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HIGH LEVEL ECONOMIC DIALOGUE - INITIATIVE FACT SHEETS
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Temporary Workers: Factsheet |
A migrant workforce with the skills important for success in the global economy and protection to respect their dignity enhances the future success and competitiveness of our region. Since the 1942 Bracero program, several visa programs to add foreign temporary workers, including Mexican workers, have been used to temporarily supplement the U.S labor force including the H-2A and H-2B visa programs for foreign agricultural and non-agricultural workers.
Several non-governmental organizations on both sides of the border have described abuses and violations of human and labor rights to which many workers with H-2 visas are subjected either by employers or recruiters; such as retention of salaries, and false job vacancies. Intimidations and threats are common practice for some recruiters which harm the community of migrant workers.
For this reason, Mexico and the United States have committed to fostering initiatives to improve conditions for thousands of Mexicans who currently work in the United States. On July 30, 2014 Secretary Navarrete Prida and the Governor of California Edmund G. Brown signed a joint letter of intent to cooperate in the creation of a pilot program for recruiters of migrant workers, a voluntary program that helps to avoid abuses during the recruitment process of Mexican workers with H2 visas in the state of California.
The main objective of this pilot program is to have a recruiters’ registry in Mexico to ensure that temporary workers have all the necessary information about recruiters as well as to encourage California companies employing Mexican workers to hire the services of those approved recruiters.
Additionally, on April 3, 2014, U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez and Mexican Secretary of Labor and Social Welfare Alfonso Navarrete Prida signed a Joint Ministerial Declaration in order carry out consultations within the framework of the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation (NAALC; a bilateral agreement between the U.S. and Mexico) with the purpose of informing Mexican temporary workers and their employers about their labor rights and responsibilities under U.S. law.
With the HLED, we prosper together.
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