AEWR Upheld
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson with today’s Fruit Grower Report. A federal judge denied a United Farm Workers’ request to temporarily block the Trump administration’s revised wage rule for H-2A workers.
The UFW argued the rule could reduce wages and harm workers, but Michelle Grainger, with the Ag Wage Rate Coalition, says that’s not the case …
GRAINGER … “We worked very hard to clearly debunk that, and to state that we did not see irreparable harm being the case, because again this is a highly regulated program, and the level of standards and inspections and requirements required to participate in the program from an employer as well as an employee were not changing, this was only about wage rate,.”
A U.S. District Court in California ruled the plaintiffs failed to demonstrate irreparable harm, and claims were largely speculative.
Grainger says their survey asked farmers if the new AEWR impacted the number of returning farmworkers …
GRAINGER … “Every single person that I sent this quick question out to has already responded to me, saying absolutely not the case at all. Matter of fact, all of our workers have returned this year that we had last year, and I had several respondents further go on to say many of our workers have requested that family members be added to our waitlist for consideration to add to our operation’s workforce.”
The judge didn’t has yet to rule on the broader merits of the lawsuit.
