The Trump Administration has announced a ruling that changes the way wages for H-2A farmworkers will be calculated. According to a press release from the United Farmworkers Foundation, this could mean earning $16.45 an hour in California or $13.45 if they live in employer-provided housing.
The rule happened with no notice of public comment beforehand. The ruling justifies this action by saying they were acting under public interest; however, Antonio De Loera, the Communications Director for the United Farmworkers Foundation (UFW), stated it was an undemocratic action.
“They undemocratically passed the notice of comment period,” said De Loera. “That would be apart of the routine rule making process and that notice of comment period is important because it allows for the public to respond to proposed regulation and it would have been really importan to hear from local workers, farmworks who are currently out here doing this work folk who live and work in Kern County would have had that opportunity to just raise their concerns about how this change may impact their wages.”
In the ruling, the administration states that the reasoning for it is due to their immigration policies. They state that there will be fewer people to work their job because they do not think Americans will want the job. De Loera spoke to the irony of the decision.
“We call this their deport and replace strategy. So, our view is that deportation and exploitation are twin threats; these go hand-in-hand,” said De Loera. “These wage cuts are being justified ironically by the same administration’s brutal and lethal ICE raids against immigrant farmworkers. So it really does add insult to injury.”
He also noted that there are thousands of U.S. citizens and permanent residents who will be impacted by the decision.
“This is a great irony where this administration has stated that they want an all-American workforce in agriculture,” said De Loera. “Yet, they’re making these policy choices which directly undercut the wages of American workers in Agriculture. While it’s true that the largest chunk of the farmwork force that we have in this country right now is undocumented, we believe that these workers deserve the right to become American citizens as well. We should still not erase the fact that there are significant numbers of U.S. citizens who work in Agriculture.”
De Loera stated that the UFW wants the workers who have already been here and acquired decades of experience to be taken care of.
“Rather than deport and replace, what we advocate for is that we need to take care of the workers that are already here, and what that means is a pathway to legal status, but that also means fair wages, safe working conditions, and all the things we advocate for. This rule is doing the opposite.
Because of this rule, farmworkers will be stuck with choices that will hurt them either way, according to De Loera.
“The real losers here will be the people who have been here doing the work, who will basically be forced to have to choose between these lower wages to stay competitive, or they might be displaced altogether. Lose their jobs and get replaced,” said De Loera.
De Loera explained that there is no cap on the number of H-2A workers that can be hired. This will impact Kern County workers because employers will seek to have more H-2A workers.
“The most immediate impact is it’s going to be significantly cheaper to bring in H-2A workers, and that’s going to lead to, probably in the next year, many more farm employers seeking to bring in those workers to do the work. That will come at the expense of either the wages or the actual jobs of the local workers. So, that will be a negative impact on the whole community.”
In the ruling, the Trump administration stated that they are still paying higher than other countries and referenced Mexico paying one or two dollars. De Leora explained that while it is true that this is higher than what H-2A workers may make in their home countries, they now have less to take back home, and it still puts them in a position to undercut workers who have been living in the United States. He explained that employers are allowed to choose to hire an H-2A worker over a citizen if they are requesting a higher rate than what is set for H-2A workers.
Last week, the UC Community and Labor Centro released the results of a community needs assessment they conducted in the Central Valley, and among the Kern County respondents, 59% had one or more farmworkers in the household.
De Loera stated that workplaces that have a collective bargaining agreement for wages will not be affected. He explained that the places that have a contract with UFW will be protected and that they are encouraging workers to enter a bargaining agreement if they are not already.
In the results of the community needs assessment for unionization coverage, 82 percent of the respondents from Kern County were not covered by a union or employee association contract in their respective lines of work.
“The first step to unionization really is to speak with the UFW. There are numerous UFW organizers in Kern County who do this for a living, who unionize workplaces. So, really the first step to any successful unionization effort is for the workers themselves to speak with their colleagues to get on the same page,” said De Loera, adding that unionizing is a democratic process and the majority of the workplace has to agree.
De Leora stated that it is a moral disgrace that farmworkers work as hard as they do, yet still live below the poverty level. He noted that he believes everyone in Kern County knows this on some level.
“Farmworkers work very hard to make very little,” said De Leora. “I think everyone in Kern County, on some level, knows this and on some level understands that that’s not right. These are the workers who put food on our table every day. There’s a good saying that goes, there may come a day when you need a lawyer, there may come a day when you need a doctor, but you need a farmworker three times a day.
Public comment can be made online for the ruling until December 1, 2025. The full ruling and opportunity for public comment can be found here.
