LFBF Comments to USDOL on Proposed H-2A Changes



March 23, 2009

Thomas Dowd

Administrator

Office of Policy Development and Research

Employment and Training Administration

U.S. Department of Labor

200 Constitution Avenue, N.W.

Room N-5641

Washington, DC 20210

RE: RIN 1205-AB55

Docket: ETA 2008-001

Notice of Proposed Suspension of H-2A Rule for Regulations Implemented on January 17, 2009 Regarding Temporary Agricultural Employment of H-2A Aliens in the United States

Dear Mr. Dowd,

The Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation (LFBF) is the largest agricultural organization in the State of Louisiana representing over 130,000 farm and ranch families. The H-2A program is of particular interest to Louisiana farmers because many Louisiana farmers utilize and rely heavily on the H-2A program to fill unfilled temporary and seasonal agricultural job vacancies in our State. In fact, a very high percentage of the seasonal agricultural workers in Louisiana are legal H-2A workers. Many Louisiana farmers comment that they could not farm without the H-2A program. Our farmers maintain a very close working relationship with our H-2A workers who are our friends and Louisiana is known for providing excellent work conditions, as well as good quality housing and transportation for our H-2A workers. We have a very vested interest in the H-2A program and we submit our comments for the record.

Since January 18, 2009, Louisiana farmers began operating under the H-2A Final Rule. In fact, many of our farmers have already completed the petition process and some already have their H-2A workers working with them here in Louisiana. Others are in the petition process and others are soon to begin the process of submitting a job order to the National Processing Center in Chicago for their first or an additional contract to fill unfilled job vacancies. Louisiana farmers overall assessment is that the extra cost and much greater advertisement and recruitment period is a fair trade for correcting the 50% rule.

The new method of determining the Adverse Effect Wage Rate according to the Dept. of Labor – OES survey has also proved to be far more accurate than the USDA Wage Survey that was previously used to determine the Adverse Effect Wage Rate. This is a significant improvement over the old methodology. The USDA Wage Survey previously used was very inaccurate and it discouraged use of the H-2A program. The previous method of determining the Adverse Effect Wage Rate had the effect of increasing a farmer’s minimum wage virtually every year making the program far too expensive for many farmers to use. We also feel it created an incentive for employment of undocumented workers, thereby undermining National Security. While the revised H-2A program has some more complexities and additional advertising cost more, Louisiana farmers who use the H-2A program categorically state that the changes made to the program in total were positive, provide domestic workers more opportunities for H-2A jobs and correct many long standing problems in the H-2A program.

Therefore, on behalf of the Louisiana farmers we represent, we must strongly object to the Dept. of Labor proposal to suspend the H-2A Rule implemented on January 17, 2009. The guidance being provided to the Secretary on this issue is not correct and we see no merit in suspending the January 17 changes. Please understand that our farmers have already borrowed their operating loans based on the NPC Wage determinations on earlier contracts and since many farmers have other contracts, they would be severely impacted if the H-2A Final Rule is suspended. It would be shameful to penalize the very farmers who obeyed the law and hired their foreign workers legally through the H-2A program instead of hiring undocumented workers where no standard of care is provided to the worker. We strongly ask the Secretary of Labor to reconsider this proposal and we sincerely ask that the Dept. of Labor not suspend these beneficial changes to the H-2A program implemented on January 17, 2009. We welcome any contacts and offer our assistance to the Department to maintain a viable H-2A program.

Thank you for your consideration of our comments.

Sincerely,

Brian Breaux

Associate Commodity Director and Labor Specialist

Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation

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