United Farm Workers President Arturo Rodriguez speaks to reporters at a news conference with the Agriculture Workforce Coalition. Seated, from left, are Western Growers CEO Tom Nassif, National Milk Producers Federation CEO Jerry Kozak, United Fresh CEO Tom Stenzel and Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association CEO Mike Stuart. (Jerry Hagstrom/The Hagstrom Report)

By JERRY HAGSTROM

It is a historic day in the nation’s capital when the United Farm Workers, Western Growers, the United Fresh Produce Association, the National Milk Producers Federation and other farm groups hold a joint press conference to announce their support for a piece of legislation.

But that’s what happened today when the union and the farm groups gathered together at the National Press Club to announce that they all support a comprehensive immigration reform bill that includes provisions that they say would ensure, a legal, stable agricultural workforce. Details on the provisions below.

The UFW and farm groups and sometimes the farm groups themselves have often been in disagreement about how foreign workers should be handled, but this time they came together to fix what National Milk President and CEO Jerry Kozak described as “a broken immigration system.”

The visas would be at least year-long — a key factor for the dairy industry, which needs workers year round. The program appears to cover all workers on farms and ranches, but does not cover meat plant workers, who come under another section of the larger bill.
Arturo Rodriguez
If Congress passes the bill and President Barack Obama signs it, foreign-born laborers “can work in fields without worrying about getting deported and they can be reunited with their families,” UFW President Arturo Rodriguez said.

“We have worked through many important and difficult issues, including wage rates for future workers, legalization of our existing workforce, worker protections and caps on a future visa program,” said Western Growers CEO Tom Nassif.

“Each side had to make compromises and while this agreement doesn’t do everything each of us wants, each side has come away with an agreement that we can support and that goes a long way in addressing our many concerns,” Nassif said.

The larger immigration bill, which covers issues such as visas for highly educated engineers, was written by a group of eight senators.

Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Michael Bennet, D-Colo., and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, wrote the agriculture labor section, which is called the Agricultural Job Opportunity, Benefits and Security Act or AgJobs.

Feinstein, who has worked on AgJobs for years, is generally credited as the leader of the ag group, but the farm leaders also gave credit to Rubio, a Cuban-American for whom the success or failure of the bill could determine whether he is taken seriously as a Republican presidential candidate in 2016.

The unity of the farm groups and the UFW behind the agriculture provisions and the larger bill may give it the momentum to pass in the Senate, but the Republican-controlled House will still be a challenge. Some of the strongest critics of immigration reform are from rural districts in the center of the country where there are few foreign laborers. Several people who participated in the news conference today said they had met with Democratic senators and with “group of eight” House members, but they declined to name them.
Nancy Foster
U.S. Apple Association President and CEO Nancy Foster told The Hagstrom Report that the biggest job for the farm groups, which are united under the banner of the Ag Workforce Coalition, is to convince the American public that the workers are needed.

“Each apple must be picked by hand each fall when harvest occurs,” Foster noted, adding that the industry needs 70,000 pickers.

United Fresh President Tom Stenzel said, “There is a long way to go with this legislation but we are committed. We are going to be bringing the weight of growers in all 50 states in support of this legislation.”

Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association CEO Mike Stuart said he had “made sure we developed an agreement that would allow us to be competitive in the future.”

Florida citrus, strawberry and tomato growers have said they worry about direct competition from Mexico, but Stuart noted that the Florida industry will have access to the blue card workers in the immediate term and, after some of the current workers retire or move on to other jobs, to the guest workers.

Rodriguez also noted that the high Latino voter turnout in the 2012 presidential election may help to persuade reluctant legislators that they need to support immigration reform or face electoral consequences. The U.S. agriculture industry is “far beyond” those in other countries in infrastructure and standards that protect the industry as well as workers and consumers, he said.

“The industry most impacted by undocumented workers is agriculture,” Rodriguez said. “It behooves us all to maintain a viable industry here in the U.S.”

Major components of ‘AgJobs:’ Agricultural Job Opportunity, Benefits and Security Act

Based on documents released by senators involved in the immigration reform bill and those released by farm groups, these appear to be the major elements in the “AgJobs” section of the bill:

• The measure would allow current undocumented farm workers to obtain what is known as a “blue card” if they have worked 100 days in agriculture in 2011 and 2012 and choose to remain in agriculture. After five years, those who have paid all taxes owed, have not been convicted of a serious crime, and are willing to pay a $400 fine would be eligible for permanent “green card” legal status. Their spouses and minor children would also be allowed to adjust their status.
• The bill would also create a new agricultural guest worker visa program under which some workers would receive a portable employment-based visa that would allow them to change jobs and others would receive a contract-based visa that would replace the current H-2A program.
• The H-2A program would sunset after the new guest worker visa program is operational. Under the contract program, visas could be for as long as three years and employers would have to provide housing or a housing allowance.
• The bill would also set wages for four major occupational categories: crop workers, livestock workers, sorters and graders who work in packing houses, and equipment operators.
• Employers would be required to verify the legal status of their employees, but Western Growers CEO Tom Nassif said he believes the verification program will be workable.
• The Agriculture secretary would be in charge of determining the number of workers needed. National Council of Farmer Cooperatives CEO Chuck Conner said he believed that the county Farm Service Agency offices would help the secretary determine the need and keep track of the workers ,and that farm owners would be comfortable working with those offices. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said last week that the USDA’s presence in nearly every county in the country would allow it to play a larger role in implementation of the bill. The Labor Department would still be in charge of enforcing rules on working conditions.

• Agriculture Workforce Coalition