Fordham Law Professor Jennifer Gordon, employment and labor law expert, is quoted in a Bloomberg Law article describing a newly proposed rule from the US Department of Labor.
“What that does is open up a window within which the Department of Labor could act,” said Jennifer Gordon, a professor at Fordham University School of Law who focuses on labor and migration issues. “The fact that H-2A workers are not covered by the National Labor Relations Act doesn’t mean they’re not allowed to have those protections; it means Congress hasn’t said anything about those protections.”
Fourteen states including California, Washington, and Arizona have adopted laws guaranteeing the right of farmworkers to bargain collectively.
The DOL proposal stops short of providing full collective bargaining rights to H-2A workers, Gordon said.
“What they’ve done is said, look employers, you can’t do these things that would stop H-2A workers from coming forward to defend the rights they have by law,” she said.
Read “Worker ‘Self-Advocacy’ Key to Labor Department’s H-2A Proposal” in Bloomberg Law.