Nov 26, 2024Ruling extends injunction against H-2A worker protections
A federal judge in Kentucky has extended an injunction against a U.S. Department of Labor rule providing protections to H-2A workers who organize to form labor unions.
U.S. District Judge Danny Reeves’ ruling extends the injunction to four additional states and members of five associations who filed a September lawsuit.
The Labor Department rule shielding migrant workers with H-2A temporary work visas who organize to form labor unions and against wage theft and trafficking took effect in June. In September, U.S. District Judge Lisa Godbey Wood in Georgia enjoined the rule from being enforced in 17 states that filed suit.
Reeves’ ruling extends the injunction to Alabama, Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia.
Both federal judges found that the rule, “Improving Protections for Workers in Temporary Agricultural Employment in the United States,” violates the National Labor Relations Act, which excludes farmworkers from collective bargaining rights.
“The final rule not so sneakily creates substantive collective bargaining rights for H-2A agricultural workers through the prohibitions it places on the employers,” Reeves wrote, while Wood wrote that the Labor Department is attempting to “unconstitutionally create law.”
Reeves also struck down several other provisions of the rule, including requirements that farms let union representatives visit on-farm housing and pay piece-rates rather than an hourly wage if piece-rates result in higher pay.
Reeves’ injunction will cover members of the National Council of Agricultural Employees (NCAE) and the Worker and Farm Labor Association.
“This Thanksgiving week, America’s farm and ranch families are grateful that the court in Kentucky understood the damaging effects this rule would have on their farms and ranches, as well as on those members of the public who like to eat,” Michael Marsh, NCAE president and CEO, said in a statement. “This rule unequivocally and unlawfully violates the rights of America’s farmers and ranchers by stripping employers of the due process rights afforded to them by the Constitution.“
Judges in North Carolina and Mississippi, where lawsuits have also been filed, have yet to issue rulings.
Worker and Farm Labor Association CEO Enrique Gastelum told the Capital Press that it would be “ridiculous” for the Labor Department to try to enforce the rule in other parts of the country.
