Farm Workers sign national pact covering guest workers

Just three days after compromise legislation on immigration foundered in the U.S. Senate over “guest worker” programs, the United Farm Workers moved to start solving the issue on their own.

On April 11, UFW President Arturo Rodriguez signed a contract in Seattle covering the nationwide operations of Global Horizons, one of the nation’s largest suppliers of guest workers.

Farm workers are specifically exempt from federal labor law coverage, meaning they lack the right to organize, except in states which allow it, and also are subject to other problems that non-union workers face. The pact lets Global’s workers join UFW.

“The first national contract protecting agricultural guest workers offers the only genuine solution to the dilemma of worker abuse and lax enforcement of legal protections: Unionization,” Rodriguez said in announcing the pact. Provisions include:

* Enforcement of relevant state and federal laws and protection from retaliation for complaining about treatment through the grievance and binding mediation process.

* A 2 percent raise over the “adverse effect wage rate” required by federal law, which is always higher than the state or federal minimum wage. The rate is now $9.01 in Washington state, where the pact was signed — and where the state vigorously enforced the law against guest worker enterprises for the last two years, Rodriguez said.

* Employer-paid medical care for all guest workers while they are in the United States. The pact also includes paid work breaks and paid bereavement leave, plus round-trip transportation to a worker’s home country for funeral rites, plus “further leave time if required.”

* Seniority in hiring and layoffs based on a worker’s years of service with Global.

Global Horizons started the talks for the pact, Rodriguez said. It now recruits guest workers from Thailand and Vietnam, he said, but will expand Mexican recruiting.

The signing ceremony in Seattle contrasted with the argument over “guest worker” provisions in Washington, D.C.

The guest worker plans in pending Senate immigration bills called for admission of more than 400,000 guest workers to the U.S. yearly, but under conditions that AFL-CIO President John Sweeney called so restrictive that they left the workers’ fate in the hands of employers. Several unions in Change To Win, the other labor federation of which UFW is a member, endorsed the Senate’s guest worker plan.

This article was written by Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.

For more information
Visit the United Farm Workers’ website, www.ufw.org

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