Tag: 2025

NCAE Urges USDA to Issue Report and Referral on Potential Misuse of Government Grant Monies

| Press Release, Uncategorized

July 8, 2025

For Immediate Release

Contact:          Michael Marsh, President and CEO

                        (202) 629-9320

 

NCAE Urges USDA to Issue Report and Referral on Potential Misuse of Government Grant Monies

 (Arlington, VA) The National Council of Agricultural Employers (NCAE) is urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to issue a report – and, if appropriate, a criminal referral – regarding allegations from farmworkers that they were targeted and coerced by union activists to sign union authorization cards to receive federal grant payments related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Entrusting anti-farmer activists to disburse federal grant funds was a shortsighted mistake made by the previous Administration,” noted Michael Marsh, President and CEO of NCAE.  “What could possibly go wrong with a plan like that? We trust that Secretary Rollins will move quickly to close the book on this matter if the evidence the IG’s investigation uncovers reflects the veracity of the farmworkers’ claims.”

In 2023, and again in 2024, NCAE contacted the USDA Office of Inspector General (OIG) regarding allegations made by farmworkers that organizers with the United Farm Workers (UFW) were coercing or tricking farmworkers into signing “card check” unionization cards as a condition of receiving grant funds under the Farm and Food Workers Relief (FFWR) grant program.  Signing a union card was not a prerequisite for farmworkers receiving the grant.

Last year, NCAE filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that asked USDA to produce information regarding their relationship with UFW Foundation and their “contact persons,” the UFW team. In a letter sent earlier today, NCAE explained that OIG has been investigating these allegations since at least July 23, 2024. At this time, no report has been issued, and no criminal referral has been made to the Department of Justice.

Apparently, the grant recipient, United Farm Workers’ Foundation (UFWF) had selected UFW to assist in disbursement of grants to workers.  UFWF reportedly received $95 million to disburse, but the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by NCAE with the USDA failed to provide any agreements or financial reporting provided by UFWF to the USDA regarding the disbursements made, balances retained, unused funds returned to USDA as undisbursed monies, nor payments made by UFWF to organizations such as UFW. 

In Spring and Summer of 2024, several media outlets reported farmworkers’ claims in California like those received and reported to USDA by NCAE in 2023 that had occurred in New York.

“We are grateful for the responsiveness and compliance from the Agricultural Marketing Service regarding this inquiry,” noted Marsh. “The documents provided thus far by the Agricultural Marketing Service suggest that America’s agricultural community’s concerns, shared by both farmworkers and employers, were frustratingly not shared by the previous Administration. It appears that the dearth of accountability under the previous Administration created a perfect storm under which nefarious behavior might occur.”

“The agricultural community has greatly appreciated Secretary Rollins’ advocacy on their behalf regarding agricultural labor. Likewise, we know that under Secretary Rollins’ leadership, that lack of accountability will not stand.”

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

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NCAE Celebrates Suspension of Worker Protection Rule

| Press Release, Uncategorized

June 22, 2025

For Immediate Release

Contact:       Michael Marsh, President and CEO

                        (202) 629-9320

NCAE Celebrates Suspension of Worker Protection Rule

(Arlington, VA) The National Council of Agricultural Employers (NCAE), its members, and the agricultural community nationwide are celebrating the suspension of a rule that falsely cast shade on America’s agricultural community.

Late Friday afternoon, the Department of Labor (DOL) announced that they are suspending the “Improving Protections for Workers in Temporary Agriculture Employment in the United States” Rule, commonly known as the Worker Protection Rule. The announcement of the suspension comes after various parts of the Rule were enjoined in multiple District Courts because of legal action brought by NCAE and other agricultural organizations throughout the United States.

“NCAE and our members were shocked and offended by the promulgation of the Worker Protection Rule,” explained Michael Marsh, NCAE’s President and CEO. “America’s farm and ranch families care about their workers and work each day to ensure that their business operations are in compliance with local, state and federal regulations at significant expense.”

“From the outset, it was clear that the pejorative nature and tenor of the Rule was intended to feed and foster false and inappropriate narratives about America’s agricultural community. America’s farmers and ranchers are excited and relieved that this Administration put this Rule out to pasture.”

“NCAE met with the Department just after this proposed regulation was published to warn them that the Rule was fatally flawed. In that meeting, the Council explained that the NPRM was an inartful and undisguised attempt to circumvent the Supreme Court’s decision in Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid (2021). It was also violative of the will of Congress under the National Labor Relations Act of 1935. NCAE told the Department it is not the role of regulators to legislate. That role belongs solely to Congress under Article I of the Constitution.”

“The Department frustratingly did not heed the advice of the agricultural community and promulgated the Rule in 2024. However, America’s farmers and ranchers do not back down from a fight when the cause is just and the battle is necessary,” said Marsh.

As a result of their poor judgement in promulgating a rule that was both inappropriate in nature and offensive to the agricultural community, the Department was met with legal action brought by NCAE alongside legal actions brought by our agricultural colleagues once the Rule was finalized. Those legal actions resulted in three injunctions against the regulation in different jurisdictions. The Courts agreed with America’s farm and ranch families.

“Finally, after three different Courts blocked the rule three different times, it appears the Department finally agrees with NCAE and our colleagues,” explained Marsh. “We are glad we could convince them that America’s farm and ranch families are deserving of support, not false shade. This is a big win for America’s agricultural employers and the people working alongside them who are critical to our nation’s food security.”

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

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Judge Sets Hearing Date For Challenge to Adverse Effect Wage Rate

| Press Release, Uncategorized

June 2 2025

For Immediate Release

Contact:       Michael Marsh, President and CEO

                        (202) 629-9320

Judge Sets Hearing Date For Challenge to Adverse Effect Wage Rate

(Arlington, VA) A Federal U.S. District judge in the Middle District of Florida has decided that the next step in a yearslong battle for farmers’ and ranchers’ rights to make their own business decisions can take place. After months of delay and dragging-on, U.S. District Court Judge Charlene Honeywell set a date for oral arguments in the National Council of Agricultural Employers’ (NCAE) Motion for Summary Judgment challenging the legality of the Department of Labor’s (DOL) Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR).

After receiving a third request from the Department of Justice (DOJ) for the court to issue a 90-day stay in the Council’s litigation, Judge Honeywell denied the stay. The Court noted that the “latest motion fails to demonstrate that an additional stay is appropriate at this time, particularly in light of plaintiffs’ allegations of ongoing harm.” NCAE’s challenge of this unlawful rule began in April 2023 following the Biden Administration’s promulgation of the AEWR Final Rule in February 2023.

“We are grateful to the court for disallowing unending delay tactics,” stated Michael Marsh, NCAE’s President and CEO. “America’s agricultural community is being forced to foot-the-bill of this illegal wage rate with each passing pay period. America’s farmers and ranchers need relief and need it now.”

Oral arguments on NCAE’s Motion for Summary Judgment on the AEWR rule are now scheduled to take place on Tuesday, July 1, 2025, in Federal District Court in Tampa.

“The overzealous Biden Administration’s DOL forced America’s farm and ranch families to pay this unlawful wage for years, costing them billions as our food production moves offshore at an alarming rate,” stated Marsh. “If the grocery-buying public wishes to find American-grown food on their grocery shelves, this regulation must be stopped. The deference the Court afforded the DOL in finding the regulation could not be enjoined, was overruled by the Supreme Court last term. We are hopeful that the new Administration will see the common-sense arguments made by the Council and our colleagues and undo this illegal wage-setting policy promulgated by Washington bureaucrats.”
NCAE is the national trade association focusing on agricultural labor issues from the employer’s viewpoint.

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NCAE Advocates to Cut Red Tape Crippling America’s Agricultural Community

| Press Release, Uncategorized

May 23, 2025

For Immediate Release

Contact:       Michael Marsh, President and CEO

                        (202) 629-9320

NCAE Advocates to Cut Red Tape Crippling America’s Agricultural Community

(Arlington, VA) The Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Antitrust Division’s Anticompetitive Regulations Task Force is seeking suggestions to unearth and unwind anticompetitive regulations. The National Council of Agricultural Employers (NCAE) answered that call, submitting comments on seven regulatory roadblocks which are impeding America’s farming and ranching communities’ ability to achieve and sustain the American dream.

“Over the past four years, America’s farm and ranch families have found themselves drowning in a turbulent regulatory sea,” wrote Michael Marsh, NCAE’s President and CEO. “Many of these were promulgated by federal regulators who were seduced by special interest groups which aim to weaken American families, businesses and the American economy.”

“As a result,” Marsh explained, “America’s family farms and ranches—the backbone of rural America—are vanishing at an increasing rate. Likewise, finding American-grown food on grocery store shelves is becoming increasingly difficult”

In the Task Force’s statement soliciting stakeholder comments, the Task Force explained that consistent with President Trump’s Executive Order 14192 and 14219 and longstanding Department practice, “the Antitrust Division will support federal agencies’ deregulatory initiatives by sharing its market expertise on regulations that pose the greatest barriers to economic growth.” The Task Force explains that the phenomenon known as “regulatory capture” occurs when agencies are “captured” by special interest groups and promulgate regulations that harm private enterprise, small business, and American entrepreneurship. The Task Force explained that “when regulations serve the few and impose undue burdens on small businesses, private enterprise, and entrepreneurs, they also harm competition and ultimately hurt American consumers, workers, and businesses.”

“Over the past four years,” noted Marsh, “the disdainful tenor used throughout the promulgation of many of these regulations make it clear that their promulgation is a direct result of the regulatory capture as described in the Task Force’s statement.”

In response to the solicitation for feedback, NCAE advocated for the DOJ Task Force to examine, investigate and advocate for rescission or withdrawal seven overburdensome, arbitrary, capricious and economically unsound regulations that target and harm America’s agricultural community. Those regulations include the Department of Labor’s (DOL) Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR), the DOL Worker Protection Rule, the DOL H-2A Program Rule, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Asylum Fee Rule, the DHS Worker Protection Rule, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Walkaround Rule and the OSHA Heat Rule.

“Rather than resulting in any benefit to American farmers and ranchers, American workers, or American taxpayers, the point of the regulations seems merely to create more paperwork for employers to file and federal employees to push from desk to desk, while simultaneously increasing compliance costs, reducing efficiency, and crippling America’s competitiveness in the marketplace.

“For American agriculture to remain competitive at home and in foreign markets,” wrote NCAE, “this cannot continue.”

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

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