A federal judge in Georgia on Aug. 26 blocked a federal rule allowing migrant farmworkers to join unions in 17 states. The ruling prevents the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) from enforcing the new rule. The rule would have prevented agricultural employers from retaliating against migrant workers with H-2A temporary work visas for joining labor unions and organizing against wage theft, trafficking and other abuses.
The rule, officially called “Improving Protections for Workers in Temporary Agricultural Employment in the United States,” was issued by the Labor Department in April but did not go into effect until June.
U.S. District Judge Lisa Godbey Wood sided with the states in a lawsuit against the DOL. The judge granted a preliminary injunction and ruled the regulation would unconstitutionally give foreign agricultural workers rights that Congress never intended to provide.
Wood found that the rule violates the National Labor Relations Act, a federal law that allows certain employees to unionize. Agricultural laborers are explicitly excluded from the law’s definition of “employee” and are not entitled to collective bargaining rights, the judge said. “By implementing the final rule, the DOL has exceeded the general authority constitutionally afforded to agencies,” Wood wrote.
The ruling comes after a lawsuit filed in June by attorneys general of Kansas, Georgia, South Carolina, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. A Georgia farm, Miles Berry Farm, and the Georgia Fruit & Vegetable Growers Association also joined the suit.
Wood considered, but ultimately denied, the states’ request to bar enforcement of the rule nationwide. Finding that “complete relief” was possible for the plaintiff states without a nationwide injunction, Wood rejected arguments that allowing union-like rights for H-2A workers in other states would unfairly drive labor away from the states involved in the lawsuit.
“National uniformity is not a proper consideration for issuing a nationwide injunction,” Wood ruled.
The injunction also applies specifically to Miles Berry Farm and the Georgia Fruit & Vegetable Growers Association. Wood ruled both plaintiffs would suffer “irreparable financial harm” under the rule.
Source: Courthouse News Service
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