> --------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Vicki Nichols <vnichols at iu.net>
> To: fcpj <fcpj at juno.com>
> Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 20:09:00 -0400
> Subject: ACTION ALERT-Guestworkers-URGENT
>
> Please distribute widely. Thanks, Vicki.
>
> Migrant Farmworker Justice Project
> Florida Legal Services, Inc.
> Post Office Box 2110
> Belle Glade, FL 33430
> Phone: (561) 996-5266 Fax: (561) 992-5040 Toll Free: (800)
> 277-7447
>
>
> Action Alert
>
> To: All Farmworker Advocates, Interested parties
> From: Dylan Morgan
> Date: May 5, 1999
> Re: Federal Guestworker Legislation
>
> Background...
> Guestworker programs like the current H-2A program allow agricultural
> businesses claiming to experience a labor shortage to apply to bring in
> foreign workers on temporary visas to perform seasonal work.
>
> Because guestworkers have few rights and little legal recourse, they
> are often unable or unwilling to speak out about abuses they endure for
> fear of losing their job and being deported.
>
> Generally, farmworkers face harsh conditions. Their wages have not
> kept up with inflation and amount to a meager $6,500 annually while a
> continuous flow of foreign labor removes growers' incentives to improve
> wage and working conditions.
>
> Currently...
> The Senate immigration subcommittee, chaired by Sen. Spencer Abraham
> (R-Mich.), who supported the grower's guestworker amendment last year, is
> holding and oversight hearing on guestworker programs on Wednesday, May 12,
> 1999 (date subject to change).
> The growers have not yet had their bill introduced, but it is expected at
> the end of May. Their guestworker proposal is likely to be added as a
> proposed amendment to an appropriations (spending) bill, probably the one
> for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. (Last Congress, they tacked it
> onto the Commerce, Justice and State appropriations bill.)
>
> Needed Action...
> Write letters, both individually and on behalf of as many organizations as
> possible, to your Senators asking that they strongly opposed the
> guestworker legislation being sought by agricultural employers.
> Of critical importance are members of the Senate immigration
> subcommittee (Republicans Abraham, Specter, Grassley and Kyl
> and Democrats Kennedy, Feinstein and Schumer) and agricultural
> appropriations subcommittee (Republicans Cochran,Specter, Bond,
> Gorton, McConnell, Burns, and Democrats Kohl, Harkin, Dorgan, Feinstein and
> Durbin), Sen. John McCain (R-AZ, running for President), Sen. Robert Byrd
> (D-W.VA, ranking Democrat on Appropriations Committee) and Sen. Patrick
> Leahy (D.VT ranking Democrat on Judiciary Committee)
> Write letters to President Bill Clinton, thanking him for opposing the
> agricultural guestworker legislation last year and asking him to announce
> that he would veto a new guestworker bill or amendment if it were to pass
> this year.
>
> Contact Information
>
> Mail can be sent to the Clinton Administration at the following address:
>
> President Bill Clinton
> The Whitehouse
> Washington, D.C. 20500
>
> Senate addresses are all:
>
> Senator
> U.S. Senate
> Washington, D.C. 20510
>
> If you can fax the letter, so much the better. A few fax numbers for
> Senators' offices in Washington, D.C. are:
>
> Florida Senators:
> Bob Graham (202) 224-2237 e-mail: bob_graham at graham.senate.gov
> Connie Mack (202) 224-8022 e-mail: comments at mack.senate.gov
>
> For other contact addresses, visit:
> http://www.senate.gov/
>
> Senate immigration subcommittee:
> Spencer Abraham, (R) 224-8834
> Arlen Specter, (R) 228-1229
> Charles Grassley, (R)
> Jon Kyl, (R) 228-1239
> Ed Kennedy, (D) 224-0405
> Diane Feinstein, (D) 228-3954
> Chuck Schumer, (D)
>
> Senate agricultural appropriations subcommittee:
> Thad Cochran, (R)
> Arlen Specter, (R) 228-1229
> Christopher Bond, (R)
> Slade Gorton, (R) 224-9393
> Mitch McConnell, (R) 224-2499
> Conrad Burns, (R) 224-8594
> Herb Kohl, (D)
> Ton Harkin, (D)
> Byron Dorgan, (D) 228-4466
> Diane Feinstein, (D) 228-3954
> Richard Durbin, (D)
>
> Others:
> John McCain, (R) 228-2862
> Robert Byrd, (D) 228-0002
> Patrick Leahy, (D)
>
> Sample Letter
>
> Dear Senator :
>
> We write out of concern for this nations migrant farmworkers who harvest
> our fruits, vegetables, tobacco and other horticultural crops. We ask that
> you oppose the agricultural "guestworker" legislation that agricultural
> employers intend to introduce again, possibly as an amendment to an
> appropriations bill.
>
> [State who you are and what you or your organization does]
>
> America's farmworkers are underpaid, often ill-housed and frequently lack
> access to health care. Wage rates remain quite low, and here in Florida,
> piece rates for most agricultural commodities have remained stagnant
> for the last twenty years. Unemployment and underemployment in areas
> where farmworkers reside remains high, as noted in a recent General
> Accounting Office report that concluded there is no farm labor shortage.
>
> Farmworkers are still not entitled to many of the legal protections that we
> grant other workers, yet they are more in need of them than most workers;
> farmworkers are the poorest of the working poor. It is long past time
> for American agricultural businesses to modernize their labor practices to
> attract and retain its work force. In turn, our government must end its
> long history of supplying growers with an oversupply of vulnerable foreign
> workers in undocumented or semi-documented status.
>
> The U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform's report in 1997 concluded that a
> new guestworker program would be a "grievous mistake." There already is an
> agricultural guestworker program, the H-2A program, which approves 99%
> of agricultural employers' applications for guestworkers, according to the
> U.S.
> General Accounting Office. Farmworker advocates have repeatedly asked
> the Department of Labor to improve its implementation of the worker
> protections under that program, but abuses continue. The employers'
> new program would be even worse than the current situation or even
> the old "bracero" program, removing most of the longstanding protections
> for wages, working conditions, housing and law enforcement.
>
> A new guestworker program would do nothing to reduce the number of
> undocumented workers currently displacing domestic workers in this country,
> and consequently, the labor surplus would increase under a guestworker
> program and the wages and working conditions of all farmworkers
> would decline still further. If we need more farm laborers in this
> country, they should be invited as immigrants who have the right
> to switch jobs if the employer mistreats them or if another employer
> offers a better deal, who have the opportunity to become citizens with the
> right to vote, and who could raise a family here.
>
> Edward R. Murrow's "Harvest of Shame" has continued for almost 40 years.
> We Ask that you not perpetuate the mistreatment of migrant farmworkers
> into the next century. We feel very strongly that you should oppose any
> efforts to create a new guestworker program for agriculture.
>
> Sincerely,
> ___________________________________________________________________________