Though they make up only 3% of all H-2A workers, white South Africans are the program’s fastest-growing group. Lawsuits in Mississippi claim they’re hired over Black US workers and paid more. The Department of Labor has confirmed allegations in dozens of cases.
El incidente ejemplifica los riesgos que enfrentan los trabajadores cuando vienen a trabajar a Estados Unidos a través del programa de visados laborales H-2A del gobierno federal.
While oversight of H2A farmworker housing is enforced by the federal government, migrant farmworker housing is state jurisdiction. Some Midwestern states inspect twice — others not at all.
The average age of farmworkers born outside the U.S. steadily increased from 2008 to 2019, while the average age of U.S.-born workers has stayed about the same
The rollout of coronavirus vaccines provides hope that the end of the pandemic is near. But the virus is still spreading across the U.S. and efforts to expand access to testing and build trust with the farmworker community are still needed, Tellefson Torres says.
Nely Rodríguez stands in front of 43 farmworkers and supervisors who sit side by side at picnic tables wearing various protective workwear—hats, ski masks, bandanas, socks as sleeves. Rodríguez, a member and worker-leader of the Florida-based Coalition of Immokalee Workers [https://ciw-online.org/]
Since June, there have been 21 COVID-19 cases linked to the hotel where an entire crew of migrant workers are living, according to the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District, which tracks COVID-19 cases across Champaign County. The hotel is tied for third largest outbreak in the county, based on in
“When the pandemic first started, and we were just beginning to hear information about the impact on farmworkers, we knew it was coming,” Partida says. “You just knew that it was going to get worse and worse and worse.”
The lax inspection process led to an incident in summer 2018 where workers lived in a former jail, a motel with bed bugs and a house with a leaking toilet.
