WASHINGTON — After hitting a snag last week, negotiations in the Senate for an agricultural workers program — the last piece of a broad overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws — appeared to be coming back from the brink on Monday.þþRepresentatives of farmworkers and growers inched closer to a deal on wages for workers, under pressure from a bipartisan group of senators who want to move forward soon with a broad immigration overhaul.þþThough the overall structure for the agricultural workers program had been set, the deal broke down last week over the issue of wages and the number of visas — known as H-2A visas — the program would provide to low-skilled farmworkers.þþ“The framework has been worked out, but the questions are wage rate and the cap, and both of those things are related to whether farmworkers are paid too much or too little,” said Giev Kashkooli, a national vice president of the United Farm Workers. “Growers are currently making the claim that farmworkers make too much money, and we think they’re making too little.”þþThe labor unions say they want to ensure that workers are paid a fair wage, and are concerned that the growers’ demand for an unlimited number of workers will make it easier for employers to exploit agricultural workers. The growers, meanwhile, say they, too, want to pay workers a fair wage, but argue that if wages are too high, no one will use the program. If the visa cap is too low, there will not be enough workers and crops will perish.þþ“If the wage is set too high, growers will be unable to afford it and there will be no jobs because those growers are either going out of business, or they’re going offshore where they can meet their labor demands,” said Kristi Boswell, director of Congressional relations for the American Farm Bureau Federation.þþThe effort — which is being spearheaded by Senators Michael Bennet, Democrat of Colorado; Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California; Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah; and Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida — would offer agricultural workers an expedited path to earn a green card, which could take as little as three years. (Mr. Bennet and Mr. Rubio are part of a bipartisan group of eight senators who are working on a broad overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws.)þþUnder the program being discussed, farmworkers in the country illegally could earn a green card in three to seven years, providing a path to legal status that is considerably quicker than the 10-year path under consideration by the bipartisan group for the nonagricultural workers already in the country illegally.þþThe timeline would depend on how many days per year a farmworker was willing to work in the agricultural industry — more days providing a quicker path to a green card.þþFirst, according to several people with knowledge of the negotiations, all workers who could prove that they had worked a total of 150 days over the prior two years would qualify for a “blue card” visa, which would let them live and work here legally, and travel across state lines. Workers would then be eligible for a green card if they worked 150 days annually in three of the next five years, or 100 days annually in five of the next seven years.þþBoth labor and growers estimate that roughly 70 percent of agricultural workers are in the country illegally, and that farmworkers make up about one million of the 11 million illegal immigrants currently in the country. The goal of the agricultural worker program, aides said, is to give farmworkers, who are often performing tough manual labor that is critical for the nation’s economy, an incentive to remain in the industry.þþ“There’s broad recognition about the extraordinary work farmworkers do every day and have already done every day in feeding our country,” Mr. Kashkooli said. “The best way to stabilize the agricultural industry and to not have a new program where we’re bringing in new people who are making low wages is to reward the people who are currently doing the work and encourage them to stay in agriculture.”þþStill, the questions as to the number of workers who can enter the country and what wages those workers should be paid have been sticking points. Aides with knowledge of the talks said the number of workers would most likely be determined by a formula that would be overseen by the secretaries of agriculture and labor.þþThe senators have proposed a plan in which wages would vary by job and region. For instance, a California picker and a California equipment operator could be paid at different rates, and an equipment operator in California and one in New England could also be paid differently.þþThe growers, however, have yet to agree to the approach, said several people with knowledge of the negotiations. The workers’ unions have agreed, even though they say that such a deal will lower wages by roughly 10 percent.
Source: NY Times
