By TIM THORNBERRY
Kentucky Correspondent

WASHINGTON, D.C. — As farm labor and immigration became hot issues over the past few years, one of the last things the Bush administration did was to restructure the outdated H-2A guest worker program.

Former Labor Secretary Elaine Chow said, regarding the changes, “These reforms will improve the operation of the H-2A program for agricultural employers and help ensure that the employment of temporary foreign workers does not adversely affect U.S. workers.”

Not everyone agreed with the move. Opponents such as Farmworker Justice (FJ) said it was immoral and illegal and would set agricultural labor practices back decades. The regulation change however, was praised by groups such as the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), which felt the old program had “outlived its usefulness” in setting wages for workers. The Obama administration didn’t see it that way and set out to undo the revisions with a proposal, printed in the March 17 Federal Register, that would suspend H-2A regulations for nine months. Farm labor groups were ecstatic.

“We thank Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis for the pending suspension of the Bush H-2A regulations,” said United Farm Workers President Arturo S. Rodriguez about the decision. “These regulations represented one of the most significant steps backwards for farm workers in the past several decades.
“We look forward to reviewing the final notice in the Federal Register and welcome the opportunity to work with the Obama administration to ensure the rights of both foreign guest workers and domestic workers in agriculture are respected.”

AFBF President Bob Stallman said, “The H-2A rules that the Labor Department wants to put on hold made several improvements in the program. Farm Bureau is disappointed that the department wants to suspend these rules that allow U.S. agriculture to legally hire much-needed temporary workers.”

Now, legislation has been brought before the U.S. House and Senate to once more address concerns regarding the farm labor issue. But it will be a daunting task, as some estimates suggest more than half of the agriculture guest workers in this country are here illegally.

The Agricultural Job Opportunities, Benefits and Security (AgJOBS) Act was introduced with some bipartisanship, by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and representatives Adam Putnam (R-Fla.) and Howard Berman (D-Calif.). Other key co-sponsors included Democrat senators Edward Kennedy (Mass.), John Kerry (Mass.), Herb Kohl (Wis.) and Patrick Leahy (Vt.).

It is actually a reintroduction of similar legislation that passed the Senate in 2006.

This time supporters hope to make it the law of the land.
A press release from Feinstein’s office noted, “AgJOBS would reform the broken H-2A seasonal worker program, provide farmers with the stable, legal workforce they deserve and offer a pathway to citizenship for hard-working, law-abiding immigrants already employed on American farms.” Feinstein said the issue at hand had more to do with the economy than immigration.

“Today across the United States, there are not enough agricultural workers to pick, prune, pack or harvest our country’s crops. With an inadequate supply of workers, farmers from Maine to California, and from Washington state to Georgia, have watched their produce rot and their farms lay fallow over the years,” she said. “As a result, billions of dollars are being drained out of our already struggling economy.

“This legislation would help to ensure a consistent, reliable agriculture workforce to ensure that farmers and growers never again lose their crops because of a lack of workers. The central issue here is not immigration – it is about protecting and preserving the American economy. We in Congress should be doing everything possible to prevent U.S. farms from shutting down.”
The legislation has two parts: one would identify undocumented laborers and legalize them through a five-year pilot program, and another would reorganize the H-2A program.

According to information from Feinstein’s press office, the “new legislation has been negotiated with and is backed by both laborers and growers. Well over 200 national and state agricultural organizations have signed on in support, including Western Growers, the Dairy Farmers of America, the National Cattlemen’s’ Beef Assoc., the National Milk Producers Federation and the National Council of Agricultural Employers.”