<b>By TIM THORNBERRY<br>
Kentucky Correspondent</b> </p><p>

WASHINGTON, D.C. — As spring planting nears, many farmers are once again facing the problems of labor shortages and the red tape involved in obtaining foreign workers legally.<br>
Last week the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Employment and Training Administration (ETA), along with the Employment Standards Administration (ESA), proposed rules to modernize the H-2A program for employing those foreign workers in temporary or seasonal agricultural jobs. The H-2A program enables employers who anticipate a shortage of U.S. laborers to apply for nonimmigrant alien workers, for a maximum of 10 months. The proposed changes would be the first for the system in more than 20 years.<br>
“This issue must be addressed now, or our country will see eroding competitiveness in its agricultural sector, crops being left to rot in the fields and increasing shifting of domestic food production to overseas,” said Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao. “These proposed changes to the H-2A program will provide farmers with an orderly and timely flow of legal workers and increase protections for both U.S. and foreign workers.”<br>
The proposals follow a review of the program by the DOL, identifying practices that have contributed to making the program difficult to use. The number of legal workers using the program, approximately 75,000, pales in comparison to the number of illegal immigrant workers on America’s farms, estimated between 600,000-800,000. Some of the changes proposed in a release by the DOL include wage revisions, the reduction of duplicate paperwork on the state level, lengthening the required time in which employers must first locate U.S. workers for their labor needs and stiffer penalties for employers who don’t follow the rules.<br>
“The methodology for calculating wages for H-2A workers would be revised to better reflect wages by locality, occupation and skill level. More precisely tailoring H-2A wages to the condition of local labor markets will better protect the wages and working conditions of U.S. workers,” stated the report.<br>
“The updates in the current effort include reducing duplication of government effort by requiring employers to file H-2A applications directly with the department’s Employment and Training Administration rather than file with state agencies. To improve protections for domestic workers, changes are proposed that would increase the length of time employers would be required to recruit for domestic workers before they are permitted to apply for H-2A workers.<br>
“Additionally, new tools and enhanced penalties to ensure employer compliance with the H-2A program are being proposed. Those enhanced tools would include audits, revocation of certifications, increased debarment authority and substantial increases in fines, up to $100,000 for violations resulting in serious injury or death of a worker. The proposal also mentions plans to build out an Internet-based system in the future.”<br>
In a statement by USDA Deputy Secretary Chuck Conner regarding the revisions, he said the proposals “will go a long way towards ensuring that America’s farmers will have a stable, legal workforce they can count on at harvest time. Unfortunately, those farmers who do participate in the current H-2A program and meet all of its requirements still run the risk that, because of bureaucratic delays beyond their control, they won’t have a legal workforce in place when they need it.”<br>
Conner also said, “The changes will streamline and simplify the program. Yet, they will also provide new protections to U.S. workers by assuring them wider opportunities to learn about farm labor jobs that are available in their area. By utilizing the Department of Labor’s Occupations Employment Survey data, we will get more graduated and finely-tuned wage data.<br>
“The data will be linked to specific job categories and descriptions and should allow us to bring H-2A wage rates much closer to actual prevailing wages. I also believe farmers will welcome the new attestation approach to certifying their need for foreign workers.
“We are also requiring them to keep records on hand for five years to prove that they did, in fact, comply with all the requirements of the law. We are making them subject to audits to confirm that they have, in fact, been doing the right thing,” he said.<br>
Farm labor advocates have been quick to condemn the proposals, saying it will cut wages and reduce the protection of immigrant labor. In a statement from Farmworker Justice, a nonprofit organization advocating for migrant and seasonal farm workers, Executive Director Bruce Goldstein said, “Farm workers face the most devastating policy changes since the end of the abusive Bracero program in the early 1960s. The White House and Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao are heartlessly slashing wage rates and removing labor protections for United States agricultural workers.<br>
“The administration is encouraging agricultural employers to hire cheap foreign labor, thus lowering the wages for all U.S. workers. Employers should offer wage rates based on America’s labor standards, not those of developing nations.”<br>
The Bracero program was initiated between the U.S. and Mexico in 1942 to bring impoverished Mexicans here to work in the agricultural industry.<br>
A statement on the United Farm Workers’ website noted that while revision of the program sounds good, “look a little closer and you will discover that instead of fixing the problem, this so-called reform is nothing more than a gutting of existing protections for both domestic and foreign workers.<br>
“The proposed plan to the H2-A/guest worker program is simply unacceptable. This so-called ‘overhaul’ of the nation’s agricultural guest worker program will result in lower wages and worsen conditions for farm workers that are already unacceptable.”<br>
A 45-day period for public comment will begin once the proposed regulation is published in the Federal Register, which is the official daily publication for rules.<br>