Defending the Rights of Seasonal Agricultural Workers

Defending the Rights of Seasonal Agricultural Workers

Agricultural workers of all kinds —including seasonal workers on H-2A visas — deserve basic workplace protections, including the right to meet with guests and service providers in the workers’ employer-provided housing without fear of retaliation and protection from injury during their commutes to work. The Biden Administration finalized a rule to ensure these and other protections for workers in temporary agricultural employment. Unfortunately, a coalition of 17 Republican-led States and agribusiness organizations filed a meritless legal challenge to the rule.

FarmSTAND and Sur Legal filed an amicus curiae brief defending the rule on behalf of a group of farmworker advocates and workers who have labored alongside workers on H-2A visas. 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 workers on H-2A visas at a farm in Mississippi and perform the same job duties.

While the Republican-led states specifically challenged parts of the rule related to worker organizing, they nevertheless asked the court to shred the entire 600+ page rule.  A federal judge in Georgia sided with the states and issued an injunction blocking the entire rule from going into effect in the 17 states involved in the case. This ruling will gravely harm the hundreds of thousands of agricultural workers who need its protection. FarmSTAND will continue to monitor the case and evaluate additional opportunities to help defend the rule’s vital protections for farmworkers.