The Other Side of the Border

The Other Side of the Border

While immigration reform, including passage of AgJOBS, is a long-term struggle, there is potential to improve the H-2A program more expeditiously, making it work better for growers, farm workers, and immigrant-sending communities in Latin America. “This is the only option that we are seeing to improve things right now on the ground,” said Diego Reyes, executive board member of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), a union affiliated with the AFL-CIO.

In spite of the abuses associated with the H-2A program, legal guest worker permits are sought after in Mexico and would-be farm workers can easily go into debt to obtain them. Although the H-2A visa officially costs $231, workers can end up paying $400-$600 or more with paperwork, transportation, and fees paid to recruiters. This is a significant sum of money for rural Mexicans. In some cases, potential guest workers obtain loans at high interest rates to pay for the opportunity to participate in the program. By the time they arrive in the United States for their $9 an hour jobs, they may already be deeply in debt.⁶⁰

FLOC has pioneered a strategy to improve the H-2A program by creating a fairer recruitment process for workers in Mexico. On the U.S. side of the border, FLOC has established a framework that includes corporations, grower associations, and H-2A guest workers (represented by FLOC).

In 2004, FLOC used a corporate boycott to help get North Carolina growers who hire H-2A workers to agree to a contract that delineated workers’ rights. It was the first-ever union contract for guest workers in the United States. After several more rounds of boycotts, the Mt. Olive Pickle Company and the North Carolina Growers Association (NCGA) also signed an agreement with FLOC. The NCGA hires Mexican H-2A workers, who are sent to the North Carolina farms that supply cucumbers to Mt. Olive.⁶¹ When the contract was signed in 2004, the NCGA represented 1,000 farmers and 8,500 guest workers covered by the agreement.⁶² The North Carolina agreement includes an arbitration process so that workers and growers can resolve disputes more efficiently.

The agreement goes beyond protecting the rights of H-2A workers in the United States: FLOC maintains a permanent office in Monterrey, Mexico, where it provides training and education for workers before they leave home. The program explains the rights and responsibilities of guest workers in the United States. FLOC’s model is uncommon in its panoramic vision of addressing immigrant agricultural labor issues from both sides of the border.