Sen. Chambliss withdraws anti-farm worker amendment from Minimum wage bill!
01/31/2007
Thank you all for your work opposing the Chambliss farm worker wage amendment to the minimum wage bill. Following Sen. Chambliss' withdrawal of the amendment, Sens. Kennedy, Feinstein and Craig all spoke about the need for AgJOBS. Your support in opposing the amendment helped bring about this result. Also, Senator Kennedy offered a second-degree amendment that would have removed any reference to the H-2A program (thereby imposing on growers the obligation to pay the higher of the federal minimum wage or a prevailing wage rate to all farm workers, without amending the H-2A program wage rate requirements), which may have helped in contributing to Sen. Chambliss's withdrawal of his amendment. Further, it became clear that Sen. Chambliss should not have attempted to amend immigration law through the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and these pressures may ultimately have caused him to withdraw his amendment. We can expect to see more such amendments from Sen. Chambliss in the future.He has referenced to the upcoming immigration debates and indicated that he will be offering similar amendments. When this time comes we will again ask for your help in fighting Sen. Chambliss' efforts to undermine farm worker rights and your support in passing AgJOBS.
