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DE RUEHME #3493/01 3302139
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 252139Z NOV 08
FM AMEMBASSY MEXICO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 4119
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHINGTON DC
RHMFIUU/DEPT OF HOMELAND SECURITY WASHINGTON DC
RUEHRC/DEPT OF AGRICULTURE WASHINGTON DC
INFO RUCNCAN/ALL CANADIAN POSTS COLLECTIVE
RUEHXC/ALL US CONSULATES IN MEXICO COLLECTIVE
RHMFISS/CDR USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHINGTON DC
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 MEXICO 003493 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR DRL/AWH AND ILSCR, CA/VO FOR DONAHUE, WHA/MEX FOR 
DARRACH, USDOL FOR ILAB AND ETA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ELAB CVIS EAGR ECON PGOV SOCI PINR MX
SUBJECT: UNITED FARM WORKERS UNION HIGHLIGHTS PROBLEMS WITH 
THE H-2A PROGRAM ON BOTH SIDES OF US/MEXICO BORDERS 
 
REF: (A) MEXICO 2054 (B) MCKEON/CA EMAIL OF 
     11/24/2008 (NOTAL) 
 
¶1.  Summary:  Mission Mexico,s Consular Section recently 
organized a conference in Dallas on H-2A visa processing. 
During this event an official of the United Farm Workers 
(UFW) shared with Labor Counselor (an invitee at the 
conference) his union,s concerns about the problems they 
believe exist in the H-2A visa program.  When laying out 
these concerns the UFW official cited the details of a 
troubling situation involving agricultural workers from the 
Pacific western Mexican state of Colima and the frustrations 
the state governments of Arizona and Colorado have 
experienced in dealing with the H-2A program.  In the case of 
Colima the UFW official said, guest workers were offered jobs 
in California and promised good wages, six months of regular 
work, free housing and low cost meals.  None of these 
promises were kept.  UFW efforts to enlist the support of GOM 
state and federal authorities in helping the workers obtain 
some form of redress for their grievances have so far been 
unsuccessful. With regard to Arizona, the union official 
indicated that the authorities there are so frustrated with 
the H-2A program,s perceived inability to provide needed 
legal labor for the state,s agro-industries that the 
state,s Governor contacted Labor Secretary Elaine Chao with 
numerous recommendations for its reorganization.  Colorado is 
at the point of implementing its own guest worker program. 
The UFW official made clear that his union firmly supports 
the H-2A visa program.  However, press reports and other 
documents subsequently sent to Labor Counselor underscored 
the UFW,s concern that few persons, businesses or government 
agencies on either side of the border are fully prepared to 
take advantage of the potential benefits the H-2A program 
could provide to both US agribusinesses and to unemployed or 
underemployed Mexican workers.  End Summary 
 
 
DALLAS H-2 VISA CONFERENCE 
-------------------------- 
 
¶2.  On October 28-29 Embassy Mexico City,s Consular Section 
held its &Second Annual H2 Visa Forum8 with the theme of 
&Building a Foreign Guest Worker Force to Fill America,s 
Needs8 (reported Ref B).  One of the main goals of the forum 
was to facilitate citizen/government communication and free 
exchange of opinion and ideas between those two.  Its main 
audience was private sector companies involved in petitioning 
for foreign workers from Mexico.  This year, however, the 
Consular Section asked Mission Mexico,s Labor Counselor to 
work with them to invite interested American labor unions and 
appropriate state and federal Mexican government 
representatives. 
 
¶3.  Two American labor organizations participated in the 
forum, the United Farm Workers (UFW), which is part of the 
Change To Win coalition and the Farm Labor Organizing 
Committee (FLOC) which is a part of the AFL-CIO.  No Mexican 
unions participated in the forum but there were 
representatives or persons affiliated with the state 
governments of Veracruz, Jalisco, Puebla and Nuevo Leon. 
During the two-day event the UFW official, one of the 
union,s National Vice Presidents, took full advantage of the 
forum to network with the Mexican state government 
representatives particularly those from Puebla and Veracruz. 
In the case of Puebla the UFW official arranged for 
subsequent meetings with the state,s labor authorities.  In 
his discussions with the Veracruz representatives the union 
official proposed exploring ways to send agricultural workers 
to harvest citrus products in Florida and coffee in Hawaii. 
Veracruz is a major grower of citrus produce and coffee in 
Mexico and has a vast pool of workers familiar with 
harvesting these products. 
 
 
UFW CITES PROBLEMS WITH H-2,S IN US AND MEXICO 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
¶4.  On the margins of the Dallas forum the UFW official held 
a series of in-depth conversations with Mission Mexico,s 
Labor Counselor.  The union official steadfastly expressed 
the UFW,s firm support for the H-2 program but said that as 
 
MEXICO 00003493  002 OF 004 
 
 
currently implemented it was causing problems on both sides 
of the border.  On the Mexican side of the border the UFW 
official cited an ongoing situation in the Pacific western 
state of Colima as an example of what his union saw as one of 
the problems of the H-2 visa program. 
 
¶5.  According to the UFW official, this past July 
approximately 180 agricultural laborers were recruited from 
Colima to work on farms in California.  The workers were 
recruited by a relatively inexperienced labor contractor who 
promised them the full range of housing, meals and salary 
benefits as stipulated under the applicable H-2 visa 
provisions.  For the workers the best thing they thought they 
had been promised was a guarantee of earning USD 100 per day 
and a 40 hours workweek for a period of at least six months. 
In order to obtain the jobs promised by the recruiter the 
workers were all required to pay USD 600 to cover visa 
processing and travel costs.  Unfortunately for the Colima 
workers none of the promises made to them were kept. 
 
¶6.  Upon arrival in the US the laborers were reportedly 
placed in substandard housing, provided meals that consisted 
of little more than beans and were rarely, if ever, given the 
40 hours of work per week they had been promised.  In some 
cases the laborers were never offered the full-time 
employment they had been promised; in other instances they 
were reportedly not paid in full for the work they actually 
did.  With the help of farm labor advocates such as the UFW 
and the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation (CRLA) 
the workers have filed a suit against the recruiter to obtain 
the wages and benefits they were promised.  Both the UFW and 
the CRLA have attempted to enlist the assistance of the GOM 
and the state government of Colima to help the workers to 
obtain some form of redress for their grievances.  Thus far 
these efforts have been unsuccessful. Ultimately most of the 
workers returned home to Mexico, at their own expense, having 
earned less than the net cost of their original outlay for 
coming to work in the US. 
 
¶7.  In talking with Mission Labor Counselor the UFW official 
did not specifically blame the recruiter for what happened to 
the Colima workers.  However, he did opine that the situation 
with the Colima workers might never have happened if the H-2A 
visa program had more effective oversight.  Such oversight, 
he averred, might have prevented someone like the 
inexperienced recruiter from ever being authorized to 
contract foreign laborers in the first place. 
 
 
ARIZONA IS UNHAPPY WITH THE H-2 PROGRAM 
--------------------------------------- 
 
¶8.  At a later point the UFW official also commented on the 
problems in the US that state governments were having with 
the H-2A program and specifically mentioned the cases of 
Arizona and Colorado.  In his conversation during the Dallas 
forum, and in subsequent documents forwarded to Labor 
Counselor, the UFW official argued that frustration with the 
implementation of the H-2A visa program was growing and 
prompting some states to take matters into their own hands. 
The most thoughtful example of this frustration the union 
official said could be seen in a letter shared with the UFW 
sent by Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano to US Department of 
Labor Secretary Elaine Chao. 
 
¶9.  In her letter dated February 2008, Governor Napolitano 
expressed her concerns and shared her suggestions regarding 
the H-2A program.  Speaking as the executive of a border 
state with an extensive agricultural industry, Governor 
Napolitano decried &the Federal government,s cynical 
refusal to reform our immigration laws8. Continuing on, the 
Governor indicated that the need for agricultural laborers 
far outstrips the number of persons in the US willing to 
accept this type of work.  The H-2A program, Governor 
Napolitano said, seemingly provides a way to obtain foreign 
labor to address this situation but that it has never worked 
and its flaws have been overlooked for years.  As a result, 
she stated, the &H-2A program gives the appearance of 
offering employers a path to obtain lawful temporary 
agricultural workers, however the program has missed the mark 
so widely it is scarcely used.8 
 
MEXICO 00003493  003 OF 004 
 
 
 
¶10.  The governor,s letter then went on to identify four 
areas that significantly hinder the H-2 program.  The areas 
she cited were: (1) the mandatory requirement that employers 
provide worker housing (the Governor favors a housing 
allowance instead of housing per se which she believes would 
provide both employers and workers with the added flexibility 
needed to adapt to local conditions); (2) the involvement of 
four separate government agencies (state employment agencies, 
US DOL, State and DHS/CIS) in processing H-2 applications; 
(3) time and resourses devoted unprofitably to individually 
based certifications and; (4) a wage formula that the 
governor said does not look honestly at the actual pay of 
agricultural workers in the US. 
 
¶11.  Governor Napolitano,s suggestions for improving the 
H-2A program include such recommendations as greater 
coordination between the USG and the border state governments 
who constantly deal with the problems created by the shortage 
of agricultural workers, changing the focus of current 
regulations to help expedite H-2A processing, ensuring a 
realistic balance between the needs of employers and 
legitimate enforcement and fraud detection requirements and 
having DOL turn over more authority to the states in the 
adjudication of H-2A applications.  The governor also 
suggested experimenting with establishing industry-wide 
standards for determining labor shortages.  (Note: DOL and 
DHS are both working on new H-2 regulations although they are 
not yet completed.) 
 
 
UFW SEEKS COMMON GROUND WITH STATES 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶12.  In commenting on Governor Napolitano,s letter the UFW 
official indicated that his union generally agreed with many 
of Arizona,s concerns.  Moreover, the union official 
indicated that Arizona was not unique among Border States in 
expressing these concerns. Other states may not, as yet, have 
laid out their recommendations for revising the H-2 program 
in as detailed a fashion as Arizona but the UFW official made 
clear that many state governments share the view that H-2 
program and the USG are not responsive to their needs. 
 
¶13.  While Arizona is attempting to work with the USG on the 
question of how to deal with the shortage of agricultural 
workers Colorado has taken a more go it alone approach. 
According to the UFW official, earlier this year Colorado 
signed into law what it is called a &state8 guest worker 
program.  The stated purpose of the Colorado legislation was 
to &remove constraints on commerce caused by activities 
detrimental to Colorado's agriculture industry and to allow 
the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, in 
cooperation with the Colorado Commissioner of Agriculture, to 
establish a Colorado nonimmigrant agricultural seasonal 
worker pilot program and to assure necessary protections for 
nonimmigrant and seasonal agricultural workers.8 Colorado,s 
independently established guest worker program could be the 
shape of things to come if other border states decide to act 
on their own to address the problems of insufficient workers 
to satisfy the needs of their agro-industries.  However, this 
pilot guest worker program does not make clear how these 
non-immigrants might qualify for US visas which can only be 
issued on the basis of DHS/CIS approved petitions. 
 
¶14.  The UFW official indicated that his union was doing 
everything possible to work with states like Arizona and 
Colorado to help them address their agricultural labor 
shortage needs.  The UFW, he said, had its own ideas about 
the recommendations made by Arizona and the legislation 
passed by Colorado but did not see either of these state 
level actions as obstacles that could not be overcome through 
honest negotiation.  A high priority for the union, the UFW, 
was to find a balance in the H-2 program that supported 
American agriculture, allowed employers to obtain the labor 
they needed in a timely fashion and to find a legal way to 
allow laborers (in this case Mexican laborers) to find the 
jobs they are seeking while maintaining fair labor standards. 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
MEXICO 00003493  004 OF 004 
 
 
 
¶15. Based on the information shared with Mission Labor 
Counselor by the UFW there is great interest in the US in 
making the H-2 visa program more effective.  The Border 
States in particular have a strong interest in making the 
program work since most have vibrant agribusinesses and all 
of them deal regularly with issues raised by migrant Mexican 
laborers who may or may not be in the US legally.  The UFW is 
a good example of an American union trying to help address 
these issues by working with state governments on both sides 
of the US/Mexico border.  Close USG cooperation with the UFW 
and similar organizations could potentially provide 
significant benefits to both US agribusinesses and to 
unemployed or underemployed Mexican workers. 
 
 
 
 
 
Visit Mexico City's Classified Web Site at 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/mexicocity and the North American 
Partnership Blog at http://www.intelink.gov/communities/state/nap / 
GARZA