Original story on Southern Farm Network (SFN) Today

By Mike Davis

The Worker and Farmer Labor Association, along with several agricultural groups, filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Labor to protect farmers from recently issued H-2A regulations.

WAFLA CEO Enrique Gastelum says this suit follows a recent ruling in Georgia that found in favor of agriculture in 17 states.

“While my group that I’m, you know, WAFLA, and several others are parties on this other suit, we also want to call out the unconstitutionality of this and the impact on the other 33 states. We also felt it was important in our complaint in motion to call out some of the other provisions which were not addressed in the Georgia case.”

Gastelum says they’re all for protecting the workers, but…

“This latest set of rules not only are unconstitutional but were also creating all kinds of new rights and requirements that don’t exist in any other type of business. And so, we were like, okay, you are now going way too far.”

Simply put, Gastelum says it’s more government overreach.

“It extended provisions of the National Labor Relations Act which do not currently exist for farmworkers. But DOL took it upon themselves to say, well, we think they should have these rights and privileges, so we’re just going to do it through rulemaking, which no you’re acting like Congress, you’re not acting like a federal agency.”

Gastelum says farmers could use some good news.

“In just my one-on-one and group conversations with farmers, they’re just saying, look, I just need a break right now. Something, I need something to break my way. It seems like, particularly in the last four-ish, five years, it has just been piling on, and there’s a lot of stress in the industry. And the community just needs a break.”

A hearing on the matter is scheduled for November 4th in Lexington, Kentucky.