A Labor Department rule issued this spring to protect farmworkers is unconstitutional because it gives farmworkers collective bargaining rights, a federal judge in Georgia ruled Monday, enjoining enforcement of the rule in 17 states.
U.S. District Judge Lisa Godbey Wood declined to issue a nationwide injunction, instead tailoring it to apply to the states that brought the complaint and their fellow plaintiffs, Miles Berry Farm in Baxley, Georgia, and the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association.
The rule conflicts with the National Labor Relations Act and is thus unconstitutional, Godbey said in her ruling, which prevents the Labor Department from enforcing the regulations in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Louisiana, Arkansas, Kansas, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, , Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.
The April rule specifies that H-2A employers cannot retaliate against any H-2A visa-holder who has "engaged in activities related to self-organization, including any effort to form, join, or assist a labor organization; or has engaged in other concerted activities for the purpose of mutual aid or protection relating to wages or working conditions; or has refused to engage in any or all of such activities.”
The government had argued that the final rule was different from the NLRA because it “does not require H-2A employers to recognize labor organizations or to engage in any collective bargaining activities.”
“Point taken,” the judge said. “But that is not the issue. The issue … is whether the final rule creates a right not previously bestowed by Congress. The court finds it does so. Regardless of the terminology used in the final rule — be it collective bargaining or otherwise — the final rule provides for agricultural workers’ right to participate in concerted activity to further their interests. That is a right that Congress has not created by statute.”
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“The court finds that, by implementing the final rule, the [department] has exceeded the general authority constitutionally afforded to agencies. ‘Agencies may play the sorcerer’s apprentice but not the sorcerer himself,’” she said, quoting a 2001 Supreme Court decision. “The final rule is an attempt by the DOL to play the sorcerer. The DOL may assist Congress, but may not become Congress.”
The plaintiffs met other requirements for issuing a preliminary injunction: They are both likely to succeed and have demonstrated that they will suffer irreparable harm, the judge found.
“This decision validates our belief that the latest set of rules proposed by the Department of Labor go far beyond the authority granted by Congress,” said Chris Butts, executive vice president for the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association.
Braden Boucek, vice president of litigation at Southeastern Legal Foundation, which represented the Georgia clients, said, “The decision recognizes that no matter how much the White House tries, it cannot simply ignore federal law or rewrite laws all on its own. Separation of powers protects everyone, especially America’s food producers, from an overreaching executive branch.”
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