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Shining Light on Farm & Food Policy for 20 Years.
Thursday, December 19, 2024
A court has rejected a challenge by agricultural employers to the Labor Department’s 2022 H-2A rule, finding that the department properly followed notice-and-comment procedures.
In response to stories of abuse from sheep herders who come to the western United States on H-2A visas, an advocacy nonprofit and two public interest law firms have filed suit against Western Range Association. Western Range Association perceives, however, that that the "filing of this lawsuit and the timing, may be an attempt to utilize the press to gain a litigation advantage in another pending matter.”
With public comment now closed, around 100 advocates for farmworkers and their employers have filed responses to the Department of Labor’s proposed changes to calculating wage rates for the farmworker nonimmigrant visa program.
The Senate is set to OK President Joe Biden’s nominees for Interior secretary and U.S. Trade Representative this week, while the House looks to jump-start a congressional debate over immigration reform and farm labor.
The Adverse Effect Wage Rate that farmers are required to pay H-2A workers is rising by an average of 4.5% nationally to $14.62 per hour this year, with some western and Plains states seeing significantly higher increases.
The Senate begins its impeachment trial for former President Donald Trump this week even as his successor pushes lawmakers to meet his demands for a $1.9 trillion package of coronavirus relief measures.
President-elect Joe Biden will nominate a former labor leader, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, to become labor secretary. That’s a critical position for farmers and farmworkers because of the Labor Department’s regulation of labor standards and authority over the H-2A visa program.
A federal judge is blocking the Trump administration from carrying out changes to the H-2A minimum wage rates that would hold down annual pay increases.
Farms that use H-2A workers will be allowed to pay them significantly lower wages under a sweeping overhaul of the program’s wage regulations announced by the Labor Department on Monday.
USDA’s decision to stop collecting farmworker wage information using the Agricultural Labor Survey will significantly reduce income for those workers, United Farm Workers said in a lawsuit that seeks to maintain the survey.
