On Friday, the U.S. Department of Labor issued a final rule regarding the H-2A program for migrant workers. The agency says the rule would “strengthen protections for farmworkers.” However, one Indiana ag leader says that rule could instead create a burden for Hoosier farmers.
“The proposed rule that is leading up to this was just very, very problematic for American agriculture, and so our view is nothing positive can come out of the final rule,” says Chuck Conner, President and CEO of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives (NCFC). He is also a native of Benton County, Indiana.
Even though he and his team are currently reading through the language of the final rule, Conner says the direction of the rule could negatively impact farm operations.
“The U.S. Department of Labor just seems determined to grant an enormous number of new worker rights for farm workers out there. These rights are important, but yet at the same time, they really can’t come at the expense of the freedom and the oversight on our farms and ranches,” says Conner.
“Pitting individual farmers out there against Union organizers and basically anybody else that [farm workers] would like to bring on our farms and ranches to oversee these farm operations is just not the direction we should be going at this point,” he says. “Our farmers do not need any burden placed upon them in these kind of times.”
Conner says he’s been pushing for farm labor reform, but this isn’t it.
“Our hope and our goal for labor reform is to increase access to workers for American agriculture. It’s not to go down the path of these proposed Biden rules that are now going final, which is basically to give workers unprecedented rights to disrupt farm production on these farms and ranches,” says Conner. “Our goal is quite the opposite. We want these farms and ranchers to have full access to as much labor as they need to keep food production in this country and not overseas somewhere.”
Click BELOW to hear C.J. Miller’s full conversation with Hoosier native and ag leader Chuck Conner, President and CEO of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, regarding the U.S. Department of Labor’s final rule on H-2A farm labor.
