Product DescriptionWinner of the Grand Jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival, H2 WORKER reveals the systematic exploitation of Caribbean laborers by the Florida sugar industry from World War II through the 1990s. Each year more than 10,000 foreign workers were granted temporary guest worker ("H-2") visas to spend six brutal months cutting sugar cane near Lake Okeechobee. They were housed in overcrowded barracks, denied adequate treatment for frequent on-the-job injuries, and paid less than minimum wage. Faced with deportation and soaring unemployment in their home countries, workers had little recourse but to silently accept these humiliating conditions.Clandestinely filmed in the cane fields and around the workers' barracks, H-2 WORKER exposes this travesty of justice, which remained a well-kept secret for decades.Originally released in 1990, today H-2 WORKER provides an invaluable resource to understanding current debate over guest worker provisions of immigration legislation. While Florida's sugar cane cutters have been replaced by mechanical harvesters, guest worker programs have expanded in agriculture, hotel, restaurant, forestry, and other industries. H-2 WORKER illuminates how our foreign worker program continues to benefit employers at the expense of vulnerable, underpaid workers.Special FeaturesUpdate on the Guest Worker ProgramFilmmaker audio commentaryShort Film: More Than LuckTrailer: Life and DebtSpanish Subtitles
A**R
I am very happy I got see what he might have went through
This movie meant a lot to me because my father left on a farm work program during the same time that this documentary was made, to cut cane in Flordia. He never returned , and no one knows what happen to him. So I was doing some research and came up on this movie. I am very happy I got see what he might have went through, when he use to return with boxes of food and pretty clothes. I have more of a respect for all the men and woman who leave Jamaica to work overseas to feed their family.
P**E
H-2 Worker DVD
a very good, intense movie. It arrived within the posted times and was in good condition. I would suggest this movie to everyone!
S**K
H2 Worker
Every bit as good as Harvest Of Shame and a real eye opener to the fact that the conditions that existed at the time Harvest Of Shame was filmed have not really changed that much.
R**)
Wecome To Seigfeid & Roy's Casino Capitalism
In 1992, a class suit found five sugar cane companies guilty of cheating more than 10,000[many countless more, but no written proof] cane workers of their contracted minimum wages during two seasons DOCUMENTED IN THIS FILM. $51,000,000.00 dollars in back pay was rewarded to the Caribbean workers. This was reversed by the Florida Appellate Court[a subsidary of the Florida Cane Industry] finding the H-2 contract "ambigious"[favored workers]. Once these lawsuits and public scrutiny mandated fair wages for workers, sugar cane companies switched to mechanical harvesting. Today, all surger cane in Florida is harvested by machine, however, the number of H-2 workers coming into the U.S. has substantially incresed. The pay has decreased, howerver, to "slave wages". Slaves long ago actually lived on their work. Slavery then ended when it became cheaper to pay "slave wages"[industrial revolution] then to house & feed them as before. Despite a "cap" of 66,00 H-2B workers over 254,000 H-2B workers were certified[some are above the law]for employment by the Dept. of labor. The H-2A program, which covers agriculture, HAS NO LIMIT ON THE NUMBER OF WORKERS. An underground market for "slave wages" was created with the temporary work visas issued essentially "free" by the U.S. Govt. There are now "labor brokers" that apply as employers to import "slave wage" workers, then shop them around from industry to industry. So now, the "industry", will no longer be the ones "officially" unaccountable to the workers, it will be the unaccountable "labor brokers". When it comes time to pay they... "disappear"... to shop around for more... "worker fodder". This DVD is anexcellent account of today's "precarious worker class" in a unregulated globalized casino capitalism that has usurped global, national, & local political capital.. (PLEASE DO NOT FORGET TO WATCH THE EXTRA 19 minute ubdate.) THIS IS AN OPENER! DON'T MISS IT! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED !!!!!
B**Z
Excellent film.....
A great film documenting the everyday lives of the annual Jamaican "guest-workers" who have come over to work cutting sugar cane in Florida. 10,000 men are brought in every year to spend six brutal months cutting sugar cane around the Lake Okeechobee area. The film shows the exploitation of the Jamaican workers who get paid pennies for their work. It shows the terrible working conditions, long hours, inadequate accomodation and the total injustice to the workers who seem to be stuck in a never ending cycle of pain and humiliation just to survive.The workers struggle to get proper medical treatment for onsite injuries which are a regular thing when working with machete's all day long.This documentary does a great job in exposing this inhumane treatment of the Jamaican sugar cane workers which has been a secret for so long.'H-2 Worker' named after the H-2 guest-worker Visa's they must obtain is a great film well worth watching this one.
A**R
Powerful film and has a great soundtrack.
Although this film was originally released years ago, its relevance today is profound. The H-2 program has expanded to over 200,000 workers in the US annually. This documentary clarifies why employees would prefer to have workers who have no legal rights to be here unless employed by that employee. Its well edited, well shot and has a great soundtrack.
T**R
A fantastic documentary, finally available on DVD
H2 Worker is a powerful documentary about sugar cane harvesting in Florida, America's flawed and abusive guest worker program and the Jamaican laborers it exploits who come every season hoping to make enough money to provide for their wives, children and families. This is an artfully crafted film, beautifully shot and fluidly edited. Very few films - documentary or narrative - use music so well. Now that H2 Worker is available on DVD you shouldn't pass up the chance to see it.
