Bush Administration H2A Regs and UFW Response

Bush’s devastating new H2A regs still in effect. Tell Congress to override now

Change has started. Upon taking office President Obama immediately stayed any pending or new 11th hour regulations that the Bush administration tried to push through. 

However, this does not include the devastating new H2A regulations we wrote to you about. These regulations were not included as they already went into effect on Saturday and the only way they can be stopped through a congressional override that President Obama can then sign into law. 

We need your help. These Bush administration H2A regulations gut existing protections for both domestic and foreign farm workers. They make it easier for growers to slash the pay of domestic farm workers and hire imported foreign laborers instead of U.S. field workers. They weaken government protections in an industry known for violating the minimum wage, housing requirements and other rules.

The new Obama Administration is facing a mountain of problems left by the outgoing administration.  All of them are important.  And all require action.

We need your help to ensure that farm workers do not get buried under the pile of crises. With a vote in Congress and a stroke of a pen, the new administration can reverse the terrible changes the Bush Administration wrote into effect. Please act now and e-mail your Congress members today and ask them to take immediate action.

TAKE ACTION TODAY!

• 01/21/2009: UFW News Release – Bush’s midnight guest worker ruling still in effect

• 01/21/2009: BNet – Bush Administration ‘Midnight Regulations’ Impacting Food

• 01/21/2009: The Packer – H-2A rules go into effect, but uncertainty remains

• 01/16/2009 – Statement By UFW and PCUN on U.S. District Court Decision to Deny Temporary Restraining Order on Bush Administration Changes to H-2A Guestworker Visa Program
  

• 01/14/2009 – Lawsuit Filed to Overturn Bush Administration Changes to H-2A Guestworker Visa Program
  

• 01/14/2009 – Court House News Service: Bush’s Latest End Run Around Law Targets Farmworkers, UFW Claims
  (Click here to see complaint)

• 12/16/2008 Los Angeles Times: Bush rewrites the rules – Last-minute changes being pushed through by the administration, such as altering H-2A visa rules, are creating disasters that Barack Obama will have to reverse beginning Jan. 20.

• 12/15/2008 Miami Herald: Rule changes target vulnerable workers

• 12/15/2008 New York Times: A Cheap Shot at Workers

• 12/11/2008 Sacramento Bee: Bush administration makes last-minute changes in farmworker hiring

• 12/10/2008 Rolling Stones: Bush’s Final F.U. – The administration is rushing to enact a host of last-minute regulations that will screw America for years to come

• 12/10/2008 Associated Press: Administration changes to farm worker hiring afoot

• 12/10/2008 McClatchy News Service: Bush considering easing rules on foreign farm workers

• Farm Worker Justice’s 2-page Summary of H-2A Regulations,
  "The Bush Administration’s Shameful Legacy for Farmworkers: Midnight Regulations on the H-2A Guestworker Program

• Farm Worker Justice’s White Paper, "Litany of Abuses: Why we need more–not fewer–labor protections in the H2A Guestworker Program.