The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) and the National Council of Agricultural Employers (NCAE) have harshly criticized the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) recently announced H-2A farmworker protection rule.
An AFBF statement declared that the rule “mires farm families in excessive compliance costs while disregarding privacy concerns for farmers and their employees. With this addition, DOL sets itself apart as the agency most committed to burying farmers and other H-2A employers in a mountain of regulations.”
AFBF President Zippy Duvall said farmers appreciate farmworkers. “We wholeheartedly support clamping down on labor abuses, but this rule instead assumes all farmers are guilty until proven innocent, and that’s not right,” Duvall said. “With this 600-page rule, the Department of Labor has issued a stunning 3,000 pages of new regulations in just 18 months, which farmers are somehow supposed to navigate. Impossible.”
“This offensive rule was developed in complete bad faith and should be immediately withdrawn,” said NCAE President and Chief Executive Officer Michael Marsh. “This regulation should never have been allowed to see the light of day. To suggest this regulation somehow protects farmworkers is a bad joke, and its punchline is its lasting damage to farmworkers and the American farm and ranch families who employ them. The department here seeks to make an undisguised end run around the Congress, the Supreme Court and the Constitution of the United States of America.”
An NCAE statement added that “this rule puts workers, who had enjoyed a brief respite from organizers’ constant coercion, threats, harassment, misrepresentation, deceit and bullying, at further jeopardy from union activists … Throughout this regulatory process the department has used demoralizing, pejorative language to cast shade falsely and disrespectfully at farmers and ranchers who are forced to use the H-2A program for workers who are ready, willing and available to help us.”
NCAE stated that DOL data indicates that 5% of agricultural employers account for 95% of the violations uncovered in investigations. “This rule ignores that reality,” NCAE stated. “Rather than engage constructively with employers who are eager to make the H-2A program work well and safely to reduce violations further, the department chose to treat all agricultural employers as malicious actors, demoralizing the farm and ranch families who work each day to ensure Americans have food on the table.”
Sources: AFBF and NCAE
Share this Post
Sponsored Content