WASHINGTON – Migrant laborers in this country will be able to get information on workers compensation, wage-and-hour laws and other U.S. labor protections “no matter how you got here,” under an agreement signed Monday.
The deal signed at the Labor Department adds Costa Rica, El Salvador and the Dominican Republic to the U.S. and three other Latin American countries that have agreed to look out for the rights of migrant workers.
As part of the agreement, those countries, along with Mexico, Guatemala and Nicaragua, will distribute information from their consulates here about regulations from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and other U.S. labor agencies.
“No matter how you got here or how long you plan to stay, you have certain rights,” U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said at Monday’s signing ceremony. “You have a right to a safe and healthy workplace and the right to a legal wage.”
Solis said the Labor Department will not share with other agencies the details of workers who seek information.
“What we’re trying to avoid is that these vulnerable communities be abused, and that there be an increase in more underground economic activity that goes untaxed,” she said.
Supporters of the agreement said it does not encourage companies to hire undocumented workers in the “economy of shadows,” but does the exact opposite. Informing migrant workers of the law can prevent companies from easily exploiting them, said Arturo Sarukhan, the Mexican ambassador to the U.S.
“I don’t believe that increased labor-standard enforcement will drive employers and employees to the informal economy,” he said at the signing event. “To the contrary, with effective labor enforcement, we can push back against the economy of shadows.”
Undocumented workers are already owed legal wages for work performed here, even if they are deported, said Terri Cruz, a social service counselor for Chicanos por la Causa Inc. in Phoenix.
She said the Labor Department has worked with her organization to help migrants receive wages in cases when they were deported or otherwise removed from the U.S. before being paid.
Monday’s agreement will likely have little impact on Southwest agriculture because large buyers will not purchase from farms using illegal practices, said Lance Jungmeyer, president of Fresh Produce Association of the Americas. The group represents Mexican produce exporters.
“The buyers, the Safeways and the Wal-Marts of the world, they’re looking at labor standards,” he said. “There really is no reason to break the rules because you’ll get effectively shut out of the marketplace.”
Joshua Armstrong is a reporter for Cronkite News Service.
NothingButTheTruth posted at 9:24 am on Tue, Aug 30, 2011.
Aren't migrant workers and seasonal workers the same thing? Doesn't seasonal worker suggest that they will leave when the season for their work has ended? These aren't migrant workers they want to protect. These are an invading army of low skilled workers whose unstated, unconscious plan is to replace the American worker permanently. Your own labor department is signing off on the plan, and the Obamanation of America continues.
NothingButTheTruth posted at 9:27 am on Tue, Aug 30, 2011.
“No matter how you got here or how long you plan to stay, you have certain rights,” U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said at Monday’s signing ceremony. “You have a right to a safe and healthy workplace and the right to a legal wage.”
And we have the right to deport you when we catch you thieving little rats! Oh wait, I forgot, this is the Obamanation of America era. Never mind.
NothingButTheTruth posted at 9:39 am on Tue, Aug 30, 2011.
Hey Leon, how many misdemeanors can an illegal alien have and still not be deported? Rhetorical question
TeaPartyPatriot posted at 10:31 am on Tue, Aug 30, 2011.
And the Sellout of America Continues as Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, long time supporter of both La Racist and Conquesta organization MEChA (Student Movement Chicano from Aztlán ) announced "partnership" agreements with Central American Countries on Monday that protect illegal alien workers in our country.
"Our goal is to help workers and employers understand that labor laws are enforced and enforceable, giving everyone the opportunity to comply with the U.S. laws that cover all workers," said Secretary Solis.
This isn't even codespeak. Deportation is now defined as abuse in the workplace! Illegal alien workers will not be removed. They they will now be protected. The defacto amnesty is being codified, one step at a time.
Solis and this administration want to protect illegal aliens at the expense of all the many unemployed Americans, many of whom are minorities. In fact, minorities have been the hardest hit by unemployment and they still will vote for this administration. Then they try to Blame the Tea Party.
NothingButTheTruth posted at 10:42 am on Tue, Aug 30, 2011.
And the Sellout of America Continues
The Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis announced "partnership" agreements with Central American Countries on Monday that protect illegal alien workers in our country. I knew when she was picked for Labor Secretary that this day would come, and Monday’s the day.
From CNSNews.com
During the signing ceremony hosted at Labor Department headquarters in Washington D.C., Solis said the agreements are aimed at educating migrant workers, regardless of how they got here, about their rights under U.S. law and to help prevent them from being abused in the workplace, either through wages, loss of job, or deportation.
"Our goal is to help workers and employers understand that labor laws are enforced and enforceable, giving everyone the opportunity to comply with the U.S. laws that cover all workers," said Secretary Solis.
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This isn't even codespeak. Deportation is now defined as abuse in the workplace!
Illegal alien workers will not be removed. They they will now be protected. The defacto amnesty is being codified, one step at a time.
She already signed agreements with Mexico, Guatamala and Nicaragua which escaped any news coverage to my knowledge.
First declare prosecutorial discretion to chill out any enforcement, and then announce that illegal alien workers are protected to intimidate the employers. It’s been part of the Obama Administration's agenda since the beginning.
Solis also said, “In some cases taxes aren’t being appropriately paid, those taxes should go into our [U.S.] Treasury,”
I am willing to bet that this statement is a precursor to all illegal aliens in the country getting some kind of identification number that will be used when they apply for their amnesty. And, ask yourself how many of these workers will qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit? Most of them?
Hilda Solis is an old nemesis from the California legislature. Read about this menace. She is a rabid reconquista who tried to pass legislation to give illegal aliens driver licenses. She once worked for the racist head of the California Democrat Party, Art Torres, who said that Proposition 187 was “the last gasp of white America in California.”
With these agreements, every illegal alien worker in America will be assured that they can claim abuse at the drop of a hat and will be catered to the by the ethnic hustlers in the Obama regime. And if the government or the unions want to muscle in on a company, all an illegal alien has to do is complain and the government or the ACLU will swoop in and intimidate them until they knuckle under.
The age of ethnic extortion in the workplace has just been announced.
I knew something like this was coming when the Morton Memo on Prosecutorial Discretion listed the National Labor Relations Board as one of the agencies that illegal aliens could be cooperating with to avoid deportation.
More damage has been done to America in the past two months than in the past 25 years. The future is being mutated by greedy, corrupt politicians in the pocket of the Chamber of Commerce. And it is setting the stage for an ugly future of an overpopulated, balkanized, tribalized America that only serves business interests while the standard of living and morality declines.
And I don’t hear anyone complaining about it. I sure don’t hear the Republicans standing up for American workers and declaring that these agreements will result in millions more illegal alien workers that will hold down wages and displace Americans.
Over a decade ago that genius head of the Federal Reserve Board, Alan Greenspan, told Congress that we needed more foreign workers to hold down "wage inflation." Wage inflation would be your pay raise. And, with the millions of illegals that have flooded into the country along with these current agreements and the near elimination of immigration law enforcement you can be certain that "wage inflation" isn't going to be a business concern, ever. Wage deflation is the reality of these policies.
Many of us predicted this would happen and were ignored for years by the elite “intelligencia” in our country. Well, look around you. It’s happening everywhere.
The 21st Century plantation is thriving. And this time isn’t just racist southern Democrats who are the overseers.
k33j88 posted at 6:01 am on Wed, Aug 31, 2011.
What happened to my country???!!! I thought this was a nation of laws? Since when does an illegal have rights? Are these illegals trying to turn my country into something like their own? Isn't that the reason why they left, because their country of origin is a lawless land?
NothingButTheTruth posted at 9:12 am on Wed, Aug 31, 2011.
EVTRIB, why was Leon's comment deleted?
evtrib posted at 11:08 am on Wed, Aug 31, 2011.
The moderation of individual comments is off topic.
Masterrogue666 posted at 8:56 am on Thu, Sep 1, 2011.
Hey Mexico, if you don't like what's happening to your citizens, KEEP THEM HOME. The majority of USA citizens prefer it that way.
The only "rights" they should have is to be treated humanely, and being deported. The cartels have a more negative affect on ILLEGAL ALIENS than once they actually steal a job that should be for a LEGAL IMMIGRANT or US citizen. We owe them NOTHING, they CHOSE to risk themselves in such a way.