{"id":22631,"date":"2018-05-24T23:38:43","date_gmt":"2018-05-25T05:38:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=22631"},"modified":"2018-05-25T22:12:57","modified_gmt":"2018-05-26T04:12:57","slug":"ags-labor-needs-behind-push-for-more-foreign-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2018\/05\/ags-labor-needs-behind-push-for-more-foreign-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"Ag’s labor needs behind push for more foreign workers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Peru\"<\/a>

Photo courtesy of Diane Thibeault<\/p>

Diane Thibeault, right, the owner of Peak Season Labor in Lewistown, visits a market during a labor-recruitment trip to Peru.<\/p><\/div>\n

All over farm and ranch country, it\u2019s getting harder and harder to find workers \u2014 whether to herd sheep, process potatoes, pick cherries or milk cows.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard work and it\u2019s long work and it\u2019s hard to find people to do that,\u201d said John Youngberg, executive vice president of the Montana Farm Bureau Federation. \u201cThe need is growing and I think it will continue to grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an editorial that appeared on the Montana Farm Bureau website in October, Zippy Duvall, president of the American Farm Bureau, laid out some grim numbers.<\/p>\n

According to a study by the group New American Economy, Duvall said, the shortage of agricultural labor cost $3.3 billion in GDP growth in 2012 alone. The same study showed that there would have been more than 89,000 additional jobs in 2012 if farmers had been able to hire all the workers they needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I\u2019ve said many a time,\u201d Duvall wrote, \u201cwe\u2019re coming to a point where America will have to decide if we\u2019re going to import workers or import our food.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, the United States is already importing workers \u2014 nonimmigrant, short-term agricultural laborers who can be hired when the supply of domestic workers is not keeping up with demand. The H-2A visa, specifically for temporary agricultural workers, was established under the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986.<\/p>\n

In Montana, there has been a steadily increasing reliance on foreign agricultural workers in recent years. According to the Office of Foreign Labor Certification in the federal Department of Labor, 480 positions were certified under the H-2A program in Montana in 2012, and the same number of positions was certified in 2013. Then, in 2014, the number jumped to 575. It rose again in 2015, to 614, to 630 in 2016 and to 740 last year.<\/p>\n

The top five agricultural occupations filled by H-2A workers in Montana in 2017 were, in descending order, livestock handling, hay and straw labor, grain work, ag equipment operation and nursery and greenhouse work. The top three towns for the number of certified positions were Dillon, Wisdom and Polson.<\/p>\n

Going through the H-2A program can be difficult, cumbersome and time-consuming. Employers have to pay for travel to and from the workers\u2019 home country and provide housing for them. Farmers and ranchers participating in the program have to deal with mountains or paperwork, and they are among the most heavily regulated of all American employers.<\/p>\n

Yet the program remains popular \u2014 or, more accurately, indispensable, given the chronic shortage of people willing to work on farms and ranches. Fortunately, a lot of help is available to people wanting to bring in foreign workers under the H-2A visa.<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>Diane Thibeault, the owner of Peak Season Labor<\/a> in Lewistown, is one who offers that help. She solicits and recruits workers on behalf of farmers and ranchers in Montana and eight other Western states. In an average year, she said, Peak Season Labor will bring in roughly 150 foreign workers for 75 to 80 different employers. One of her specialties is providing sheep herders, mostly from Peru, but also general farm hands from Mexico and several other countries.<\/p>\n

One of the best parts of her job is traveling abroad every year or two, where she works directly with U.S. and foreign officials to smooth the process of hiring workers, a process that involves \u201cpretty stringent interviews\u201d at the U.S. consulate.<\/p>\n

Thibeault also helps with advertising, because employers wanting to hire foreign workers have to try hiring American workers first. There are numerous other requirements and expenses. The Job Service has to inspect the housing provided to foreign workers, and the water is tested. Employers have to provide workers\u2019 compensation insurance and pay for all the paperwork and things like interviews at the U.S. consulate.<\/p>\n

Few farmers and ranchers complain about the expense, Thibeault said, adding, \u201cI think from their standpoint they don\u2019t feel they have much choice, and it must be working or they wouldn\u2019t continue to keep on doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the really problematic aspects of hiring foreign workers, Thibeault said, is that \u201cfor employers, most of the risk is on their shoulders.\u201d If, after going through all the trouble and expense of bringing a worker in, that worker absconds for any reason, \u201cthe employer is required to report them to Homeland, but otherwise there\u2019s nothing an employer can do. They have no recourse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Temporary workers are sometimes drawn to dairy operations, where workers are needed year-round and hence are not covered by the H-2A program. In recent years, according to Chris Flann, some of the workers who disappeared ended up in the oil fields of North Dakota, where wages were sky-high and workers, as in agriculture, were sometimes hard to come by.<\/p>\n

\"Flann\"<\/a>

Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News<\/p>

Immigration law attorney Chris Flann, in the office of his Shepherd-area home.<\/p><\/div>\n

Flann is a lawyer who runs Immigration Law of Montana<\/a> out of his home near Shepherd. He said he might help 10 employers a year navigate the H-2A program. More satisfying still is helping employers obtain green cards, conferring lawful, permanent residency status on a foreign national.<\/p>\n

Flann said he has done eight or nine green cards in the past couple of years.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of ranchers will tell me these are the best employees they\u2019ve ever had,\u201d Flann said. \u201cThese are the type of workers that ranchers might come to me and say, \u2018Can you get me a green card for this guy?\u2019\u201d Flann said he enjoys helping make that happen because it gets the rancher and the worker \u201coff the hamster wheel\u201d of the H-2A process.<\/p>\n

He also enjoys it because he once went through the citizenship himself. Born in England but possessing a lifelong fascination with the American West, Flann taught chemistry at several colleges, including the University of Montana in Missoula, before switching gears and earning a law degree in 1993.<\/p>\n

He had gotten his green card \u2014 \u201cGreen cards are actually white, and they\u2019ve been white for a long time,\u201d he noted \u2014 in 1988 and full citizenship in 1993. He said there\u2019s still nothing like the thrill of coming back to the United states from overseas and hearing \u201cWelcome home\u201d at the airport.<\/p>\n

For one specific segment of agriculture, open-range livestock, the Mountain Plains Agricultural Services in Casper, Wyoming, plays a large role. It is not a recruitment agency, but rather an association of about 250 members in 17 states, on whose behalf the MPAS does all the paperwork involved in the H-2A process.<\/p>\n

Kelli Griffith, executive director of the association, said that in each of the past three years, there has been a 20 percent growth in the number of foreign workers employed by open-range livestock producers who belong to the MPAS, \u201cand we\u2019re on track to do that again this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said her members bring in about 800 herders a year, mostly to tend sheep but also to take care of cattle and goats. She said open-range herding is unique because it \u201ccan be a very singular, solitary type of existence\u201d in remote, isolated areas of the West.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur young people aren\u2019t willing to go into the field, I guess, to take on those manual job duties,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s certainly a function of our culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like most people in the ag industry, Griffith says there are good things about the H-2A program and other things that could stand some improvement. And like everyone in agriculture, Kelli and members of the association are keeping a close eye on legislation proposed by U.S. Rep Bob Goodlatte, whose Agricultural Guestworker Act would create a new visa, the H-2C for foreign ag workers.<\/p>\n

In an article on the Farm Futures website in October, Goodlatte, a Virginia Republican, said the current program \u201cis unworkable for farmers, buries them in red tape and excessive costs, and must be replaced.\u201d<\/p>\n

The H-2C program would give farmers and ranchers more flexibility in regard to housing, transportation and \u201ctouchback\u201d periods, or the amount of time and the frequency with which foreign workers would be required to go back home before coming in under a renewed visa. Goodlatte\u2019s bill would also allow currently undocumented farm workers to apply for an H-2C visa.<\/p>\n

Griffith said the Mountain Plains Agricultural Services has been working closely with Goodlatte \u201con those things that are important to our industry,\u201d including the use of portable housing and the authority to pay monthly wages rather than hourly wages.<\/p>\n

Youngberg, with the Montana Farm Bureau Federation, said Goodlatte\u2019s bill needs some more changes but is looking pretty good right now. One thing the Farm Bureau likes about the H-2C program is that it would allow workers who have to return to their home countries to be pre-certified to return to the United States. Under the current system it can be time-consuming and sometimes impossible to get those trained workers back into the country.<\/p>\n

Another big change is that the H-2C program would be applicable to virtually all ag workers, including those in dairy, year-round workers generally, and livestock and processing workers. The new program would have no requirements for housing or transportation and would make it easier and less expensive to advertise for American workers before turning to foreign labor.<\/p>\n

One concerning aspect of the new legislation is that it would establish a cap on the number of workers allowed into the country annually, as opposed to no cap now. Goodlatte\u2019s bill would allow 450,000 workers a year. But, as Youngberg points out, the legislation would extend the visa term to 24 months, so the effect would be to allow as many as 900,000 foreign workers in at any one time. In 2017, slightly more than 200,000 H-2A positions were certified nationwide.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy sense is that we will support it,\u201d Youngberg said of Goodlatte\u2019s bill. \u201cIt moves the ball closer to what we\u2019re looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared in the spring 2018 issue of Raised in the West magazine, published in Billings. Check out\u00a0their website<\/a>\u00a0to see where you can pick up a free copy.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All over farm and ranch country, it\u2019s getting harder and harder to find workers \u2014 whether to herd sheep, process potatoes, pick cherries or milk cows. \u201cIt\u2019s hard work and it\u2019s long work and it\u2019s hard to find people to do that,\u201d said John Youngberg, executive vice president of the Montana Farm Bureau Federation. \u201cThe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22659,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,14],"tags":[6988,6989],"class_list":["post-22631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-montana","category-news","tag-h2a-visa","tag-montana-farm-bureau-federation","prominence-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22631"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22663,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22631\/revisions\/22663"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}