Trump administration sued over decision that would slash wages for more than 200,000 farm workers
Organized labor is suing the Trump administration over a recent regulatory decision that worker advocates and policy experts believe is the first step in slashing wages for those employed in the agriculture industry.
In a complaint filed on Tuesday, first reported by Business Insider, the United Farm Workers (UFW) union and its nonprofit advocacy arm, the UFW Foundation, allege that the US Department of Agriculture broke federal law when it abruptly announced in September that it was eliminating the Farm Labor Survey.
The survey is used to calculate the base pay for more than 200,000 migrant farm workers in the US on H-2A visas, known as the Adverse Effect Wage Rate. Eliminating it for the first time since 1933, just as it was about to be conducted this October, means it cannot be used to set the rate for 2021, "a major departure in established US agricultural policy that would hurt farmers, their employees, and consumers," according to the lawsuit.
Without the survey, farm workers, deemed an essential labor force during the COVID-19 pandemic, could be paid as little as the federal minimum wage, which can be as low as $7.25 an hour — they are generally unable to organize and agitate for more, stuck with the employer who sponsored them — a decrease in pay amounting to thousands of dollars a season.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-administration-sued-over-decision-163532512.html
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