Idaho apple growers support immigrant labor reform

Each year, ­­­Idaho apple growers face uncertainty as to whether we will have sufficient labor to produce and harvest the crop. As the leading commercial fruit crop in Idaho, apple production reaches more than 60 million pounds per year.

Growing Idaho apples is extremely labor intensive, requiring seasonal farmworker hand labor during the growing season, and especially at harvest. As growers whose families have farmed in and around Idaho for generations, we’ve experienced firsthand the dire situation facing all labor-intensive agriculture: a broken system, a lack of workers and needless, added expense to growers.

The Farm Workforce Modernization Act, currently being considered by the House of Representatives and championed by Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, is an important step in the process to address the labor crisis being faced by Idaho’s growers. The status quo for farmers across the state is untenable. To improve the situation, this legislation provides much-needed reform.

The Farm Workforce Modernization Act will stabilize the current agricultural workforce by creating a process for foreign-born labor to gain work authorization to continue working in agriculture. The bill requires current agricultural workers to continue working in agriculture in order to earn legal status, which provides agricultural employers stability of their current workforce.

The bill also reduces labor costs by freezing wages for one year and capping wage growth thereafter, bringing needed modernization and cost containment to the temporary agricultural guest worker program, called H-2A. Last year, Idaho’s H-2A wage rate was increased by 16 percent over the previous year. This year, wages were increased by 1 percent. These annual increases are announced just weeks before the increases are mandated to take effect. Such a drastic fluctuation year to year completely negates any type of predictability for growers to plan for and manage their labor costs. In comparison, under the bill currently in Congress, wage growth would be limited to, at most, 3.25 percent annually going forward, giving growers both predictability and assurances to plan for production and especially harvest costs.

This legislation would reduce regulatory and administrative burdens by streamlining the program. In short, the Farm Workforce Modernization Act represents a significant improvement over the status quo for our growers in the H-2A program and those who employ non-H2-A workers.

The legislation would phase in the web-based registration system called E-Verify that allows growers to confirm the eligibility of their employees to work. This phase-in would be for the agricultural sector specifically, on a timeline consistent with implementation of the bill’s labor supply reforms. The bill also directs key improvements to the E-Verify program overall, to address concerns such as fraud. These provisions seek to ensure integrity in the hiring process.

As local growers and apple business leaders, we urge our congressional representatives to support the Farm Workforce Modernization Act. This meaningful agriculture labor reform will greatly benefit growers in our region, throughout the state, and the U.S., all of whom rely heavily on foreign born labor.

The current system causes an unstable situation for not only apple growers but for all farmers who depend on immigrant labor to bring Americans healthy and affordable food. A stable, legal and reliable workforce is critical if we are to continue to have a vibrant domestic apple supply.