American Farm Bureau..... a Communist front?

They want an underclass to serve them. Willing to subvert the supply/demand equation that the average American has to live within.

Too many renters than affordable housing... the rents rise and rise.

Too many workers..... wages decline to the lowest limit allowed by law.

Agricultural workers already have to work over 60 hours per week before overtime pay kicks in.

When I worked in agriculture I was never offered any benefits such as health insurance, etc.

Here is what the Farm Bureau wants:

IMMIGRATION – REFORM OF THE H-2A PROGRAM

_____
Issue:

Provide a workable program to allow for recruitment of temporary agricultural workers from abroad and an opportunity for some current agricultural workers to apply for permanent residency in the United States.
__________
Background:

The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 established a program, now known as the H-2a program, which authorizes farmers to recruit and temporarily employ foreign workers if the Department of Labor certifies that there is a shortage of U.S. workers.

However, the H-2a program requires employers to pay a higher than normal wage – the “adverse effect wage rate.” This provision, coupled with a requirement that employers also provide housing at no cost to virtually all workers, puts a tremendous economic burden on farmers and makes their products less competitive. Moreover, the program has proven to be slow, bureaucratic and inflexible in accommodating agriculture’s needs, which may change suddenly with weather, global market realities and other variables. It also allows only temporary employment, even though there are many year-round occupations in agriculture without willing U.S. workers.

The program has become a magnet for litigation, discouraging most farmers from using the program. At the same time, existing immigration law places employers not using H-2a in a difficult position, criticizing them if they hire undocumented workers but denying them the tools to verify documents.
_______________
Legislative Status:

Farm Bureau seeks passage of legislation to provide a workable temporary worker program which would address agriculture’s needs for an adequate and reliable legal workforce. Such a program would:
 Allow agricultural employers to pay no more than an average prevailing wage in a particular agricultural occupation and region;
 Provide an un-capped number of temporary worker visas that each lasts several years and is renewable multiple times but eventually ends;
 Not impose more stringent requirements on agriculture than on other sectors including housing, transportation payment guarantees and the hiring of workers after the contract period has begun;
 Not expand labor laws, including the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act (MSPA), or otherwise provide temporary agricultural workers with private rights of action in state or federal court; and
 Offer a legitimate and fair opportunity for some agricultural workers to apply for a permanent resident visa.

March 2006

http://www.fb.org/issues/backgrd/immigrat06.301.doc

"there are many year-round occupations in agriculture without willing U.S. workers. " Dern no-good Americans. Unwilling to live a 2nd- or 3rd-world lifestyle so as to maximize our profits. That's the interpretation I come up with.

"Not expand labor laws, including the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act (MSPA), or otherwise provide temporary agricultural workers with private rights of action in state or federal court"
Rules? Regulations? Slaves don't need no stinkin' protection!!!!!!

"Offer a legitimate and fair opportunity for some agricultural workers to apply for a permanent resident visa." The hardest-working folks who never demand a thing and are willing to obey us as we see fit will be added to the list of those we want to become citizens

"Allow agricultural employers to pay no more than an average prevailing wage in a particular agricultural occupation and region" Me and my fellow farmers would never be in cahoots to keep wages down. No, not us.

My comments follow the snippets above.

My step-dad was a corporate farmer in California's central valley. He did very well employing the migrant workers, both legal and illegal. But, the workers merely survived, barely scraping by. It was sickening to hear those farmers when they gathered, talking shop, ridiculing those who made them their money.

Slavery is alive and well in the USA.... it IS a form of slavery!!!!! Economic slavery. If the supply/demand function of capitalism applied I wouldn't be bothered. But, the methods used by America's elite classes, both local, regional and national elites, subverts the capitalistic system so as to benefit the elite class while creating a huge powerless underclass.