Category: Documents

New Report from ProDESC: Recruitment and Hiring of Migrant Workers and Dynamics of Temporary Labor Migrations

Friday, 26 April, 2013 10:43

From NGA’s Mexican partner ProDESC (Project on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights), a report on migrant workers, social security, and the dynamics of temporary labor migrations. 

From the report’s introduction:

Thousands of people cross international lines in search of a better life or a better security for them and their families. Although some migrants move with the desire to improve their income, many are forced to leave their homes because of poverty or famine, other natural disasters and even violent conflict, or because they are persecuted.

The report, ¿Quo Vadis? Reclutamiento y contratación de trabajadores migrantes y su acceso a la seguridad social: dinámica de los sistemas de trabajo temporal migratorio en Norte y Centroamérica, offers an excellent opportunity to learn in depth the current state of this phenomenon, but also an opportunity for reflection on the search to improve the design and implementation of immigration policies which are meant to protect the rights of temporary migrant workers in this region.

Download the full report here (PDF 1.7 MB) or view below.

 

McDonald’s guestworker complaints to Dep’t of State, Dep’t of Labor

Thursday, 07 March, 2013 13:20

3.6.2013 McDonalds guestworker complaint to Dep’t of State

3.6.2013 McDonalds guestworker complaint to Dep’t of Labor

DOL OSHA citations against Walmart supplier C.J.’s Seafood

Monday, 03 December, 2012 12:44

Despite threats to their families, guestworkers in Louisiana went on strike in June 2012 to expose forced labor on the Walmart supply chain. In Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, Walmart supplier C.J.’s Seafood subjected 40 Mexican guestworkers on H-2B visas to forced labor, stolen wages, unfair labor practices and discrimination—from which Walmart profited.

In July 2012, in response to an official complaint by the NGA, the Department of Labor cited C.J.’s Seafood for multiple serious violations of federal safety and health rules, and fined the company $21,550.

Read the full citation (PDF).

More on Breaking Chains at Walmart

H-2B Visa Program Report: Leveling the Playing Field

Monday, 02 July, 2012 15:06

Leveling the Playing Field: Reforming the H-2B Program to Protect Guestworkers and U.S. Workers, a report released by the NGA in June 2012, details how employers have turned the H-2B visa program into the “ultimate tool” for undercutting U.S. workers and exploiting low-wage guestworkers, while corporate lobbyists block Department of Labor reforms that would level the playing field.

The report highlights cases of exploitation from Texas to Tennessee, and calls for four indispensable reforms that would end employer abuse and protect both guestworkers and U.S. workers:

  • Guaranteeing guestworkers the right to organize without fear of retaliation;
  • Prohibiting employers from using guestworkers as cheap, exploitable alternatives to U.S. workers;
  • Eliminating debt servitude and other elements of human trafficking in the program; and
  • Subjecting employers to meaningful government enforcement and community oversight.

The report was authored by the Pennsylvania State University, Dickinson School of Law’s Center for Immigrants’ Rights on behalf of the NGA. It is available for download here.

Probe reveals 622 federal labor violations at 12 U.S. Walmart suppliers

Friday, 29 June, 2012 09:10

Probe reveals 622 federal labor violations at 12 U.S. Walmart suppliers

Survey shows preliminary evidence of forced labor across Walmart supply chain

NEW YORK, NY, June 29, 2012—In a review of 18 U.S. Walmart suppliers that employ guestworkers, two-thirds show preliminary evidence of forced labor, including 622 federal citations for safety, health, and wage and hour violations (download PDF), as well as dozens of federal lawsuits alleging significant violations of civil and labor rights law.

These violations suggest a fundamental disregard for the law by the majority of U.S. Wal-Mart suppliers surveyed, and given the additional constraints of the guestworker program, amount to strong preliminary evidence of forced labor conditions for the guestworkers on Wal-Mart’s U.S. supply chain.

The National Guestworker Alliance (NGA) conducted the review after H-2B guestworkers went on strike to expose forced labor at Wal-Mart supplier C.J.’s Seafood in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, on June 4. And independent investigation by the Worker Rights Consortium, a leading labor watchdog, found “systematic violations of labor law and grossly inhumane treatment” at the Walmart supplier, saying that conditions “rival any sweatshop in China or Bangladesh.”

Learn more ...

« Older Entries