Changes would Lower Wages and Working Conditions for Nation’s Farmworkers
(WASHINGTON DC) The U.S. District Court denied late Thursday (January 15, 2009) a request by farmworker organizations for a preliminary injunction to stop the Bush Administration from implementing new agricultural guestworker rules.
The new rules, issued last December and scheduled to take effect on January 17, 2009, will lower wage rates, reduce government oversight, increase transportation costs for workers, limit recruitment of U.S. workers and make other changes that would harm farmworkers.
The judge concluded that the plaintiffs did not meet the legal standard for emergency court action. The judge did not decide whether the regulations are illegal.
The United Farm Workers and Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (PCUN) issued the following statement:
“These new regulations radically alter longstanding mechanisms to safeguard working conditions of both US and foreign workers; they’re illegal and we’re committed to fighting them. The new rules will eventually be set aside; it’s just a matter of when and by what means. We will continue to work towards a more lawful and workable solution to the farm labor crisis.”