North Carolina firms plan to legally hire some 8,000 undocumented Mexican farm workers and grant them full labor benefits, it was announced Monday. The CEO of the U.S.-based Farm Labor Organizing Committee, Baldemar Velásquez, explained in Mexico that several labor organizations and two North Carolina agribusinesses had signed an agreement on Sept. 16 to that end.
Velázquez said the agreement will initially allow some 8,000 Mexican farm workers to obtain U.S. work permits, and that number will increase by 1,000 each year.
Workers will be paid a minimum hourly wage of US8.60 much more than is usually paid in the immigrant labor market and will provide health and accident insurance.
