Labor abuse — not just U.S. …
I’ve had a somewhat favorable view of the Canadian temporary foreign worker program, which is supposed to hire workers through hiring halls in the worker’s country, and give the worker clear contractual rights within the hiring country, as well as a guaranteed minimal standard of health and housing care. But, as posted on Migrant Canada (News about migrants in agriculture in Canada // Nouvelles sur les travailleurs agricoles migrants):
CAMPBELLVILLE, ONTARIO – Dec. 6, 2008 — More than 70 Mexican and Jamaican agriculture workers at a mushroom grow house facility outside of Guelph were fired without notice on December 6, by Rol-Land Farms, a $50 million-a-year, privately owned industrial agricultural corporation that operates a number of mushroom growing operations across Canada. No reason was given for the firings…
“No company should have the right to treat human beings like disposable farm tools,” explained Chris Ramsaroop of Justicia for Migrant Workers, an advocacy group that works with migrant workers across Canada. He added, “these workers have lost everything over night: their jobs, their housing and even their ability to stay and work in Canada. Rol-Land Farms didn’t even issue notices to their employees.”
What has been presented as a workable agricutural worker program looks more and more like the discredited Bracero Program, which — especially after World War II — was perverted in the United States to benefit employers and exploit the workers:
Wayne Hanley, the National President of UFCW Canada stated, “the Temporary Foreign Workers program has been designed to allow an employer to have complete power over a worker. In this case Rol-Land Farms was not only the employer but also the landlord and de facto deportation agent.”
Meanwhile… south of the border (the Canadian border that is), the Bush Administration is proposing to treat foreign workers exactly as “disposable farm tools”..
Before leaving office, the Bush Administration is leaving one parting “gift” to our nation’s farmworkers. …
These will be the most far-reaching changes in the laws regulating agricultural guestworker programs since 1942. They will return us to an era of agricultural labor exploitation that many thought ended decades ago.
The changes cut wage rates and wage protections for both domestic and foreign workers, minimize recruitment obligations inside the U.S. and curtail or eliminate much of the government oversight that is supposed to deter and remedy illegal employer conduct.
mexfiles.net 
“No company should have the right to treat human beings like disposable farm tools,”
This says it all. We are all human beings, and should treat each other as such.
But long term, I think the best solution to all these labor issues is to create a world where all people can find employment and a good life in their own communities.
Steve Gallagher
I recall a friend from journalism school – who had just spent a semester studying in Mexico – innocently trying to interview some Mexican farm workers while working for a community paper near Vancouver. (It was supposed to be a nice slice of life story.) But one farmer was absolutely against allowing anyone to speak – which, of course, fueled immediate suspicions and led to a far more damning story that might have otherwise been reported. The farmer – by the way – was ironically an immigrant.
The whole point of ignoring the illegal immigrant problem and refusing to enforce immigration laws has been to drive down the wages.
So it is not surprising that the government would attempt to sabotage any program which keeps wages higher.
This has all been very costly for urban/suburban area taxpayers such as myself, as with the low wages the legal as well as the illegal workers must utilize the public health systems, etc, as they cannot afford medical care and other necessities on their own.