September 20, 2024

For Immediate Release

Contact:  Michael Marsh, President and CEO

                (202) 629-9320

(Arlington, VA) The U.S. District Court in the Western District of Louisiana granted a preliminary injunction that prohibits the Department of Labor (Department) from enforcing certain aspects of their wage rule that double labor costs for Louisiana sugarcane farmers, increasing input costs for products nationwide. The National Council of Agricultural Employers (NCAE) applauds the Court’s decision granting the injunction against this unlawful regulation.

In the case Teche Vermilion Sugar Cane Growers Association Inc., et al. v. Julie Su, et al. (Vermilion), the Court granted a preliminary injunction for Louisiana farmers using H-2A agricultural workers in duties which include hauling sugarcane using heavy or tractor-tailor trucks. Vermilion challenged the Department’s 2023 Adverse Effect Wage Rate Final Rule (Final Rule) which reclassified certain workers and arbitrarily increased wages that employers must pay their H-2A workers and any workers in corresponding duties. The Final Rule effectively doubled the cost of labor for farmers, inflicting lasting damage on their businesses, their workers, and the U.S. economy.

In the ruling, the Court noted that the Department offered minimal response to comments explaining the dramatic costs, no explanation or analysis to comments regarding the differences in job duties, nor whether the department considered the impact on the broader economy.

“NCAE and our members have repeatedly explained to the Department that their regulations make no economic sense,” stated Michael Marsh, NCAE President and CEO. “Frustratingly, those comments have been ignored and we are grateful that the Court in Louisiana acknowledged this lack of consideration America’s farmers and ranchers are due.”

“We are actively involved in litigation in Florida related to the Final Rule and hope that this Decision will just represent the first of many dominoes to fall so America’s farm and ranch families nationwide can experience the same relief as Louisiana’s sugar cane growers.”

NCAE is the national trade association focusing on agricultural labor issues from the employer’s viewpoint.

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September 16, 2024

For Immediate Release

Contact:  Michael Marsh, President and CEO

                (202) 629-9320

(Arlington, VA) The National Council of Agricultural Employers (NCAE), alongside several agricultural associations and individual farmers, has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky to protect farm and ranch families across the country from the Department of Labor’s (Department) unlawful and unconstitutional Final Rule entitled, “Improving Protections for Workers in Temporary Agricultural Employment in the United States” (Rule).

As originally promulgated the Rule unlawfully violates the rights of America’s farm and ranch families by stripping employers of the due process rights afforded to them by the Constitution, imposing new illogical duties on farmers that infantilize and jeopardize the safety of their farmworkers, allowing temporary foreign agricultural workers to unionize—a right not extended to American farmworkers, and much more.

Distressingly, the Rule as implemented is far worse.

On August 29^th, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia issued a preliminary injunction in the case of Kansas, et al. vs. U.S. Department of Labor which enjoined the rule from taking effect in Georgia, Kansas, South Carolina, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, as well as for certain individuals and entities, leaving farmers and ranchers with operations in the two-thirds of states not covered by the injunction vulnerable to substantive provisions of the rule.

In the injunction, the Court explains that “[a]gencies may play the sorcerer’s apprentice but not the sorcerer himself. The [Rule] is an attempt by the [Department] to play the sorcerer. The [Department] may assist Congress but may not become Congress.”

The Department issued a statement on their website on September 10^th that they would begin processing applications from employers not covered by the injunction in accordance with the Final Rule on September 12^th. They further stated they would process applications for employers covered by the injunction in accordance with the regulations that were in effect prior, thereby creating a new multiple-application process.

“Rather than taking heed of the Judge’s wise words and withdraw the Rule in its entirety,” stated Michael Marsh, President and CEO of NCAE, “the Department decided to further complicate matters for farm and ranch families by creating a bifurcated application process at the whim of the Acting Secretary’s pen rather than through true notice-and-comment rulemaking. This is something the Acting Secretary and her Department know they cannot do.”

“America’s hardworking farmers and ranchers are deeply troubled by the Department’s lack of regard for the important work they do each day ensuring that Americans have food to enjoy on their tables. The Council and our colleagues in this litigation are hopeful the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Kentucky will understand and agree that this Rule must be dissolved once and for all.”

NCAE is the national trade association focusing on agricultural labor issues from the employer’s viewpoint.

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