H-2A workers are young men. They can be fired for protesting, organizing, or simply working too slowly. They then lose their visas and usually find themselves on a blacklist, unable to return to work in subsequent seasons."
"On October 2, Trump finally dropped the hammer on farmworkers. At the end of the season, when most workers who might protest are no longer in the fields, he cut the wages of 400,000 people by as much as a third. Trump's order, a federal regulation published in Thursday's Federal Register and implemented immediately, alters the way wages are set for farmworkers brought to the US by growers on H-2A visas. These workers are recruited mostly in Mexico, and sign contracts to work for a maximum of 10 months per year. After that, they must return home."
A federal regulation implemented on October 2 reduces wages for H-2A farmworkers and alters wage-setting and housing requirements. The rule affects roughly 400,000 H-2A workers recruited mainly in Mexico who sign contracts to work up to ten months and then return home. H-2A workers can only work for the growers who recruit them, face production quotas, and can be fired for protesting, organizing, or slow work, which leads to visa loss and blacklisting. The Department of Labor previously set an Adverse Effect Wage Rate to prevent displacement of local workers. The new rule establishes lower skill-level wages in states like California.
Read at The Nation
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