Landmark Lawsuit Against Department of Labor

With your Southeast Regional Ag News, I am Haylie Shipp. This is the Ag Information Network.

The Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association, represented by the Southeastern Legal Foundation, has now joined a coalition of produce growers, farmers, and State Attorneys General to bring suit against the Department of Labor challenging new rules proposed for the H-2A program.

According to a press release from the group, the new “Worker Protection Rules”, slated to go into effect in late June, will continue to make the H-2A program prohibitively expensive and exceeds authority granted to DOL all the while adding more complex regulations to the already overly complicated program.

Under a new agency rule, the Department is requiring agricultural employers to allow temporary foreign farm workers to form unions. This, according to the GFVGA, is creating a new right out of thin air that is not even granted to American farm workers. The Department claims that it has authority to do so under the Immigration Reform and Control Act.

Executive Vice President for the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association Chris Butts states, “This drastic measure by the Department of Labor will be devastating for the agricultural industry, not just in Georgia but across the nation.”