How the H-2B visa system gets abused; warnings for “guest worker” legislation

H-2B visas were created in 1986 under Congressional immigration reform. They are supposed to allow companies to bring in non-agricultural labor for specifically targeted needs.

However, in light of President Bush wanting to restart a guest worker program in agriculture and perhaps a few other areas of totally unskilled labor, we ought to ask whether there are any problems with, or abuses of, the H-2B system.

Problems? Abuses? From our benighted corporate behemoths?

You betcha.

Here’s one, for starters:

Created under the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, the H-2B program is supposed to peg workers' pay to the prevailing wage in a particular industry. But since the U.S. Department of Labor claims that it lacks the authority to enforce prevailing wage standards, employers routinely pay much less.

Well, you can imagine what this might cause.

But here’s a specific example, in case your imagination didn’t reach this far:

(A) March 16 walkout by workers at the Signal International marine fabrication company highlighted the stakes in the upcoming ongressional debate over the vast expansion of guest-worker programs.

The protest by the Signal workers in Pascagoula, Miss., took place following a pre-dawn raid by company security guards on the workers' living quarters--in which six workers were seized and locked in a room, until pressure from immigrant rights and labor activists forced their release.

The company told the men — who were among 300 guest workers brought to the shipyard in December by the company on H-2B guest-worker visas — that they were terminated and would be transported out of the U.S.

The firings took place after workers complained about their living conditions. The workers say that 24 men were packed into 12-by-18-foot metal barracks, with only two toilets and four sinks. For this, the men were forced to pay $35 a day in rent. When the workers responded by organizing Signal H-2B Workers United, the company cut several of their $18.50 an hour pay in half — and fired six men who were at the center of the organizing.

But the six who were imprisoned by the company remain terminated. They still have debts of $14,000 to $20,000 at home.

OK, $18.50 an hour is more than I make on salary, especially if they’re getting overtime.

But, if you’re paying double my rent, you’re not coming out ahead.

And, if you’re paying that for your bit of space that is about what you’d get in a medium-security, or higher, prison, well money just isn’t worth it. It’s no wonder these folks walked off the job.


And, seeing how exploitative Signal International is of its employees, can you just see the double whammy ahead?

Signal can’t get American-born workers because it’s obviously treating them like shit. So it argues to Washington that it has to have imported labor. The Labor Department officially says, in essence, we can’t regulate their wages, and unofficially uses that as an excuse to not regulate their working or living conditions.

It’s no wonder Bush and corporate GOP friends want to expand on something like this.