The United Farm Workers of America, the UFW Foundation and 18 farmworkers have filed a lawsuit to reverse the Trump administration’s wage cut rule, the organization says in a news release. UFW says the October announcement by the Department of Labor will undercut wages of U.S. workers in agriculture and could rapidly expand the H-2A guestworker program.
UFW says this wage cut rule “represents one of the largest wealth transfers from workers to employers in U.S. agricultural history.”
“The Trump administration’s attempt to cut farmworker wages without due process represents what we believe is both illegal action and an improper transfer of money to the wealthiest,” says Mario Martinez, president at Martinez Aguilasocho Law Inc. “The law requires honesty and fairness, not shortcuts, and no administration gets to ignore the rules just to take money out of farm workers’ pockets. Farmworkers already work at the lowest wages in the country and give everything they have in the fields to feed the nation, and now their wages are being cut even more so growers can have more profits. We’ve seen this kind of disregard for workers and illegal conduct before from this administration, and we’re going to the courts because farm workers deserve respect, a voice, and a government that follows the law.”
In October, the Department of Labor issued an interim final rule that reverses the way the Adverse Effect Wage Rate is calculated for the H-2A guestworker program. The new system will use state-level data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey. The interim final rule also calls for two skill-based wage categories within each occupational classification. The interim final rule is still up for public comment through Dec. 1.
The UFW says this interim rule will cut wages of H-2A workers between $5 and $7 an hour, which will transfer $2.46 billion in wages to employers annually. UFW says the interim rule will automatically lower wages of any U.S. citizen sharing jobsites with H-2A workers.
“This litigation challenges a rule that enables U.S. agricultural employers to pay foreign workers significantly less wages,” says Ron Estrada, CEO of Farmworker Justice. “Although the rule is designed to drastically reduce wages of H-2A visa holders and U.S. workers who work for H-2A employers, it will undoubtedly hurt all U.S. workers in agriculture.”
UFW says thr rule was released without the opportunity for the public to provide feedback. It also says the Trump administration attempted to implement a similar rule in 2020, but the UFW and UFW Foundation filed a lawsuit and a federal court found that rule adversely affected the wages and working conditions of American workers. The organization says this new lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, seeks to reverse the rule.
“President Trump’s wage cuts serve only one purpose: they make it easier for big agricultural corporations to exploit cheap foreign labor through the H-2A program and replace American farm workers, or avoid paying them a fair market wage,” says Teresa Romero, president of the United Farm Workers. “Farm workers, and the rural communities across America they sustain, need and deserve fair wages and job security, not a race to the bottom with an endless supply of cheap foreign labor. If this President will not fight for American farm workers, then we will.”
Covington & Burling, Farmworker Justice, Martinez Aguilasocho Law, and the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation represent the plaintiffs, which include farmworkers from Michigan, Georgia, California, Washington, Texas and Missouri.
“I am U.S.-born, U.S. citizen and I harvest strawberries while also going to school,” Isabel Panfilo, 23, a plaintiff in the lawsuit and a farm worker in Ventura County, Calif., says in the release. “When I run out of financial aid, I am responsible for covering my tuition. It’s difficult with the wages I earn. I work hard to pay for school and be able to support and uplift my family. The work that I do is extremely difficult and challenging. Picking strawberries and packing them is extremely skilled work. You are held to very high standards: you are expected to be on time and work hard and fast to fill a lot of boxes to earn good money. The threat of guest workers is really concerning because they are planning to replace local workers with H-2A workers that will make finding work more difficult. Although I work very hard, it is difficult to cover everyday expenses.”
