Late yesterday, a group of farmworker advocates – and workers who have labored alongside H-2A agricultural workers – filed an amicus brief in a meritless legal challenge to the Biden Administration’s recently finalized rule protecting the rights of workers in temporary agricultural employment.
The amici groups are Comité de Apoyo a los Trabajadores Agrícolas, Community Legal Services, Farmworker Justice, Farmworker Legal Services, The Georgia Legal Services Program, Justice at Work, Legal Action of Wisconsin, Legal Aid Society of Mid-New York, Inc., The National Legal Aid & Defender Association, The Northwest Workers’ Justice Project, Sur Legal, United Farm Workers, and The UFW Foundation. The individual amici Willie Shelly and Tyrone Cason work with H-2A workers at a farm in Mississippi and perform the same job duties. All amici are represented by FarmSTAND and Sur Legal.
The amici argue that the suit fundamentally misunderstands the purpose of the H-2A program, and that the relief sought by the plaintiff states and employers – the shredding of the full rule – would gravely harm the hundreds of thousands of agricultural workers who need its protection.
Those protections include requiring seatbelts in vehicles transporting workers so as to prevent horrific traffic accidents, ensuring workers in employer-provided housing can receive guests and visits from service providers, and preventing employers from retaliating against workers who file a complaint or speak with an attorney.