Mr. Speaker. I am pleased that the 97th Congress is finally acting to pass H.R. 7102. the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act (AWPA) which replaces the Farm Labor Contractor Registration Act (FLCRA). If President Reagan signs this bill it will be by far the biggest step he has taken to enlarge and protect the rights of working Americans. rights Mr. Reagans administration has often seemed to ignore or disdain. I am a cosponsor of AWPA and. as one who has worked to insure decent working conditions for agricultural workers. particularly migrants. for many years. I know how desperately this law is needed. As chairman of the House Agricultural Labor Subcommittee during the midseventies. I learned firsthand that the housing. transportation. pay and working conditions of hundreds of thousands of farmworkers are grossly substandard. indeed. are a blot on the good name of our Nation. H.R. 7102 offers a hope to correct many of the worst abuses which migrant and seasonal farmworkers are forced to suffer. For the first time. agricultural employees will. under Federal law. have a right to statutory damages from their employer if he furnishes unsafe housing or transportation. fails to give them itemized information concerning their pay and amounts withheld from it for taxes. or refuses to disclose in advance the wages. hours and working conditions under which the employees will work.
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migrant migrants Migrant