Opinion: Protecting farm workers

Congress is considering several versions of legislation that would grant temporary work visas to about 1-million foreign farm workers. But the structure of the visa program imperils the rights of both immigrant and citizen farm workers. The proffered visas are problematic because they are good only as long as the worker stays with the same employer. With the threat of deportation hanging over their heads, few farm workers brought in under the program would feel secure enough to demand appropriate wages, decent housing conditions or even opportunities to work all the hours they are promised.

What's more, the proposals loosen the requirement government previously placed on growers to provide adequate housing and a fair wage. Instead, growers could implement compensation schemes that could pay some farm workers less than the federal minimum wage. Some versions of the proposed legislation also say it would be sufficient for a grower to offer workers housing vouchers rather than actual housing, regardless of whether the voucher is sufficient to purchase housing in the local private market.

And lowering standards for guest workers serves to lower standards industry-wide, undercutting the requirement that growers aggressively recruit American farm workers first. Taken together, the proposals constitute a strong incentive to choose potentially exploitable guest workers over the more demanding American workers.

The proposals are made even more suspect by figures from a 1997 General Accounting Office report documenting a surplus of farm labor in many agricultural areas. Subsequent studies have shown high unemployment and falling wages for farm workers, despite robust growth in the economy.

Florida Sen. Bob Graham and other lawmakers have worked to soften the proposals' harsher provisions by threatening to withhold support unless legislation establishes a process for undocumented workers already in the United States to eventually earn citizenship. While this is a good idea, the citizenship requirements should not be so onerous that few undocumented workers could ever make it through the process. Meanwhile, some conservative lawmakers fiercely oppose any proposal to grant citizenship status to undocumented farm workers in the United States.

A realistic compromise might tie any further increases in foreign farm workers to stiff sanctions for growers who fail to provide adequate housing, wages and work opportunities. (The current proposals call only for $1,000 fines.) Lawmakers might also consider toughening provisions requiring growers to seek American workers first.

If House and Senate leaders cannot reconcile their bills before the end of this lame-duck session, they should choose at least to do no harm: Negotiations between growers and farm workers' union representatives might make many current concerns moot. And pressuring farm-state governors such as Jeb Bush to facilitate talks could smooth the path to settlement. But a program that so clearly advantages growers would be a step backward.

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