Should immigrant guest workers have whistleblower protection? Consider this: There are approximately 24 million U.S. workers in the "low-skilled" temporary economy, in farm fields, in hotels, in restaurants, on construction sites, and in landscaping. There are also some 66,000 "guest workers," immigrants with temporary H-2B visas, who also participate in this sector of the economy. Here is one of their stories: Mirna Elizabeth Pacha Batz traveled to the United States from Guatemala, and became a seafood-processing guest worker. At the top of the supply chain was Costco, known for its fair and generous employment practices. But Mirna's temp agency paid less than minimum wages for long hours. Verbal abuse was common, and at one point, a supervisor began sexually harassing Mirna and the other women on the line.

"He rubbed up against us, touched us everywhere, said horrible things about what he wanted to do to us. I was angry and afraid. I said, "Noyou can't do this to me." I told him I had a husband and a child. I told him to respect me and the other women. But he wouldn't stop. ... He knew that [we] would stay silent because he threatened to fire [us] if [we] spoke up."

When Mirna and the other women complained, the company refused to punish the harasser, and ultimately fired the women.

In February 2016, President Obama signed a law banning the import of goods produced by slave labor.*But there is no comparable law prohibiting companies like Costco and Walmart from selling goods processed by vulnerable workers who have been exploited in the United States. As Mirna Batz puts it, "Those companies talk about their high standards, but when workers like us stand up against abuse, we face retaliation and the big companies turn a blind eye."

Questions:

(a) Who are the stakeholders in this situation?

(b) What are the stakeholders' interests?

(c) What would be their arguments, pro, and con, regarding whistleblower protection for

guest workers?

(d) Mirna and the other fired guest workers filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board about their retaliatory firing. What result?