The exercise of the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association in the workplace 2016, para. 30
Paragraph
Paragraph text
Every year the United States has more than 100,000 guest workers on temporary H-2 work visas in sectors like landscaping, construction, seafood processing and agriculture. Although they are documented migrants, guest workers report being cheated of their wages, threatened with guns, beaten, raped, starved and imprisoned. Some have died on the job. The link between the visa and employer provides a coercive element: workers who complain about working conditions can be fired, and must leave the country or face deportation. This contingent relationship quells workers' efforts to exercise freedom of association and assembly. Workers who attempt to exercise their rights are often blacklisted by employers, who use the threat of denied future work opportunities to silence workers.
Legal status
Non-negotiated soft law
Body
Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association
Document type
Special Procedures' report
Means of adoption
N.A.
Topic(s)
Economic Rights
Governance & Rule of Law
Movement
Person(s) affected
Persons on the move
Year
2016
Paragraph type
Other
Reference
SR Freedom of Assembly, Report to the UNGA (2016), A/71/385, para. 30.