Sample Letter to Oppose a Guest Worker Program
Dear Representative,
Guest worker programs in the United States, by their very nature, have subjected the foreign workers and corresponding U.S. workers to poor wages and working conditions. In affected occupations, guest worker status also has contributed to the foreign and domestic workers’ lack of economic and political bargaining power.
This lack of bargaining power arises largely from the foreign workers’ status as "non-immigrants" on temporary visas. They are dependent on the employers for their ability to stay in the country and their opportunity to obtain a visa in the following year. That status effectively prevents workers from demanding better wages or working conditions, forming a labor union, or challenging illegal conduct. In fact, once the Department of Labor certifies an employer’s wage rates as acceptable, a worker who refuses to work at that wage level is considered "unavailable" for work and can be replaced by a guest worker.
Employers often prefer guest workers because they will work to the limits of human endurance and for low wages. Consequently, many employers create artificial labor shortages for themselves by not recruiting United States workers, by offering low wages and poor working conditions so as to deter U.S. workers from applying for jobs, by forcing U.S. workers to quit their jobs, and by firing them. Such conduct is illegal but widespread.
Most guest worker programs are predicated on denying the humanity of the workers who fill those jobs. The guest workers are isolated from others in society and stigmatized. They are denied the right to compete economically for the best available job. They are too vulnerable to ask for better wages. (This would also apply if temporary workers would have to "earn" their immigration status by working for U.S. employers and persuading the employers to give the government proof of that employment.) Families are broken up. The workers are not granted the democratic rights on which this country was founded. It is indentured servitude disguised as a comprehensive solution.
Guest worker programs should not supply this nation’s labor.
Thank you in advance for your correspondence.
Sincerely,
Dear Representative,
Guest worker programs in the United States, by their very nature, have subjected the foreign workers and corresponding U.S. workers to poor wages and working conditions. In affected occupations, guest worker status also has contributed to the foreign and domestic workers’ lack of economic and political bargaining power.
This lack of bargaining power arises largely from the foreign workers’ status as "non-immigrants" on temporary visas. They are dependent on the employers for their ability to stay in the country and their opportunity to obtain a visa in the following year. That status effectively prevents workers from demanding better wages or working conditions, forming a labor union, or challenging illegal conduct. In fact, once the Department of Labor certifies an employer’s wage rates as acceptable, a worker who refuses to work at that wage level is considered "unavailable" for work and can be replaced by a guest worker.
Employers often prefer guest workers because they will work to the limits of human endurance and for low wages. Consequently, many employers create artificial labor shortages for themselves by not recruiting United States workers, by offering low wages and poor working conditions so as to deter U.S. workers from applying for jobs, by forcing U.S. workers to quit their jobs, and by firing them. Such conduct is illegal but widespread.
Most guest worker programs are predicated on denying the humanity of the workers who fill those jobs. The guest workers are isolated from others in society and stigmatized. They are denied the right to compete economically for the best available job. They are too vulnerable to ask for better wages. (This would also apply if temporary workers would have to "earn" their immigration status by working for U.S. employers and persuading the employers to give the government proof of that employment.) Families are broken up. The workers are not granted the democratic rights on which this country was founded. It is indentured servitude disguised as a comprehensive solution.
Guest worker programs should not supply this nation’s labor.
Thank you in advance for your correspondence.
Sincerely,
posted by Van at 10:50 AM
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