The American Farm Bureau Federation says farm labor reforms advanced recently by the House Judiciary Committee need more work before it’s ready for passage.  AFBF President Zippy Duvall said Farm Workforce Modernization Act “falls short of a long-term solution to farm labor shortages,” which he noted is one of the biggest challenges facing the industry today.

 

“We’re continuing to work on trying to make some adjustments on the wage portion of that," said AFBF Executive Vice President Dale Moore.  "We’d certainly like to see some of the caps taken off relative to the year-round workers. We’re continuing to hold out some hope that we can see some issues addressed with the private right-of-action, which has raised some concerns.”

 

Referring to limits on the use of federal courts to resolve workplace grievances.  And Moore noted there’s the need for a pathway to legal status for the current H-2A workforce currently in the United States.

 

“Critical to a lot of the farmers and ranchers out there, who’ve got folks on their farms or ranches that may need to take advantage of those provisions.”

 

Moore and Duvall argue that despite the uphill climb for immigration reform, nothing will change unless Farm Bureau’s engaged, and there’ll be no appetite to revisit the issue once a bill is passed.

 

 

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