AEWR Lawsuit Hearing Set For This Week

Farm Country will be watching as a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s revised H-2A wage calculation will be challenged in a California courtroom this week.

The United Farm Workers claim foreign guestworkers are being harmed by the new Adverse Effect Wage Rate.  Michelle Grainger is the co-lead of the Ag Wage Reform Coalition which filed an amicus brief in support of the new AEWR and disputes those claims.

"Here is data as to the way that the lawsuit was stated is misleading, and here's what really needs to be considered," Grainger said.  "So the hearing in California is right now up in the air as to what we'll learn from it.”

Grainger said her groups’ was not the only brief filed which rebuts the plaintiffs’ arguments.

“So this court has heard from numerous groups from across the country, of concern that this lawsuit may not have the strength that was presented initially when it was filed.”

Regardless of the outcome of this case, Grainger said the Interim Final Rule needs to be codified into law to give farmers the certainty they need.

“If we have this law codified where the rate was more in line with appropriate fees associated with skills, then farmers could plan," she said.  "They could invest. We need Congress’ support, because as administrations change, and they always do, this temporary or interim rule could also change, and that could be very devastating.”

Join us Tuesday on Northwest Ag Today as we talk more about AEWR, the Ag Wage Reform Coalition and much more when we sit down with Enrique Gastelum with WAFLA.

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