Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/34757
E-verify likely to cause labor shortage Congress lacks the will to address the issue, Frank Gasperini reports. by Geraldine Warner eligibility of an employee to work in the United States, using information reported on the employee’s I-9 form. It is currently voluntary, but legislation is before Congress that would make it mandatory for all employers. It’s estimated that there are 1 to 1.5 million farmworkers in labor-intensive agriculture, T of whom only about 100,000 are working in the United States under the H-2A guest- worker program. Around 75 to 80 percent of the rest of the workers are thought to have false papers that would not pass e-Verify. Gasperini said the H-2A program is unworkable for many farmers, the way that the U.S. Department of Labor administers it, and could not possibly ramp up to provide another 700,000 workers when farmers need them. The NCAE has commissioned Washington State University to survey a couple of thousand employers who have used the H-2A program to demonstrate the difficulties involved. Some legislators have argued that there would not be a labor shortage if farmers would pay high enough wages, because Americans would take those jobs, and they don’t see why growers could not pass on their additional costs to consumers. Gasperini contends that domestic workers do not want to do such remote and difficult jobs. “We know that the domestic workers are unwilling to show up in the numbers that you need,” he told members of the Washington Growers Clearing House Association at a recent board meeting. he U.S. Congress will likely pass a law this year requiring on-line verification of workers before they are hired, which could lead to a labor crisis in agriculture, says Frank Gasperini, executive director of the National Council of Agricultural Employers. E-Verify is an Internet-based system that allows an employer to determine the Other legislators have said that in the absence of illegal workers, farmers would find ways to harvest their crops through increased productivity or mechanization, and are not convinced that a labor shortage would shift food production to other countries. Disheartening “This is so disheartening when you go to Congress to talk to people,” Gasperini said. “The agricultural industry in the United States will face a crisis if the country doesn’t find a way to attract more legal farmworkers from abroad soon. China would love to provide apples for the United States. We will be importing food from other countries. That’s not good for America or American agriculture.” Gasperini said progress on comprehensive immigra- tion reform in Congress is unlikely to come soon. “Right now, with the election coming up in 2012, I don’t think anyone’s going to grab on to it and make it happen.” NCAE’s tactic is to try to slow things down enough so that before e-Verify passes both Frank Gasperini houses, there is an opportunity to include mitigation measures. Agriculture will need a way to keep the workers it has temporarily until there is some kind of workable guest- worker program, Gasperini said, though there is opposition to anything that could be referred to as an amnesty. Whether this succeeds will depend to some extent on the unemployment rate and how strongly people feel about throwing out illegal workers, he said. “If unemployment spikes up, it will be difficult.” When the eVerify legislation passes, Immigration and Customs Enforcement could start enforcing it immediately, Gasperini said, even though it would take time to draw up the regulations. Employers will not need to check the status of existing employees. • www.goodfruit.com GOOD FRUIT GROWER JUNE 2011 9