Chapter 18. How Things Could Be Better
Some ideas
What can be done to make things better for H-2A farmworkers and the crop growers who need them? I can think of a few things.
Set industry standards for farm labor contractors
It is crystal clear where most farmworker abuse occurs: At the hands of the farm labor contractor. FLCs represent fewer than 10 percent of H-2A employers in North Carolina but collectively bring in well over 30 percent of our workers. Nationally, the FLC share of H-2A certifications grows each year. As intermediary between grower and worker, they are economically motivated to reduce costs however they can, leveraging the imbalance of power between H-2A employer and employee.
Not all FLCs mistreat their workers. But a scan of US Department of Labor press releases, or federal lawsuit filings, quickly reveals one contractor after another who charges illegal recruiting fees, withholds wages, provides housing not fit for animals, or otherwise abuses vulnerable men and women. There is a federal system for FLC registration, and a small number of states have regulations as well. Clearly, they are not enough. We need standards for what good looks like in the contracting of farm labor. And these need not be government mandated or enforced. The ag industry itself can formulate standards, publicize them to consumers, and incentivize growers to hire compliant FLCs and shun the others.
Be charitable
Let’s none of us forget the value of well-placed charitable donations and actions. Sure, we need systemic changes to make things better for farmworkers and the growers who depend on them. But those take time. Meanwhile, there’s probably an H-2A farmworker right this moment whose stomach is growling because he hasn’t worked for a week. Or whose socks and underwear are threadbare, or whose toothpaste ran out last week. There are certainly plenty who feel right now the pain of being separated from loved ones, dads away from their kids who might get their mind off the pain by having a conversation in Spanish with a visitor to his camp. Hundreds of farmworker aid organizations across the country would appreciate a few bucks, or a few hours of time, so anyone who eats food can chip in to help those who grow it.
There’s plenty of room for creativity here. How about negotiating a mass purchase of mattresses from a manufacturer and offering them to growers? Or washing machines or stoves? To help farmworkers keep more of their wages, how about taking advantage of the IRS Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program to organize free tax events for H-2A farmworkers? Today, some spend a day’s wages, or more, paying a professional to file the simplest possible tax return. Also on the topic of money, there are still H-2A farmworkers taking paper paychecks to tiendas, paying outrageous check-cashing, ATM, and remittance fees. There’s already some momentum to get away from this costly leftover from an earlier age. We need that to continue.
Build agricultural bases
Saddling growers with the responsibility for housing their workers is only asking for that housing to be low quality. We must replace the aging, grower-owned labor camp with a new kind of facility that provides better housing than what many H-2A farmworkers get today. I might be swinging for the fences here, but how about we take advantage of scale economies and replace labor camps with full-service agricultural bases? The facility I picture is run by a nonprofit agency subsidized by a public-private partnership. Its housing, dining, and bathing facilities are on par with what you will find, say, at a typical state university. Sleeping rooms, dining areas, bathrooms, and laundry facilities are well lit and clean. Modest recreational amenities are available too.
Workers need not prepare their own meals at the base. These would be prepared by a dedicated staff, one that also provides transportation to and from worksites, shopping, and other destinations. A 24-7 help desk would answer any questions, including how and where to obtain medical services (base residents would be required to sign up for zero-premium health insurance under the Affordable Care Act). Mental health and behavioral health services would be available at no cost, as would dispute resolution services to assist when workers have grievances with their employer (or vice versa), a transportation reservation service, a discount mobile phone service (in partnership with a national provider), and other services to ensure the farmworker experience is a modest but dignified one.
That experience can be educational and emotionally supportive as well. The base would provide training on health, safety, and other essential topics—and administer a test to certify that a worker adequately understands them. In partnership with local colleges, the base also would provide ESL and other classes. Caretakers employed year round would live on the base and make use of the same housing, dining, and other services as the seasonal residents. Other year-round residents might include a friendly dog or two.
Of course, housing is not needed for farmworkers during much of the winter. But there is always commercial demand for affordable, short-term housing. Base housing could be available to anyone at a reasonable price, perhaps via Airbnb or Vrbo, when the farmworkers aren’t there. Such revenue would help the base keep down what it charges growers during the warmer months.
Growers might make use of agricultural base services in one of two ways. Those who obtain H-2A visas for workers on their own, either directly or as part of a grower association like the NCGA, might pay for residential and transportation services only—the base operator would comply with all state and other requirements for providing such services. Other growers might secure fully authorized workers from the base. Its operator would be fully registered with the federal government as an FLC and handle all filing, recruiting, transportation, and other obligations as required by law. And it would meet or exceed industry standards for farm labor contractors.
Let agricultural guestworkers apply for a green card
Today, workers like Domingo Álvarez, Julio Molina, and Arturo López—and every other H-2A farmworker who steps foot in the United States—are welcome here for only as long as needed to plant, cultivate, and harvest our crops. Then, after enduring living and working conditions that are unpleasant at best (and abusive at worst) they must go home. They cannot make one here.
It’s not like this for all foreign nationals who work in the US temporarily. Technology workers on another type of temporary work visa known as the H-1B, for example, not only get paid far more than an H-2A visa holder but can live here year-round. They also have a decent shot at green card, or permanent residency. But there is no reasonably accessible path to a green card for the farmworker, no matter how many years they walk in the hot sun, scooping sweet potatoes from the dirt, or filling endless buckets of berries until twisted in back pain. There should be such a path.
Sure we need foreign workers to write code. But what about those who help us grow food? Why can’t they one day live here, in the same country where they work, so they can do radical things like go home at night to be with their families?
It is truly confounding that nobody likes the way we secure farm labor in the United States. Our H-2A farmworkers would prefer better living and working conditions, and to live with their families as they earn wages to support them. Crop growers hate having to pay the ever-rising minimum wage for their H-2A workers, not to mention shouldering housing and other costs that employers in other industries don’t. Farmworker advocates sure don’t love the program. They are forever concerned about the poor working and living conditions many H-2A farmworkers must endure, ever fewer investigations into labor law violations, and more and more cases of human trafficking by FLCs.
And still this army grows, this army of guestworkers in our fields.
The H-2A farmworker is willing to make extraordinary sacrifices to fill our agricultural labor needs, leaving their families all but permanently, many tolerating living and working conditions no US worker ever would. Certainly, we as a nation, and we as individuals, can try to make things a little better for these guests in our fields. Together, those workers feed the rest of us. Let’s honor that.