The H-2A guest-worker programme is working; its unpredictable and volatile wage-rate system is not. That was the message Antrim County Farm Bureau member Greg Shooks took to Capitol Hill this week in a fly-in with Michigan Farm Bureau's associate national legislative counsel Jacob Smith, talking labour, H-2A, imports and the need for a new five-year farm bill, Michigan Farm News reports.

Shooks met eight congressional offices, including a one-on-one with Congressman Jack Bergman, as a fourth-generation farmer who has used H-2A for the past eight years on his family's 1,100-acre farm at Central Lake, growing cherries, wine grapes, small grains and hay. The timing matters: a California judge's recent ruling has plunged H-2A wages — the Adverse Effect Wage Rates — back into chaos after a widely praised interim final rule from the Department of Labor had offered growers hope of certainty.

'Michigan is really a key advocate for the H-2A program because we utilize so much of it,' Shooks said; other states' officials look to Michigan for a lead on what to do after the court ruling. His answer is the Supporting Agriculture's Workforce Act sponsored by House Agriculture Committee chair Glenn 'GT' Thompson, which would bring the first major changes to H-2A in 40 years, including provisions to give employers certainty each year on what they must pay guest workers.

'When the hourly wage rate takes a large leap, we might not bring on as many guys that year, and might cut back,' Shooks said. 'When it works for everyone with AEWR, then we bring on more guys, and we're more efficient.' Juggling grapes about to ripen, a winery and family logistics, he still answered the bureau's call to go to Washington: 'I really believe in the H-2A program. I want to be as helpful as I can.'

'Without a predictable and dependable workforce, the Michigan businesses growing the fruits and vegetables that are a core part of the Michigan identity will either scale down drastically or go out of business,' Smith said. 'Michigan farmers need our delegation to be leaders on this issue in Congress.'

Source: Michigan Farm News