Trump admin looks to cut farmworker pay to help industry during pandemic: report

[Judi Lynn]

Source: The Hill


BY BROOKE SEIPEL - 04/10/20 09:16 PM EDT

The Trump administration is reportedly working on plans to reduce the wages of foreign workers on U.S. farms, a move they think would help farmers facing economic uncertainty during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report by NPR.

Farmers have struggled during the pandemic, as schools, restaurants and other businesses that buy their products close. The blow from the pandemic follows economic hardship for some farmers already created by the tariff war with China.

According to NPR, President Trump's new White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows has been working with Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to consider a policy reducing pay for foreign guest workers. Those workers, on the H-2A seasonal guest-worker program, make up about 10 percent of farm laborers.

"The administration is considering all policy options during this unprecedented crisis to ensure our great farmers are protected, and President Trump has done and will do everything he can to support their vital mission," a White House official told NPR.

Read more: https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/492320-trump-admin-looks-to-cut-farmworker-pay-to-help-industry-during-pandemic

[sakabatou]

1. It was only a matter of time before Trump would stab them in the back

[iluvtennis]

2. they want to reduce pay for the foreign guest workers...to increase profit for farm owners.

[DENVERPOPS]

8. Trump has to try to do something to cover up

for all the U.S. farmers that he drove into bankruptcy with his Chinese tariffs......

Hell, why doesn't he just release all the so called illegal immigrants he has imprisoned, and auction them off to the farmers......
oh, wait, then the private prison industry would be out 800 bucks a day for keeping each of them in their gulags........

[iluvtennis]

13. + 1 nt.

[pandr32]

3. This is a horrible idea

Why not just enslave them and have them work for their food scraps and sleeping mat? This is what the GOP wouldn't mind. They all feel so superior and entitled.

[iluvtennis]

14. Ditto. nt

[olddad65]

21. Trumputin is a horrible excuse for a excuse for a human being.

[LiberalFighter]

4. Wouldn't the workers decide why bother? And then farmers would have fewer workers?

[Dan]

5. Damn,, I don't understand

First you deport a bunch of workers that may have crossed over from the southern border illegally, of course, maybe something that has been going on for a long time. Now, these same illegal workers worked on the farms for low pay. Considering that a lot of the farmers voted for Trump had to have known that his policies would impact their work force.

So, now these farm workers H-2A seasonal workers - that I assume are legal have to have their pay cut, not because they are making too much, but because we want the farmers to retain more.

That damn supply and demand - just doesn't work when it interferes with the owners profit.

Why not just get rid of the H-2A seasonal workers and let the MEGA workers work at the farms and take over the jobs that the illegals were wrongfully taking from them. And that way, the farmers can pay the MEGA workers this new wage that they want to pay, and they don't have to shaft the H-2A seasonal workers.

Everybody happy now!

[gab13by13]

6. How many of those H-2A people work at Trump properties?

Like the vineyard in Virginia.

[Bengus81]

30. Most of those foreign workers at Trump's properties were Illegal,not H2 workers

These people are not here working illegally,tell Trump to go FUCK himself. Where the HELL does this end?

[denbot]

7. Why the hell do these assholes still shock me!

They all dream of the antebellum south, as the model of making America great again.

[iluvtennis]

15. + 1. nt

[Journeyman]

9. But if schools, restaurants, etc stop buying, the people they fed will still need to eat . . .

so the farmers won't lose out, they'll just need to distribute their food in a slightly different way.

This plague has unleashed all sorts of evil on the earth, much of it just exceptionally greedy people looking to profit off other's misery.

[Lock him up.]

20. That "stable-genius" idea obviously comes from the orangevirus who...

... successfully bankrupted 4 casinos, one airline business and one steak-delivery corp.

Orangevirus still thinks he's the best businessman that ever walked the face of the earth...

[riversedge]

34. I thought the same. People need to eat--no matter where. I would think the

volume would be about the same.

[Nacht Owl]

10. Industry, not Labor

Trump's going to back the bosses over the workers every time.

[h2ebits]

11. SLAVERY ANYONE?

[NoRoadUntravelled]

12. Typical tRump

At the worst possible time he wants to take more from those who have little to begin with.

[iluvtennis]

16. Yep. nt

[BlueIdaho]

17. And when the farm workers don't show up at harvest time?

Then what? Slave labor?

[TeamPooka]

18. Way to drive away 10% of the farm labor force. Crops will be rotting in the fields.

that won't be good for Big Ag profits either.

[gab13by13]

24. No problemo, Trump just gives them billions more.

[Bayard]

19. These people already work for peanuts

[mpcamb]

26. And with minimal limits on hours/week and no overtime.

It's just red meat for his followers and a poke in the eye to Dems,
like opening up wildlife refuges to hunting and oil drilling.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

22. Someone please inform me. How is it this tRump's decision to make?

One would think that in the GOP's free market world, that decision would be up to the farmers who pay those wages, based on the market and their competition.

Is this simply changing a minimum wage they are required to pay these workers?

I guess I just don't understand the GOP underworld............

[Scarsdale]

23. Cut the wages and benefits

of EVERY gop member, since they are doing NOTHING that is helpful with this disaster. They do not need an army of "aides". If Stephanie Grisham makes $138,000 a year (plus benefits) for not doing her job, what are the rest of them making? Overpaid flunkies do not deserve large paychecks.

[Firestorm49]

25. Another brilliant move.

Now, in addition to farmers dumping tons of milk down the drain because the market is restrained, we can have food rotting in the fields because we don’t want to pay those willing to work for peanuts to receive even fewer peanuts.

This country, under Republican so called leadership, has no clue other than how they can enrich themselves at someone else's expense.

[C_U_L8R]

27. The inhumanity of Trumps greed.

Absolutely depraved.

[Leghorn21]

28. Why not just get a bunch of healthy young people from the camps?

Been waiting for that to happen, maybe this is the perfect time

[Hotler]

29. Watch them push this as a trend.

All businesses will use the pandemic to cut wages. and those wages will not go back up.

[KPN]

31. I'm tired of these greedy bastards and our seeming inability to do much about them. Here we are

with nearly half of all Americans amped up about the need to build a wall by these fuckers and they turn around and want to make bringing in foreign workers legally as cheap -- if not cheaper than hiring "illegal" immigrants.

They don't give one fuck about American workers. Workers are disposable tools to these assholes. The blatant hypocrisy is mind numbing as is the stupidity of far too many Americans who accept, defend or even applaud this stuff. When the fuck are people going to wake up?

Illegitimate immigrants aren't the enemy, they -- tRump and the GOP -- are. Labor isn't the enemy, they are. Socialism isn't the enemy, they are.

[Chainfire]

32. Trump's idea

of recruiting critical workers I guess. The beatings will stop when the production increases.

[stillcool]

33. hmm...come to think of it..

what about all those kids, home from school. Why not farm them out to the farm? They can work from sun-up to sunset...and you can pay them pennies on the dollar.