(washington dc) The United Farm Workers (UFW) and Farmworker Justice are very disappointed that thousands of vulnerable farm workers in the United States will suffer lower wages, lost benefits, and reduced enforcement of their labor rights due to a federal court’s decision reinstating the Bush Administration’s illegal and harsh changes to the agricultural guest worker program. The midnight regulations changes by the Bush Administration and then-Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao allow agricultural employers – with the approval of the U.S. government − to exploit the vulnerability and poverty of foreign citizens who work hard on our nation’s farms to put food on our tables.
Current Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis made the right decision, the moral decision, and the completely lawful decision in a public process to suspend the Bush Administration rules which lowered wages and worker protections for our nation’s farm workers and reinstate the regulations that had been in place previously.
The Bush Administration issued the new guest worker regulations on December 18, 2008 and made them effective January 17, 2009. Secretary Solis on March 17, 2009 published in the Federal Register a proposal to temporarily suspend the H-2A regulations, reinstate the regulations that had been in place, and begin drafting new regulations for later publication. The public was given an opportunity to comment on the proposed suspension within ten days. On May 29, the Secretary announced her decision to suspend the Bush-Chao regulation temporarily until the regulations could be rewritten. Agricultural employer groups sued Secretary Solis over this decision in federal court in the Middle District of North Carolina in Greensboro. On June 29, the day the suspension took effect, U.S. federal judge William Osteen, Jr., entered a preliminary injunction, declaring that Secretary Solis could not suspend the Bush-Chao regulations and reinstating the former regulations. He said that the Administrative Procedure Act had not been followed. The consequence is that agricultural employers who apply for H-2A guest workers will continue to be able to offer the lower wage rates and other lower benefits. For example, in North Carolina, many farm workers under the H-2A program are being paid $7.25 per hour or $8.10 per hour, instead of the $9.34 per hour that would be required under the former H-2A regulations.
We urge the Secretary of Labor Solis and the Department of Labor to appeal this decision immediately. The United Farm Workers, represented by Farmworker Justice, Florida Legal Services and Robert Willis of North Carolina, intervened in the case and intends to continue to advocate for farm workers’ interests in the case.
The UFW and Farmworker Justice continue to challenge the Bush-Chao wage system, which is in place presently, in a lawsuit in federal court in Washington, D.C.