Agriculture Today - June 2008
International leaders participate in Western Agriculture Labor Summit in Fresno
Presidents and vice presidents of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, along with representatives of U.S. and California government and California agriculture, participated in a Western Agriculture North and Central American Labor Summit on June 7 to discuss the possibilities of establishing guest worker programs with the Central American countries.
The delegation visiting the Fresno area included President Jose Manuel Zelaya Rosales of Honduras, Vice President Ana Vilma de Escobar of El Salvador, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Miguel Angel Ibarra of Guatemala and Adolfo Facusse, president of the National Association of Industries in Honduras. Local representatives included Fresno Mayor Alan Autry, California Agricultural Secretary A.G. Kawamura, Congressman Jim Costa, and representatives of Senator Dianne Feinstein and Congressmen George Radanovich and Dennis Cardoza, and the U.S. Department of Labor. Several agricultural organizations and farmers also participated in the Summit.
Representing FCFB at the Summit were First Vice President Dan Errotabere, CFBF District Director Debbie Jacobsen and Executive Director Ryan Jacobsen.
The delegation met with local and statewide agricultural leaders and growers to discuss the economic magnitude of labor intensive agriculture and of the nature of the work in California at the morning Summit, and later toured local agricultural operations to see first-hand the type of skilled labor needed. The summit also provide opportunities to better understand the critical importance of developing and maintaining cooperative relationships with countries that have supplied dedicated agricultural workers in the past.
“The countries want to work closely with us to bring guest workers here in the near future and long-term,” said Manuel Cunha, president of Nisei Farmers League, the key organizer of the event.
“We’re here to cooperate with the United States to find a solution to this problem and to cooperate with growers in the San Joaquin Valley,” said President Zelaya Rosales. “This is a most positive step taken to legalize the flow of labor. Other areas have done similar program w and they have had good success,” the Honduran President added.
El Salvador Vice President de Escobar echoed the willingness to work toward developing a guest worker program under the existing federal H2A immigration/guest worker program. “Labor is one of the variables that affects the food chain in California. We understand the critical problem and we want to be part of the solution,” she said.
While the admission of foreign workers from other countries into the U.S. is governed by U.S. immigration and labor law, it is important that any future foreign worker program be facilitated in a manner that upholds the rule of law in all participating countries, affords all workers labor protections, and safe housing and transportation, as well as providing farmers and ranchers with workers who are appropriately trained for the jobs they will be performing in the U.S., said Cunha.
The multi-year pilot program being discussed at the Summit would allow residents of the participating countries to enter the U.S on a blue card work visa via a H2A program for a few months during the peak harvest time each year to work in California, Arizona and Washington. The program would begin with a small number of guest workers who will be trained with specific skills to return to their countries to begin training future workers. It is estimated this program could provide up to 50,000 workers of the estimated 180,000 seasonal workers needed each year.
“All of us want the workers to come here safely and go home safely and be well-trained,” said Cunha.
“Either we do this program or the farms will disappear,” said Facusse, of the industry association in Honduras. “This is the area we can help the most. Sixty percent of the people in our country work in agriculture. This is what they do. They want to come here [U.S.] to work, earn better money, and then go home,” he added.
The agricultural labor summit brought all parties together to discuss the critical issues from each perspective, consider ways to avoid mistakes of the past, and to develop mutually beneficial plans for the future, said Cunha. The agricultural industry will continue to push for Congressional solutions to immigration reform and a specifically legislated guest worker program for agriculture on a long-term basis, said Cunha. In the meantime, efforts to bring about this pilot program will continue with future meetings and visits between leaders of the nations and the agricultural industry.
Other organizations sponsoring the Summit were the Ag Labor Network, Agricultural Labor Connection of California, California Grape and Tree Fruit League, California Citrus Mutual, American Nursery and Landscape Association and Fresno County Farm Bureau.