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Farmworker Advocates Praise the Department of Labor’s New H-2A Regulations

Newsletters - Spring 2010 Newsletter

The H-2A Agricultural Guestworker Program has been the subject of much attention recently. In February, Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis announced new H-2A program regulations that took effect on March 15.

The new rules mostly reversed the very harmful changes made by the Bush-Chao Administration to wage rates, benefits and other labor protections. Farmworker Justice praised the new regulations as a
victory for our nation's farmworkers and thanked the Secretary of Labor for her commitment to farmworkers.

Agricultural employers expressed dismay over the new regulations, even though the regulations largely restored the basic procedures and worker protections that had been in place since 1987. The American Farm Bureau Federation and the North Carolina Growers Association filed a lawsuit against theDepartment of Labor in federal court in North Carolina seeking to overturn the latest revisions.

On April 9, the court rejected the growers' request for an emergency injunction to overturn the new regulations.  Farmworker Justice was one of several organizations providing legal representation
to farmworker labor unions and individual farmworkers who intervened in the case.

Interestingly, while a broad range of grower groups filed the 2009 lawsuit to stop the H-2A regulations, only the North Carolina Growers Association and the American Farm Bureau Federation brought the 2010 lawsuit. Many of the agribusiness critics view the new regulations as another reason to support a compromise in Congress on immigration, the "AgJOBS" bill and did not join the 2010 lawsuit.

Farmworker advocates have long criticized the H-2A guestworker program for its lax labor protections for both U.S. farmworkers and guestworkers. Despite the program's history of abuses, the Bush Administration's changes reduced government oversight and diminished the program's protections for farmworkers, including by cutting farmworkers wages on average by $1.00 but in many places by $2.00 per hour. Secretary Solis restored the old formulas for the wage rates and transportation cost reimbursements, the job preference for U.S. workers, the minimum work guarantee, and the oversight of employer applications. She also strengthened some of the few positive changes made in the Bush regulations, such as the requirements that farm labor contractors provide a surety bond. Solis added several new protections, including a requirement that foreign workers be informed of the job terms by the time they apply for a visa and a requirement that H-2A applications be posted on an electronic job registry so that US workers can learn about the jobs.

In 2010, the tens of thousands of U.S. workers and foreign workers employed at H-2A program employers will receive job opportunities with higher wages and benefits and government oversight as a result of Secretary Solis's action. We also appreciate the coalition effort among farmworker organizations, advocates and allies to persuade the Administration to take such action, to submit the factual materials and comments that demonstrated the need for such action, and to intervene in the lawsuits to represent the interests of farmworkers.