A new attempt at enacting farm labor reform has been launched in Congress with the introduction of House Resolution 4548, the Agricultural Opportunities Act.
This legislation, introduced by Rep. Richard Pombo (R-Calif.) has some of the elements of the comprehensive AgJobs bill introduced earlier in this Congressional session. These elements include an automated worker registry designed to expedite and simplify the current worker recruitment and certification process. It would also replace the current adverse effect wage rate with a prevailing wage rate.
The new element of this bill is the proposed creation of a new classification of guest worker. At present, agricultural workers enter the country classified as H-2A workers. However, farm employers believe this program is too complex and expensive to administer and is unable to admit a sufficient number of employees annually (around 30,000). Employers also believe the program sets unrealistic wage and benefit standards that they cannot afford.
The new bill proposed the creation of a new classification of foreign guest worker, the H-2C employee. This new category would cover foreign agricultural workers and would be initially launched with a program that would be phased in over three years.
Both the AgJobs bill and HR 4548 would help ease the current farm labor crisis and improve conditions for workers, according to James Holt, agricultural economist and advisor on labor and immigration matters to the National Council of Agricultural Employers.
“They will enable farmers access to needed foreign labor in a timely and efficient manner while protecting access of domestic farm workers to U.S. agricultural jobs and protecting and improving the wages and working conditions of both domestic and foreign workers who work in U.S. agriculture,” said Holt in June 15 testimony to the House Subcommittee on Irrigation and Claims.
The bill would create a computerized worker registry administered by the U.S. Department of Labor. Workers who are legally entitled to be in the U.S. and who are interested in farm labor would register and provide more specific information about their skills and the kinds of jobs they seek. Employers would also list their job opportunities on the registry. These H-2C aliens would be hired only if an insufficient number of American citizens were available for farm labor.
Backers of the reform legislation say this procedure would match workers with jobs in a much timelier fashion than the current H-2A process. The registry is also set up to assure that all workers listed are legally available to work in the U.S.
Workers under H-2C would be paid at least 5% above the prevailing wage rate or at an amount equal to the average field and livestock worker in the state or region where the job is located. Improved housing would be another result of the program, said Holt. Workers in the program would have to be provided either with housing or a monetary housing allowance. During the three-year transition period, employers would be allowed to provide the allowance in lieu of on-site housing.
The Farmworker Justice Fund, Inc. has criticized the new legislation on a number of fronts. Holt answered some of these concerns in his Congressional testimony.
The farmworker advocates stated that “no positive recruitment or Job Service circulation of job offers would be required by the Pombo bill.” The new jobs registry created by the bill would answer all those concerns, said Holt.
Critics charge the reforms do not provide any minimum work guarantees. This refers to changes in the current H-2A “three-quarters guarantee” that requires employers to predict more than 45 days in advance of the date work begins exactly how long the job will last and thus guarantee workers be paid for at least three-quarters of that period. The reform bill guarantees workers access to employment and that they will not be unlawfully terminated while there is work available.
The activist group further charges that farmworker wages have been driven down “in real terms” during the last decade, partly because of guest workers and undocumented workers. Not so, says Holt.
“Average hourly earnings of non-supervisory field and livestock workers (as reported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture) have risen faster in dollar terms and declined less in real terms than non-supervisory non-agricultural production workers (as determined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics) over the past decade,” he said.
