H2A Reform Needed
From the Ag Information Network, this is today’s Fruit Grower Report. Ag-employers have been calling for changes to the H-2A foreign guestworker visa program for years, with few results.
Enrique Gastelum, CEO at WAFLA, the Worker and Farmer Labor Association, says there are three big challenges that need addressed, and the first is the skyrocketing Adverse Effect Wage Rate …
GASTELUM … “We need a change to the methodology to get this cost under control. You know, when farmers are paying 70% of their costs of operations are just to labor and you have H-2A related to it, that’s kind of, I would say, the number one fix that we need to see.”
Next, Gastelum says hits them where they live …
GASTELUM … “Second fix we need to see is somethings got to break the farmers way related to the cost of housing. This is one of the only foreign guestworker programs where the employer is on the hook for paying 100% of the workers living situation.”
Which is not cheap …
GASTELUM … “So, stack that on top of an AEWR, now you’re at $24-$26 bucks an hour before you even get any fruit harvested or work done.”
And finally, Gastelum says are the non-seasonal ag workers …
GASTELUM … “Yes, there’s complexities of the program to it, but I would say the third is the reality of year-round ag like dairies and ranching, and stuff like that, it is struggling for labor too and we’ve got to give them a way to access this program.”
Recent progress from the administration, Gastelum says gives him hope that change is coming.
